Chicken Pie with a Cheese Crust

Last night, Hadi made Nasi Ayam. Even though it is a *really* easy recipe, he still managed to mess it up - because he didn't add salt at all! So basically, we had boiled chicken with rice for dinner. Very healthy, I must say. :P Hadi smeared lots of chilli sauce on his chicken, I sprinkled some salt on mine, while Justin, who had a blocked nose, had to resort to eating his rice with lots of serunding. Ah well. I'm sure Hadi has learnt his lesson now, heh. :P




Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I've had this particular craving for chicken pie, hehe. I haven't had that since this summer (Ibu made it, yummy~!), and buying one from the shops here isn't an option, heh. So, what to do, but to make it myself!


Now, normal shortcrust pastry is really nice, but in one of my books, there's a recipe for a CHEESE shortcrust pastry. If you haven't gotten it by now, I love cheese, hehe. I like to use it in almost everything I eat, heh. (So would most of my siblings for that matter. family resemblance? :P) My usual chicken pie usually has cheese inside the filling anyway, but to have cheese IN the crust??? That sounds fantastic! So... I decinded to make it. ;) I copied most of the instructions from the original chicken pie, heh. But here we go anyway...

What you need:
Cheese crust:
225g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic granules
100g softened butter (or margarine, if you want)
75-100g finely-grated cheddar cheese
Cold water

Filling:
Chicken pieces (I used 4 drumsticks and 2 thighs)
Oven chips (uncooked)
Chicken stock granules
Salt
White pepper
Cornflour
Cheddar cheese (optional)

What you do:

1. To make the crust, mix the flour, salt, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper and garlic granules together.
2. Add the butter (cut into small pieces). With your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture, until the whole thing resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the cheddar cheese.
3. Add enough water (slowly, by the tablespoon) to bind the mixture into a stiff dough.
4. Knead lightly on a floured surface. Wrap 1/3 of the dough in clingfilm and store in refrigerator. Roll out 2/3 of the dough with a rolling pin, until it is large enough to fit into your pie tin. Handle it lightly at all times.
5. Lightly prick the base with a fork. Bake "empty" (with a circle of greaseproof paper over the bottom, weighed down with rice or beans) for about 15 minutes at 190 C. Remove the weights and paper, and bake for 5 minutes more. Set aside.
6. To make the filling, first boil the chicken until cooked. If using chicken with bones, boil until the meat falls off. Collect the chicken meat and drain, reserve the boiling water. Mince the chicken, either shredding finely by hand, or with a electrical grinder. Or, you can just be lazy and use pre-minced chicken, but the results are not as nice (in my humble opinion, anyway)
7. Return the minced chicken into the pot, add chopped uncooked french fries and more water, if necassary. Add seasonings - chicken stock, salt and white pepper. Simmer until very water is left. Add in cornflour mixed in with a little water to thicken it. Make sure its still moist, or your filling will be too dry.
8. Fill the baked pastry case with the filling. (I had too much, heh. Use less chicken than I did.) If you want to use more cheese, place as much cheese as you like over the top of the filling.
   
9. Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the pastry dough until it is large enough to cover the top of the pie. Press firmly over the top.
10. Bake the assembled pie at 190 C for 20-30 minutes or until the top is golden and crisp.

Just look at that. The cheese oozing out... The golden crust... The juicy filling... *drool* Its a bit too heavy for breakfast and I actually meant to have it for lunch, but Hadi and Justin had early classes today, so we had it for breakfast instead. A bit heavy perhaps, but yummy nevertheless...

Hadi was really impressed with the pastry. It was "exceptionally good", was his exact words, hehe. I don't know if its because of the cheese, or if I finally managed to get the hang of making pastry... but I do admit that this is my best shortcrust pastry attempt yet. Even while rolling it out, I could tell it was perfect! (Haha, modest much? :P) It had a slight hint of cheese, which was fantastic with the cheesy filling. But it didn't make it overpoweringly cheesy, which was good. Too much cheese can make me feel a bit queasy sometimes, haha. It was also crisp and cooked properly, unlike some of my earlier attempts. So yay~!

One thing though, I forgot to put a layer between my pastry and the rice I used to weigh it down in the earlier "empty" baking. As a result, the rice grains STUCK to the bottom of the pastry! Whoopsie. I managed to get most of them out, and weirdly enough, I didn't taste any of the leftover grains in the finished pie. Which is good. But safe to say, this is a mistake I definitely won't be making again, haha. At one point, I thought my oh-so-perfect pastry was ruined! :(

And, as usual, I didn't take into account on how salty the cheese would be. So the filling was a *bit* too salty, but nothing that is too serious, I guess, hehe. But, make it a point to season your filling slightly less than you would, if you're planning to use cheese. (Hmmmmm, does that sentence make sense??? Oh well, you get what I mean anyway, right?)

But all in all, this is my best pie yet, hehe. And its perfect for a cold morning~! ;) (Though it is weirdly warm for winter. Spring is coming, yey~)

Quote of the day: A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.