Wednesday 16 March 2022

Chicken Pie - A One Hundred And Ten Year Old Recipe!

I'm an art fan as many of you would know, and I was reading a book about Australian artist Margaret Preston the other day: Margaret Preston Recipes for Food and Art by Lesley Harding.  Margaret married in 1919, and made use of a cookbook by Amie Monro called The Practical Australian Cookery.  This book came out around 1911-12, and is fairly light on with the measurements and instructions.  Typical of old cookbooks indeed!  

As I read through it, I found this recipe for Chicken Pie.  I believe we would call this a pot pie these days since it only has a pastry layer on top, and no bottom.  I was sceptical of this recipe I have to say, but Amie came up trumps.  It is dead easy, and so delicious.  I did tweak it ever so slightly, and add a few more details for clarity, though Lesley Harding tells us she has 'standardised and metricated' the original recipes.


golden brown, crispy on top and succulent filling within

Serves 6:


ingredients:


3 large eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and sliced

500g./18 oz chicken breasts, chopped into large, bite-sized pieces

enough plain flour - about 1/3-1/2 cup? - to toss the chicken pieces

salt and black pepper to season the flour - say 1 tsp sea salt and lots of black pepper (but you do you)

125g./4.5 oz mild ham, roughly chopped

250g./9 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced

4 heaped Tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped (or roughly, as you please)

1 cup chicken stock

6 large tsp cornflour, to thicken the stock

extra black pepper 

1-2 tsp dried oregano

1 Tbs chives, finely chopped

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed

2-3 Tbs milk or cream to glaze the top

2-3 Tbs white and black sesame seeds to scatter over the top (optional)


Method:


First do the egg thing - boil 'em, peel 'em and slice 'em

Take your chopped-up pieces of chicken and throw 'em into a medium bowl with the seasoned flour; give 'em a good tossing

Make sure you've now chopped and/or sliced the ham, mushrooms and parsley

Make up 1 cup (250 mL/8 fl oz) of stock by boiling water and stirring in 1-2 heaped tsp chicken stock powder - or use that liquid in the carton or your own real stock if you have any

Then thicken it with 6 heaped tsp of cornflour; stir it in and let cool to just warm

Grab a pie dish and start layering - alternate layers of chicken, ham, mushrooms, parsley and eggs.  You will have a heaped dome of filling which you will squish down with the flat of your hand(s)

Gently pour the thickened stock into the dish, making sure it doesn't reach the very top as you don't want it wetting the pastry

Now sprinkle on the pepper and herbs; place the pastry over the top and seal/crimp around the edges of the dish with your fingers

Glaze the top with beaten egg, or milk or cream, and cut a couple of slashes in the top so air can escape

Sprinkle on the sesame seeds if using

Place the pie into a hot oven - 220C/430F for 20 minutes, then turn it down to 180C/360F for an hour.  Yes really, an hour, but make sure you have covered the top so it doesn't burn in that last hour - I swamped it in alfoil for an hour, then gave it 5 minutes at the end without the foil to finish off the top


Notes:


The stock will still just look like liquid when you add the cornflour, but that's okay - it will thicken in the oven during the bake time

I only used 3/4 cup of the stock, as that came close enough to the top

Amie suggests using an egg for the glaze, but I find milk or cream work just as well (I used evaporated milk)

I used a 23cm/9" diameter pie plate (across the top)

My oven is a poor, sad sap of a thing so everything takes a bit longer to cook, so the pie needed that last 5 minutes



gather your ingredients

layer upon layer ... (remember that ad?)

ready for the oven

after 20 mins. @ 220C

and another hour @180C

about to hoe in

we were going to have mash, but Mr P. forgot so peas it was :-) 


a revised edition

the book


(Joining up with Marg from The Intrepid Reader and Baker for Weekend Cooking.)





© Sherry M.


46 comments:

  1. My mouth is watering, Sherry. The pie looks splendid with all the layers of goodness and that melt-in-mouth pastry!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks angie. i do love me some frozen puff :-)

      Delete
  2. Pretty! And a really interesting recipe. I don't often make any kind of meat pie -- weird, isn't it? This looks super good, though. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks KR. I love pies, and it's so easy with frozen pastry.

      Delete
  3. This looks tasty and fairly easy thanks to frozen puff pastry.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That pie looks worth the effort!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks really lovely, Sherry! And I love that it is so old, I have to give it a try.
    Amalia
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sherry, I love reading these old cookbooks and making a recipe from them. thanks for sharing this very appetizing chicken "pot" pie.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well that looks like the very definition of amazing comfort food! I do love reading old recipes. It's funny to see how some things have changed over the years while other things have disappeared entirely. Either way, thanks for sharing this fun recipe, Sherry!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. they really didn't like giving much instruction back in the day. you had to know what you were doing but i guess you had to cook. no takeaways then! or fast food.

      Delete
  8. This looks awfully good -- and presents beautifully. Isn't it wonderful that a classic recipe still holds up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it was a bit amazing really. but it was a great pie.

      Delete
  9. The hard boiled eggs look like a very nice addition to the usual pot pie ingredients. Old cookbooks are definitely quite interesting.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i thought the eggs would be terribly hard and dry after an hour and 20 but they were fine. LOve old cookbooks!

      Delete
  10. Looks absolutely yummy Sherry 😋 💚

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, this does look quite tasty. Love the use of the eggs and the puff pastry for the top. Much lighter than most pot pies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it was a big surprise that it worked at all :) But it was good.

      Delete
  12. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us, Sherry. It’s so different for most of the chicken pot pies we get these days, and it’s really quite simple! I really like that it has both chicken and ham in it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi david
      don't you just love ancient recipes? :-)

      Delete
  13. Sherry, this classic chicken pot pie recipe looks really good. I agree with David's comments above-its different from most of the pot pies recipes today. I like this one!

    Thanks for sharing the recipe with us.

    Velva

    ReplyDelete
  14. It does seem easy enough and so interesting that it is from such an old cookbook.I'm sure it is delicious too.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I will have to remember the hard cooked eggs! I have noticed hard cooked eggs on pie recipes before, but never made one. This looks delicious,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes they were an interesting and tasty addition. such a surprise they didn't end up like old boots.

      Delete
  16. I’ve had a hard time commenting on blogs on my computer so trying my phone. This is such a different chicken pie recipe with the ham and hard boiled eggs. Thank you for sharing. Karen (Back Road Journal)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh it's bloody Blogger. they hate anyone commenting :-) thanks for persevering.

      Delete
  17. Hi Sherry, reading your posts but having trouble leaving comments. Karen (Back Road Journal)

    ReplyDelete
  18. With the ham, mushrooms, chickens and hard boiled eggs, this does sound delicious. It's fun to revisit old recipes but you sometimes have to update things a bit like instructions and ingredients.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes indeed. updates are essential to these old recipes but fun!

      Delete
  19. Oh that chicken pie looks so delicious! I don't know that I've ever cooked up a recipe quite so old so I'll have to bookmark this and give it a try one day soon!

    ReplyDelete
  20. So interesting and I'm curious about the addition of the hard boiled eggs! It looks delicious Sherry :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes i thought it would be a bit of a disaster but they were great! not overdone at all.

      Delete
  21. This brings me back to my youth. Chicken Pot Pie used to be a fixture in American cookery. It seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years. Too bad because ,it was very tasty! This one has some interesting touches like the sesame seeds. And, of course, the puff pastry. Everything tastes better with puff pastry... :-)

    And I also learned a new word today: "metricate".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pot pie is not really an aussie thing but i guess we are becoming more familiar with it these days. yep puff pastry is the bomb.

      Delete
  22. Oh I have nearly all these ingredients so might have to give this a go! A dear blog reader turned second mum to me gifted her mother's old cookbooks - I think Practical Australian Cookery might be among them! This just goes to show that a good recipe never gets old!

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comment and I will reply as soon as I can. If you have problems commenting, please try without your WordPress profile. You can try Anonymous (add your name in the text) or your Google account if you have one.