Ingredient

Chicken pie

A chicken pie is a thick, creamy filling under — and sometimes over — pastry. It goes wrong in two predictable places: a filling too thin to hold, and a base gone soggy underneath it. Both are solved before the pie reaches the oven.

Cold and thick, both

The filling must be cold when the pastry goes on, and thicker than you think it needs to be.

Cold, because warm filling melts the fat in the pastry before it reaches the oven. In puff and flaky pastry, the whole structure depends on solid layers of fat staying solid until the oven turns their water to steam. Melt them early and the layers merge and the pastry does not rise — it just gets greasy.

Thick, because the filling loosens considerably as it heats. A sauce that coats the back of a spoon in the pan will be noticeably thinner at the table, and a thin filling will boil, push up against the pastry from below and turn the underside to paste.

The other half of the soggy-base problem is heat from beneath. Put the pie on a preheated baking sheet or a metal tray in the oven, so the base gets direct conducted heat rather than sitting in still air. For a fully enclosed pie with a pastry base, blind bake that base first.

The method

1. Poach or roast the chicken and shred or chop it. Poaching in stock gives you both the meat and a better liquid to build the sauce with. Thighs give more flavour and stay moister than breast.
2. Soften leeks, onion and any other vegetables in butter until sweet.
3. Stir in flour and cook it for a minute, then add stock gradually, whisking, followed by cream or milk. Cook until properly thick.
4. Add the chicken, plenty of black pepper, tarragon or thyme, mustard, and a squeeze of lemon. Season assertively — a creamy pie filling needs more salt than seems reasonable.
5. Cool it completely. Spreading it on a tray speeds this up. Do not put warm filling under pastry.
6. Fill the dish, doming the filling slightly in the middle so the pastry is supported and does not sink.
7. Top with pastry, seal the edges well, and cut a hole or two in the middle to let steam out. Trapped steam is what makes a lid soggy from underneath.
8. Glaze with beaten egg for colour.
9. Bake on a preheated tray at a good heat until the pastry is deeply golden and the filling is bubbling at the vent.

Choices

Puff pastry lid only

The easiest and arguably the best. No base to go soggy, and puff needs a hot oven and a cold start.

Shortcrust base and lid

A proper enclosed pie. Blind bake the base first, and consider egg-washing the blind-baked base to seal it.

Hot water crust

For a raised, free-standing pie eaten cold. A different dish.

Suet crust

Steamed rather than baked. Soft and rich — the pudding rather than the pie.

Chicken cut

Thighs, for flavour and moisture. Breast dries out, though a poached breast shredded at the end works.

Classic additions

Leek, mushroom, bacon, tarragon, mustard, white wine, peas. Ham and chicken is a standard pairing.

What goes wrong

• Soggy base. Filling too wet, filling too warm, or no direct heat underneath. Preheat a tray, blind bake, and thicken further.
• Pastry that did not rise. Warm filling melted the fat, or the oven was not hot enough. Puff pastry needs a genuinely hot oven.
• Sunken lid. The filling settled and left a gap. Dome the filling, or add a pie funnel.
• Filling boiled out of the sides. Edges not sealed, or no steam vent.
• Bland filling. Cream and chicken are both mild. Salt, pepper, mustard, herbs and acid are all doing necessary work.
• Dry chicken. Breast meat cooked twice. Use thighs, or add cooked breast at the last moment.

Common questions