Evening, the house is tidy! Finally and we've just got back from going out for a meal with my parents for my Dad's birthday :) I'm so full I can barely move and don't want to think about more food, but today's recipe is one of my favourite dinners, it's so flavourful and rich in flavour, and I just love eating pastry...
Serves 2
You will need:
> 2 small one person casserole pots or a small pie dish, however I made the amount of pastry to just fit the small dishes I had, so you'd probably need more if you used a bigger dish.
> Saucepan with a lid
> Rolling pin
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Ingredients:
For the pastry:
> 2oz plain flour + extra to dust
> 1oz butter
> 15ml water
For the filling:
> 1tbsp oil (I used olive oil)
> Knob of butter
> 1 chicken breast, sliced into small chunks
> 1 onion, sliced thinly
> 3 rashers of bacon, diced
> 2 heaping tbsp chicken gravy granules (I know, I know, cheat's gravy! I didn't have time or chicken bones to make my own!)
> 2tbsp single cream
> Water, added to the consistency you want your gravy
> salt and pepper to taste
Method:
> Make the pastry first as it needs time to rest. Put the flour and butter into a small bowl and rub together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
> Add the water in a teaspoon at a time and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms.
> Wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
> When you are ready to make the filling, get the pastry out to rest.
> Look how cute these pots are?!
> Anyway, to make the filling, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and heat up the oil and butter in a large saucepan or wok. Place the onion and bacon in the saucepan and place the lid on so that the onion and bacon softens. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
> Add in the chicken and stir, replace the lid and leave for 5 minutes to colour the chicken.
> Add in the gravy granules and as much water as you require to make the consistency of gravy you like.
> Coat everything then stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
> Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for 10 minutes to thicken and cook through.
> Whilst the chicken is cooking, flour the worktop then cut the pastry into 2 pieces and roll them out as circular as you can make them. They need to be a little bigger than the dish ideally.
> Once the chicken is cooked, split it between the two dishes.
> Cover each dish with pastry and then using a sharp knife, cut around the edge of the dish to make the pie top.
> I had a bit of leftover pastry so I cut the first letter of our names out to put on our pies :)
> Just a little something extra I thought I'd add :)
> These dishes aren't the easiest to cut round what with the handles as you can see by my dodgy cutting out, but the filling is covered so that does me :)
> Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is lightly browned and crispy.
> Serve immediately, we served ours with mash, but they would work well with rice or on their own.
Enjoy :)
