After picking up a couple of chickens to make a yummy chicken stock, and being a lover of all things pastry, a pie was the natural metamorphosis for the poached chicken meat. I made 8 mini pies and a large family one, and still had some white sauce leftover to make some Tuna Mornay. It’s amazing how many meals you can cheaply produce with just a few basic ingredients.
I am a huge fan of having multiple, ready made meals in the freezer for when it really is just too much of an effort to think about the family dinner. So this recipe is made using leftover chicken; you could buy a bbq chook or some breasts or thighs to poach yourself.
When I make White Sauce I always make a big batch of it as it really is so useful to have on hand. PLUS, it freezes exceptionally well! Just portion it into batches of convenient sizes and you will always have that special extra element on hand.Just some of the ways you can use White Sauce is … Tuna Mornay, Macaroni Cheese, Soufflé, as a pie binder – like for this recipe and Bechamel Sauce.
My latest addiction is doing a double layer of puff pastry to really get some lovely, flaky height to my pies. If this is something you would like to do too then make sure you have enough pastry… I promise you it is so worth it!
The mini pies are the perfect size for lunch. Just make up a nice salad and a zingy Balsamic Dressing to have on the side. Lunch and dinner sorted.
Ingredients
White sauce:
4 tbs unsalted butter
3/4 c plain flour
400 g milk
Filling:
1 cooked chicken, meat removed and chopped into pieces
250 g mixed mushrooms (button, swiss brown, saffron milk caps), sliced
1/2 eggplant, diced
1 large onion, finely diced
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tbs Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
2-3 frozen puff pastry sheets – more or less depending on size of pie/s
3 frozen short crust pastry sheets – more or less depending on size of pie/s
1 egg
1 tbs milk
Method
Pre heat the oven to 200°f
Melt the butter and stir in the flour. Cook the mixture for 4 mins or till it starts to lightly froth up
tip… always use a whisk when making white sauce – it will cut down the effort needed to remove lumps enormously!
Remove from the heat and add about 1 cup of milk, stirring till smooth. Keep adding small amounts of milk and stirring after each till you have poured all the milk in. The consistency should be of thin cream (pouring cream), use more or less till you get to this consistency. Place back on the heat and bring to the boil while stirring continually. It should be quite thick now.
In a mid size fry pan add the onions with a little oil and slowly cook till softened, about 4 mins.
Add the mushrooms and the eggplant and cook for another 5 mins.
Add the chopped chicken, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper – taste and alter the seasonings to your liking to the mushroom mixture
Stir about half of the white sauce into the mushroom/chicken mixture. You can adjust the amount of white sauce to your liking – some would like quite a lot in their pies, with equal quantities of sauce and the meat and vegetables and some would use only a small amount just to bind it all together… your choice.
Defrost the pastry sheets
When your pastry sheets have defrosted, cut out the sizes you need and line your pie tins or muffin trays with the shortcrust pastry.
Blind baking… Line each pastry case with some baking paper and sprinkle in a layer of dried beans or rice. Cook for 5 mins at 200°F. Remove from the oven and take out the bean or rice filling and the baking paper, place back in the oven and cook again for 7 min.
Now that your pastry bases are ready, fill them with the chicken mixture making sure to mound them up quite high.
Top the pies with the puff pastry cut to size, press the edges down and put a vent hole in the top.
Beat the egg and milk together and use this egg wash to brush over the top of the puff pastry.
Cook in the oven for 20 mins or till golden and puffy.
- 4 tbs unsalted butter
- ¾ c plain flour
- 400 g milk
- 1 cooked chicken, meat removed and chopped into pieces
- 250 g mixed mushrooms (button, swiss brown, saffron milk caps), sliced
- 4 silverbeet leaves, finely chopped
- 1 leek, halved length-ways and sliced
- 1 tbs Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper
- 2-3 frozen puff pastry sheets
- 3 frozen short crust pastry sheets
- 1 egg
- 1 tbs milk
- Pre heat the oven to 200°f
- Melt the butter and stir in the flour. Cook the mixture for 4 mins or till it starts to lightly froth up
- tip… always use a whisk when making white sauce – it will cut down the effort needed to remove lumps enormously!
- Remove from the heat and add about 1 cup of milk, stirring till smooth. Keep adding small amounts of milk and stirring after each till you have poured all the milk in. The consistency should be of thin cream (pouring cream), use more or less till you get to this consistency. Place back on the heat and bring to the boil while stirring continually. It should be quite thick now.
- In a mid size fry pan add the leeks with a little oil and slowly cook till softened, about 4 mins.
- Add the mushrooms and the silverbeet and cook for another 5 mins.
- Add the chopped chicken, mustard, salt and pepper – taste and alter the seasonings to your liking to the mushroom mixture
- Stir about half of the white sauce into the mushroom/chicken mixture. You can adjust the amount of white sauce to your liking – some would like quite a lot in their pies, with equal quantities of sauce and the meat and vegetables and some would use only a small amount just to bind it all together… your choice.
- Defrost the pastry sheets
- When your pastry sheets have defrosted, cut out the sizes you need and line your pie tins or muffin trays with the shortcrust pastry.
- Line each pastry case with some baking paper and sprinkle in a layer of dried beans or rice. Cook for 5 mins at 200°F. Remove from the oven and take out the bean or rice filling and the baking paper, place back in the oven and cook again for 7 min.
- Now that your pastry bases are ready, fill them with the chicken mixture making sure to mound them up quite high.
- Top the pies with the puff pastry cut to size, press the edges down and put a vent hole in the top.
- Beat the egg and milk together and use this egg wash to brush over the top of the puff pastry.
- Cook in the oven for 20 mins or till golden and puffy.
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