Sapphire's Chicken Pie

Am kinda lazy to write a lengthy entry today, so I'm just going to share my chicken pie recipe with you.  First thing first, you gotta make the pie filling...that's the most important part. Some like to make one whole pie in a large pie dish while others like to bake small ones.  I've done both and from my experience, the large one consume a longer time to get baked. Today's recipe is the mini chicken pie which will not take you too long to bake, but you have to spend some time to make the tasty filling and wrapping them into the cute mini pies.

Chicken Pie Filling

Ingredients for the filling

1        can of button mushroom, halved and slice into smaller pieces
1        carrot, diced
2        stalks of  celery, diced
3        medium-sized potatoes, diced
1        red bell pepper, diced
1 1/2  piece of chicken breast, diced
1        cup of frozen peas (optional)
1        large onion, diced
2        cloves garlic
1 tsp  finely chopped ginger
1/2     cup of evaporated milk
salt
pepper
corn flour (dissolved in some water)

*  You can also add paprika and chilli powder for better taste and color


Cooking method
1.     Heat up your wok, pour a little oil caramelize your diced onion and then add in garlic and ginger, then add in your diced  mushroom and stir for a while. This helps to eliminate the "tin" smell off the mushroom.  Then add in one by one, your diced vegetable except the frozen peas - potatoes, carrot, celery, red bell pepper, chicken (stirring each vegetable before adding others).  Pour about a cup of water to help tenderize the vegetables and chicken.

2.     Season your chicken pie filling with salt & pepper, but not with too much salt and also add in evaporated milk. Stir every now and then for even cooking, let the liquid reduce by half then add in the frozen peas, and then add corn flour mixture to thicken the filling.  Please taste and add more salt if needed.

3.     When the sauce of your filling has reduced and thickened as how you want it, let it cool before using it to fill your puff pastry.



Now, after cooking your filling, it's time to make the pie. I would suggest you to buy square puff pastry from the hypermarket, brand name "Kawan" (that's the only square-cut puff pastry I find available in the market. They are much easier to use.  So here is how you make the pie...

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

1      pack of square-cut puff pastry (10pc in a pack)
1     Egg (slightly beaten) to glue the sides of your pastry and for egg wash
Chicken pie filling which you have cooked earlier

Method
1.     Flour your working table/board, and place your pastry on it.  Spoon in your filling (about 1 and a 1/2 teaspoon). Brush the egg on the sides of your pastry and close up 2 corners of the pastry diagonally, giving it a slight pinch to glue the 2 corners. Then start pulling 1 corner to the previously glued corners and crimp the sides.  Do the same with the remaining 1 corner of the pastry. You should get a diamond-shape pie with 4 crimped sides.

1.     Preheat your oven to 210 C, line your baking tray with a baking sheet. Brush the egg wash on your pies before baking.

2.     The pies would normally take about 20-30 minutes to bake through, about 10 minutes before the baking ends, crank up your oven temperature to 220-230 C to give a crunchier crust on the outside of the pastry, bake till golden brown.