What's for dinner Mum?: Chicken Pie

This pie is oh so delicious and looks rather tempting. The pastry mix is one I use for making apple pie only I omitted the sugar and still kept in the custard powder, it comes from my "Best recipes from the Weekly". I think the custard powder helps to give it that rich golden colour and a nice smooth crust to taste. The chicken pie filling is one that I have made up from a combination of recipes off the internet and have ironed out the wrinkles to make it a perfect pie. I had lots of chicken so I decided to make two pies. One I cooked and the other I prepared but didn't cook, so it went straight into the freezer for another day. The ingredients below are for one pie, just double it for two, although I must say I did only use half of a large chicken, it was a very big chicken. Just give yourself plenty of time for this pie, pastry could be made in the morning or the day before so you just have to roll it out and add the filling.

Chicken Pie

Pastry

1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cornflour

1/3 cup custard powder

185g butter

1/3 cup water approx

1 egg white

sesame seeds

Filling
2 potatoes diced and pre boiled
1/2 sweet potato diced and pre boiled
1 carrot diced
1 onion chopped chunkily

2 sticks of celery chopped finely
30g butter
extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots
thyme
rosemary
3/4 cup corn kernals
1/2 large BBQ chicken chopped (free range if possible)
1 tablespn corn flour
1 teaspoon chicken stock
300ml water

salt & pepper to season

To make the pastry, sift flour, cornflour and custard powder together with the baking powder, rub in softened butter. Make a well in the centre, add egg yolk and enough water to mix to a firm dough, knead lightly. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the pie filling.

Turn oven on to 190° C/375° F. Boil potatoes until just ready, you don't want them too soft. Oil large pan with extra virgin olive oil and a dob of butter, gently cook up the onion, carrot and celery until softened. Add chopped chicken and herbs then the cooked potatoes, corn, shallots and seasoning. Gently mix together. Add water to the stock and cornflour, mix together then stir into the pie filling, let thicken. Turn off the heat. You also don't want the pie too soggy, the liquid just binds the ingredients together.

Retrieve pastry from the fridge and cut into two halves. Roll out the first half of pastry onto floured surface. Roll it large enough to cover the greased pie plate with a little over hang around the edge.

Fill the pie with the cooked filling. Brush egg white around the rim of the pastry. Roll out second half of pastry and cover over the pie, press edges together firmly and trim.

Any spare bits of pastry can be rolled out and shaped to decorate your pie. Brush top of pie with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut an X in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape while cooking.