Chicken & Mushroom Pie
For beginner bakers, it may seem intimidating to make your own pie from scratch, but it’s actually really simple! You don’t even need fancy equipment (even though it really speeds things up!) to make the pastry dough. As someone who have made both pasta and pie from scratch, let me assure you that pastry dough is way easier to handle and takes less time to put together! The key to a successful dough is not handling it too much and making sure the room temperature is cool or cold. The best time to bake a pie is during fall or winter months and it’s the perfect comfort food to warm up your bellies!
Chicken & Mushroom Pie Filling Recipe
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 1 onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic chopped finely
- 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
- 2 medium potatoes peeled and diced into small cubes
- 1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup condensed
- 1 can water may need more
- 1 large chicken breast cut into cubes marinated with dashes of garlic powder, salt & pepper
- 1 small can button mushrooms or a cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Sauté the onion and garlic with olive oil over medium heat until fragrant. Then add the carrots and potatoes and sauté for a few minutes to get the potatoes and carrots to soften up a bit more. Add cream of mushroom and a can of water. Lower the heat and stir often until the potatoes and carrots are soft. If it’s too dry, add a little bit more water. Continue stirring or the filling will start drying up and sticking to the pan.
- If you’re using fresh mushrooms, sauté the slices in another pan with olive oil or butter. When they are soft, remove and set aside.
- When the potatoes and carrots are cooked, add the chicken pieces. Sauté until the chicken is almost cooked and then add the mushrooms (canned or fresh).
- Mix everything together. The filling should be thick and creamy. Let it cool down significantly before filling the dough. You can make this a day ahead.
Notes
You may get as creative as you like and add some fresh thyme or rosemary, or ¼ cup of corn and/or peas. You may even substitute the water for milk if you prefer a much creamier filling. To make it even easier, you may substitute with frozen mixed vegetables instead of fresh ones.
Pie Crust Recipe
(Adapted from Simply Recipes) If you have a food processor, go ahead and follow the recipe in Simply Recipes. My adapted recipe is for those who are machine-less!
Servings 6
Ingredients
Main Ingredients:
- 2 sticks (8 oz or 227 g) chilled butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour and extra for rolling
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6 to 8 Tablespoons ice water
Egg Wash:
- 1 egg beaten
Instructions
- After cubing the cold butter, pop it into the freezer for another 15 min to make sure it’s really chilled. In the meantime, add the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
- When the butter is properly chilled, use a pastry cutter or two butter knives to “cut” the butter into the flour. The pastry cutter will help speed up the process but it’s possible to use two butter knives to cut and mix the flour and butter together. The flour will look like rough cornmeal with the butter pieces the size of peas mixed into the flour.
- Slowly start adding the icy water (make sure no ice cubes fall in!) one tablespoon at a time. Mix with a fork first and then with your fingers. The amount of water will depend on how dry your climate is. Sometimes I stop at 6 tablespoons, sometimes I need 8. Gather the damp flour together and if it forms into a ball without completely crumbling apart, you can stop adding water. Be gentle at this point because you don’t want to overwork the flour nor underwork it. It’s perfect when it’s a smooth ball.
- Cut the dough into two and form two balls. Wrap each dough in plastic wrap and use your palms to flatten them into a disc shape. Pop them into the fridge for an hour.
- After an hour, if it’s really quite hard, let them rest for about 15 minutes before working with them. Flour your countertop and rolling pin and roll your dough to about 1/8 inch thick.
- Preheat the oven at 425℉ (220℃, or 200℃ for fan forced). Place a large cookie pan in the oven to heat up.
- Place it on a 9-inch greased pie pan and gently press down the bottom and sides. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the excess (make sure you have ½ inch extra from the edge of the pan).
- Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the bottom and sides of the dough with egg wash, and poke little holes on the bottom. This will help prevent a “soggy bottom” (thank you Great British Bake-off!) from occurring.
- Fill the dough with the chicken/mushroom filling. Roll out the other dough and place that over the filled bottom.
- Trim the top dough and you can either crimp the top and bottom together with your fingers or use a fork to press down the sides. Poke small holes on the top of the dough with a fork or use a sharp knife to make slashes. Brush egg wash on the top of the dough and on the crimped edges.
- Place on the heated cookie sheet pan (another way to prevent soggy bottoms!) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. When it’s cooked it’ll be golden brown on the top and edges.
- Your kitchen will smell so good while the pie is baking! Enjoy!