Day 18 - Chicken & Broccoli Pie

Last night's dinner was a joint effort! Rikki made the amazing pastry which was lovely, light and crisp due to the use of lard rather than butter. The inner creamy chicken and broccoli mix was made by myself and is simple to make, but really tasty! On the recipe I've put the pastry ingredients separate as you can use it for both sweet & savoury pies. With the amount of pastry that we made we had a decent amount left so we wrapped it up and put it in the freezer for another meal next week.

CHICKEN & BROCCOLI PIE

Serves: 3-4 People

Prep Time: 30-35 Minutes

Cooking Time: 35-40 Minutes

Pastry

250g of Lard

500f of Self Raising Flour

Approximately 150ml of Cold Water

Salt & Pepper

1 Egg

Chicken & Broccoli Mix

2 Large Chicken Breasts

1 Medium Broccoli

150-200ml of Double Cream

50-100ml of Stock (Chicken or Vegetable)

1-2 tsp of Curry Powder

2 tsp of Wholegrain Mustard

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
• Firstly make the pastry :- Soften the lard and rub into the flour until the mix begins to resemble breadcrumbs and add a good pinch of salt & pepper.
• With a knife, make a pit in the middle of the mix, pour the cold water into this a little at a time and fold in with the knife. You may not need all the water, you only need to make sure the mixture binds together but is not too wet.
• When the mixture is the correct texture, roll into a ball and place covered, in the fridge until you need to use it.
• Roll out half of the pastry for the base of the pie around 3mm thick. Place in a pie dish and remove any excess pastry from around the edges. Put some baking paper (or tin foil) on top with some baking beads to weigh the pastry down. Put the base into the oven for 15 minutes then remove the baking paper and bead, then bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until golden & firm.
• Meanwhile, chop up the broccoli into small florets and par boil or steam for 5 minutes. Chop the chicken into bite size chunks and fry until sealed.
• In  a bowl mix together the cooked chicken, par boiled broccoli, double cream, stock, curry powder and mustard. Season and mix well.
• Once the base is done, remove from the oven & put the chicken and broccoli mix into it. Turn the oven's temperature up to 200 degrees. Roll out a base so it's again, 3mm thick, put on top of the pie. Beat the egg & brush on top of the pie's lid before putting in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Serve the pie with some vegetables and gravy & Enjoy!