Homemade Chicken Pie- Attempt 1

It was requested that I make a homemade chicken pie- something I have never done before. I chose a recipe out of a 'comfort food' cookery book and adapted it slightly. For one things it had nuts in the original recipe, and this was for someone who is severly allergic to nuts. Vegetables were also changed and the stock used was different. It turned out well though, according to the hungry tummies that tried it (I don't like pie).

The recipe, as modified, is below:
250g plain flour
Pinch of salt
100g butter
75g solid cooking fat
Roughly 6 tbsp cold water

250ml chicken stock
700g bitesize chicken pieces
100g potato, chopped
1 beaten egg
75g cheddar cheese, grated
2 spring onions, chopped

Mix up the pastry by rubbing together the fat/ butter, salt and flour until it is breadcrumbs, then add the water in slowly, adding more or less as needed until you have a good texture. Wrap it in cling film or a sandwich bag and leave it to cool in the fridge for an hour. The chicken, veg and stock should be prepared while you wait. Heat the stock on the hob until boiling and add the chicken and potato- when it comes to the boil again, simmer for 30 minutes. Then remove from heat and cool for 25 minutes.

Grease your pie tin. Get the pastry out when ready and roll it out to cover the base of the dish, trimming the excess edges with a knife. Drain off the liquid from your filling and add the grated cheese, spring onion and egg, mixing it all together well. Put this inside the pie base.

Roll out the lid of the pie. Brush around the edge of the pie base (as in picture), with water and seal the lid in place by pressing down firmly. If you wish to, you can brush the pastry over with a small amount of milk at this point, to help get an even cover, and add any decorations you may wish to cut with the excess pastry you have left over. Make sure you add two X shaped vent holes at this point (see on finished picture below, one is on far side and opened slightly during baking, and one is to the right of the leaf decoration).

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celcius (170 fan) or gas mark 5 and bake for 45 minutes.

 Remove it from the oven, plate it up with whatever you like and serve :) Voila!

I was a little reluctant to make a chicken pie without gravy, but the cheese in this gave it a different little twist. It was the only recipe I had to hand at short notice and turned out pretty well. It was agreed that it could benefit from gravy for next time though (you can just serve it with it though, if you prefer), but other than that the actual result got a resounding positive- the. My test subject ( :P ) is a big fan of the pastry on pies in particular and said that this pie definitely lived up to those expectations, so I think the cooking time on the recipe is perfect. A good first effort I think.