Hello!
What. Is. Up? I am currently sitting on my couch in my "lounge clothes" (because I'm fancy like that) writing this email wondering why I ate pear cobbler so close to dinner time. I saw a meme, something about this time feeling like those days in between Christmas and New Years when you aren't really sure what day it is and dessert feels like a completely acceptable breakfast food. Ain't that the truth.
In between cooking, eating and washing the never ending pile of dishes I seem to make I have also been watching some wholesome Netflix series. I thought I'd share them with you incase you are looking for some gentle content to consume.
Anything mildly related to the happenings in the world right now is off the table, instead I like to melt into anything with a bit of history, bonus points if it's set in the country side.
- Outlander (I'm also reading the books, I'm obsessed)
- Restoration Australia (who knew I'd want to live in a 150 year old home so much)
- Cabins in the Wild (Set in Wales and truely incredible designs)
- When Calls the Heart (just wholesome, nothing bad ever happens in this show and I love it)
- Falling Inn Love (if you love cringeworthy bad rom coms I highly reccomened, its predictable, awkward and set in New Zealand)
Luckily for you, my taste in food is substantially better than my taste in movies.
Enter CHICKEN POT PIE
What you'll need and if you don't thats cool just swap some things
- Bonelesschickenroughly 600g (breast or thigh is good)
- 2 cups Milk (I used soy, you can use dairy or non-dairy)
- 1 cup Stock (vegetable or chicken)
-Thyme, Chilli and Black Pepper (to flavour broth)
- 50g Butter
- 1/2Onion, diced
- 2-3 cloves of garlic finely diced depending on taste
- 1 large Carrot, diced (you can replace me with another hard vegetable)
- 2 small sticks Celery, diced (you can replace me with another hard vegetable)
-50ml Sherry Vinegar or wine
- 50gFlour
- 1 cup Frozen Peas
- 2 sheets Puff pastry (or make it a shepards pie and put mash on top!!!)
Here's what to do
0.1 Prepare all your ingredients, get them ready and have them on the bench ready to go. When cutting your vegetables think about keeping them the same size as each other so they cook evenly
0.2 Read through the rest of the recipe so you know what to do.
Pre-heat oven to 180deg
Preparing the chicken
1. Put milk, stock, chicken, a couple of sprigs of thyme, a few cracks of black pep and a pinch of chilli in a pot on medium-low heat
2. Once mixture starts to simmer (not boil), reduce heat and set timer for 15mins - then remove from heat and set aside.
Preparing the rest of the filling
3. On medium heat, melt butter in saucepan - toss in onion and garlic and cook for 5minutes.
4. Add in carrot, celery and some thyme. Cook until vegetables are tender, stiring every now and then.
5. Meanwhile remove chicken from broth and shred or chop - strain the bits out of the broth and set to the side.
6. When vegetables are cooked, increase the heat slightly and pour in your wine or sherry vinegar - cook for a minute or so until some liquid has evaporated
7. Add flour to your pan and cook for a minute stiring constantly - gradually add in your strained broth continuing to cook over a medium heat - adding more as the mixture thickens
8. When you have reached your desired consistency (creamy and thick), remove from heat, mix through shredded chicken and frozen peas
9. Leave mixture to cool in the fridge for 30mins - in this time you should take your puff pastry out of the freezer to defrost slightly
Ready for baking
10. Place mixture into small or large ramekins or whatever you've got
11. Cover filling with puff pastry with the edges folded over the outside of your dish
12. Brush eggwash or butter over the top of the pastry then bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes.
This pie is bloody delicious and while the chilli doesn't add much heat it does add a certain kick that I really enjoyed. I used the extra pastry bits around the edge as a little scoop for the filling which honestly made me so happy!
This recipe is a really great base and you can play with it, adding bits here and there if you need. If you have any questions you can reply to this email or shoot me a DM over on @grumbleandquench.
Stay cosy my friend, until next time
S
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