Chicken and Mushroom Pie Recipe

This is an indulgent and warming recipe to treat yourself to on cold nights. For me, chicken and mushroom pie is ultimate comfort food, and is full of nostalgia. As a child, my favourite dinners were always the kind which came with gravy and veg. In fact at one stage, I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of eating a chip! Let alone food from the something-and-chips based children’s menus when we went out for dinner. Eating out was definitely a challenge for my parents back then!

Luckily, my horizons are much wider now, and there isn’t much food I don’t like! But I do still love the hearty home cooking I grew up eating, and am definitely still a big fan of lots of gravy! This chicken and mushroom pie recipe is an easy luxury meal to make at home, and is full of childhood memories – which for me, is a perfect combination! And the best bit? It can be made all in one non-stick casserole pan, so there’s not much washing up! You’ll just need to cook some veggies to serve it with. I like to keep it simple with broccoli and carrots, some of my favourite childhood veg, and of course, they’re delicious with gravy!

Chicken and Mushroom Pie Recipe
Serves 4, cooking time 50 mins

You will need:
1 clove of garlic
1 red onion
4 chicken breasts
300g button or chestnut mushrooms
30g salted butter
1 tbsp cornflour
200ml white wine
1 chicken stock pot
1 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp ground nutmeg
100ml semi skimmed milk
1 pack ready to roll puff pastry

Method
Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
Peel and crush or finely chop the garlic, finely chop the onion and roughly slice the mushrooms.
Cut the chicken into large chunks, about 3cm.
Melt the butter in a non-stick casserole pan over a low heat, and add the garlic.
Cook gently for a few seconds until it smells fragrant, then add the onion.
Fry for 5-10 minutes, or until it softened.
Turn up the heat, and add the chicken. Cook for about 1 mins or until the edges are browned.
Add the mushrooms and cornflour and mix so that the cornflour coats the chicken and mushrooms.
Add the wine and allow to cook down for 5 minutes, then add in the stock pot, thyme and nutmeg, and mix in thoroughly.
Turn off the heat, and mix in the milk.
Roll out the pastry larger than the pan, and carefully place on top. Trim to fit.
Cut a hole into the pastry for steam to escape (or write ‘pie’ out of pastry scraps if you’re feeling creative!)
Bake in the oven for 25 mins, or until the pastry is golden and puffy.
Enjoy! (With lots of gravy.)