Chicken pie ala Jamie Oliver

Does the mention of making pies give you images of a messy kitchen with flour everywhere and hair frayed? Then, rolling pins and dough flying around. Coupled that with what-what blind baking, i.e. using beans to make the casing and sweaty faces after all the kneading.

But now, with modern technology, we can get the puff pastry from the supermaket frozen department. All I did was to chop and pull it. I didn’t even bother to bring out the rolling pin or use any flour.

For the pie fillings, I took a quick look at my Jamie Oliver’s cookbook and rummage through my fridge to see what I have. Here are the stuffs I put into the pie. Oh ya, I don’t bother with the bottom part because who has time to bake the bottom first before putting in the fillings.

Then, I slapped a piece of the puff pastry on top and did some criss-cross on the top. After that, I glaze it with some egg.

My kids asked, “Mom, why your pies don’t have bottoms?” LOL, I retorted, “Bah, as if you are going to eat those crust!” Which is true because normally, they will feed me the crust especially when they are soggy. So, what I did was to fill the aluminium casings and cover the top with the puff pastry.

And here are the bottomless chicken pies. Don’t they look just as scrumptious as any other pies?

Now, the recipe for chicken pie ala Jamie Oliver:

1 packet of puff pastry – thawed beforehand

2 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into small pieces – season with mustard, salt, pepper or whatever flavourings you enjoy

Use some chicken bones (from the thighs?) and boil it with two potatoes which have been cut into cube
Add some onions and garlic for flavourings

Boil two eggs and cut into slices

Add some vegetables of your choice, i.e. carrots, celery, peas or mushrooms

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Now, heat some butter and saute the chicken to cook it as it will cut down baking time. Then, mix the potatoes, eggs and vege. Combine them with some grated cheese or maybe a beaten egg. Put the fillings into a casserole or pie casings. Pour some milk to moisten them.

Cover the top with the puff pastry. Glaze with a bit of egg. Bake for 30 mins at 220 deg. celcius.

When it comes to cooking, there is no hard and fast rule for me. Normally, I just gleaned through the recipes on the internet and my books. Then, I formulate it according to what ingredients I have on hand. As for the flavourings, I normally go with my senses instead of trying to fit in a pinch of majoram with a teaspoon of oregon and so on. Herbs are very expensive here and if I buy them, I usually only use a little and the rest turned rotten. I also do not like dried herbs as the smell is overpowering. So, I just use the basic stuffs as the other ingredients normally lend a great taste already.

Anyway, the pies I made were all eaten as soon they came out of the oven. The good thing about homemade pies are they are less oily as I almost didn’t use any oil except for the little butter I used for sauteing. On top of that, the cost is sooo cheap.

Now you know the lazy woman’s way of making pies, try it!