Comfort food, a wonderful Chicken Pie inspired by Pukka Pies

Having grown up with a local chip shop close to home, I’ve always enjoyed a good Pukka Pie. The real ones in their different coloured trays to tell you which gorgeous filling will come oozing out when you cut it open. They were always sitting in their glass cabinet on top of the counter, steaming hot and waiting to be added to a bag of salty chips.

Nowadays, I try to be healthy and not to go to the chip shop too often. However, I do still love a flaky pastry pie and so I decided to create my own homage to the classic Pukka Pie.

First of all, I bought some foil trays via Amazon, surprisingly good value and you can get all the colours too. They are sold as ‘Pukka’ pie trays, I’m assuming because their pies are such an icon now. Then I made a quick flaky pastry, a rough puff. No need to go to all the trouble of making a classic pastry dough as the originals wouldn’t have and it takes an age.

Rough Puff Pastry:

250g Plain flour

175g Butter, fridge cold and cut into 1cm dice

Pinch of salt

Ice cold water to bind

First combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the diced butter and mix lightly to make sure each cube of butter is covered in flour and not stuck to each other.

Using a large, cold metal spoon, start stirring in the water a little at a time. When it starts to come together with just a few scraps at the bottom of the bowl, it’s time to turn it out onto a well floured work surface.

Take your rolling pin and start to roll your dough out into a long oblong going away from you to about 1cm thickness. Then fold it as you would a letter bringing the top third down into the middle and the bottom third up to the middle as well. Turn the pastry over and then make a quarter turn and repeat the process, dusting the pastry whilst you go. You will need to do this 4 or 5 times.

If the pastry is getting warm and the butter melting, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to set before rolling again. I usually do this after two or three rolls.

When you’re done, wrap in cling film again and leave in the fridge to rest for up to an hour.

As important as the crumbly, buttery pastry is the filling in a Pukka Pie. You’ve got your chip shop classics of Minced Beef and Onion, Steak and Kidney and now vegetarian options. I’ve gone with a chicken filling as this is our favourite at home and we could use up left over roast chicken too. These pies are absolutely amazing at being the container for any filling you like as they tend to hold all of the filling in without any leaks. Just try to make sure the filling isn’t too liquid but if it is, strain some of it to use as a gravy later.

For our filling, I’ve used roasted chicken, a mix of white and brown meat, folded into a thick béchamel sauce with fried mushrooms and a hint of Dijon mustard. You can mess around with the flavours and extras to your heart’s content, you can’t really go wrong. I often add mixed herbs to the filling and Tarragon would work very well here.

Béchamel Sauce:

50g Butter

50g Plain flour

500ml Milk

Salt and Pepper

Grating of Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Take a medium sized saucepan that will easily hold over half a litre. Melt the butter over a medium heat and once melted, tip in all of the flour. Now, with a wooden spoon, mix in the flour and keep stirring to cook the flour for a few minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn, you want it to just cook through a little, usually 2-3 minutes.

Then, with the milk in a jug, start to slowly combine the milk in stages making sure to constantly stir to combine. To start with it will look very thick and unmanageable but keep going. You shouldn’t get any lumps if you take your time and stir thoroughly with each addition of milk. However, if it does turn lumpy, get a whisk and vigorously attack it whilst on the heat.

When all the milk is combined, grate a generous amount of nutmeg in and stir in the Dijon mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Cook the sauce on a lower heat for 5-10 minutes, making sure to stir enough to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan. When it’s done, take off the heat to cool before pouring into a large bowl whilst you then get the other fillings ready.

Fillings:

250g Chestnut Mushrooms

25g Butter

Pinch of Salt

Splash of White Wine Vinegar

Thinly slice the mushrooms making sure to have cleaned them of any stray dirt and cutting away any woody stem. Then fry them over a medium heat in the melted butter with a pinch of salt and splash of white wine vinegar, if you have any.

When they are cooked through and taken on a little colour, remove with a slotted spoon and cool before stirring into the béchamel sauce, you don’t want too much of the juices but some is OK, there will be plenty of flavour soaked into the mushrooms already.

300g cooked Chicken (approximately)

I’ve not weighed out the chicken before, but a generous couple of big handfuls should be enough for four pies. With the two of us, after a roast dinner there’s usually at least one leg and one breast left on the chicken and the majority of that goes in the pie filling. Make sure to strip the meat from the bird whilst still warm, removing any fat and skin (eat the crispy skin, don’t waste it!) then shred to add to the filling.

Mix the filling thoroughly and preferably let it cool down at least to room temperature before filling your pies. I often make the filling the day before.

Get the pastry out of the fridge, don’t let it come to room temperature as you don’t want the butter to start getting soft. Roll it out on a floured surface around ½ cm thick. You should be able to get enough from this pastry for four pies but will have to roll it out again once or twice.

I use two saucers to cut out the pastry discs, the one for the base is a diameter of 16cm and the top is 11cm. When all of the pastry has been cut out, gently line the foil dishes with the larger disk. There should be a small rim overlapping each dish.

Spoon the cooled filling into each pie but only to the top at most, you want a flat top to the pie. Brush the rim with milk or egg wash then put the lid on, pressing around the edge to seal.

Now, here is where you can get fancy. If you’ve pressed the lid down on the sides to seal, there will be an overlap on the dish. Get a knife and cut the overlap off. Then, using your thumb and forefinger, crimp the edge. Finally, cut a small hole in the top to let any steam escape and your pies are done.

From here you can freeze the pies. When you get round to cooking them, make sure the pies are defrosted and then wash with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 180C fan until deep golden brown (25-30 minutes).

If you have any leftover filling, you can freeze it to use later or make something else.

To read the Pukka Pie story and find out about their delicious range, visit www.pukkapies.co.uk