Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie

Today marks the start of British Pie Week, a celebration of the humble pastry coated dish and to kickstart a week of flaky (and otherwise) posts and re-posts here is the recipe for our classic Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie.

With just a puff pastry topping, it is slightly less calorific, but still has all the comforting qualities; a rich and satistfying filling with a golden flaky pastry ton top, and more importantly it’s universally popular. I’ve added a little thyme here as it such good friends with both chicken and mushrooms, but tarragon instead makes for a beautiful variation too.

The below feeds a family of four comfortably and you can serve with just a selection of vegetables, or the classic mash potato or even chips of you’re really feeling naughty.

Here’s how:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
• 2 rashers smoked bacon 
• 1 red onion 
• 1 clove garlic 
• 2 tbsps plain flour 
• 2 large chicken breasts 
• 250g mushrooms 
• 1 tbsp dried thyme 
• 350ml chicken stock 
• 200ml milk (use full fat for the rich and creamy texture) 
• Black pepper 
• 1 pack pastry 
• 1 egg Firstly peel and dice the onion and mince the garlic and set aside for the moment. Wash and slice the mushrooms and set aside.

Now pour the vegetable oil into a pan and place on a medium heat.

Now cut the bacon into small squares and add to the pan until crisp on both sides, turning as you need to.

As the bacon cooks, cut the chicken into small, bite-sized pieces.

Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside and now add the chicken to cook in the bacon fat and oil. Just allow to colour to white in each side, and remove from the pan and sit with the bacon.

Now add the onion and garlic to the pan and allow to saute. As soon as the onion is soft stir through the flour, which will make a bit of a paste, which will act as the thickener for the sauce.

Now add a few tablespoons of the stock to the onions and keep stirring rapidly, for a minute then repeat until all of the stock is added, then do the same with the milk, keeping the rapid stirring up constantly to ensure the sauce comes together. It will be quite thin at this point, but don’t be tempted to add anything to thicken, it will do so in the cooking process.

Now return the chicken and bacon to the pan, and season with black pepper (you can season with salt here, but the salt from the bacon should be sufficient, particularly if you’re cooking for children like I am) and add the thyme and give a good stir.

The filling for the Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie

Now pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Put on a low heat and cook for twenty minutes, by which point the sauce will have started to thicken up.

After twenty minutes, spoon all of the chicken mixture into a pie dish and allow to cool for fifteen minutes, again, this will allow for the sauce to thicken slightly more.

Now roll out the puff pastry, or if you have bought a sheet, simply place over the pie dish, and then use your hands to scrunch the pastry underneath the rim of the dish, then cut away the extra.

Now use your thumb all the way round to squeeze underneath and ensure it doesn’t fall off during the cooking.

With the excess pastry, you could make any pattern you choose, Bridget wanted to use her biscuit cutters and we added four hearts to ours.

Now crack an egg into a mug or small bowl and whisk. Then brush it all over the pie with a pastry brush to ensure it goes a lovely golden brown. The final thing to do is to make two or three slashes in to the pie topping to ensure the steam from the pie filling is able to escape, and so the puff pastry rises well and is flaky rather than soggy.

Place into the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry is well risn and a lovely shade of golden brown. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie 

Here’s some other pie recipes:

Squash and Goat's Cheese Pot Pie

Beef and Lentil Beef Pie

Steak and Ale Pot Pie

Cheese and Vegetable Pie

Leftover Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Haddock Fishcakes

Fishcakes are incredibly versatile; you can make so many different variations, whether it's the fish, the filling or the flavourings, and my family just love these haddock ones that use some smoked and unsmoked haddock. They're also a fantastic way to use up any leftover mash potato - we hate waste.

For these ones, I use Asian flavourings of chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander, but these are also great with chopped capers, parsley and a little mustard too.

These are a lovely meal to make with your children, they can get involved with chopping, mixing, making breadcrumbs, shaping the fishcakes and then the fun of dipping into egg, flour and breadcrumbs. Bridget helped me throughout making these yesterday, and was so proud to present her cooking to Daddy and her little sister (who devoured the lot). Children are always more open to trying things when they have been involved in the cooking process and my two never turn their nose up at fish - I just love cooking with my children.

I used a green chilli here as Glen and I love some spice in these fishcakes, however I make the girls fishcakes first, to avoid them getting a big hit of spice; but you make up your own mind. If you're not keen on spice, omit the chilli.

I served with a side salad, a handful of chunky chips and some sweet chilli sauce and the below makes four generous ones, or eight smaller ones.

Haddock Fishcakes

Here's how:

• 200g haddock
• 175g unsmoked haddock
• 200g mash potato (I used Maris Piper here, but any will work)
• 3 spring onions
• 1 clove garlic
• 3cm piece of ginger
• Half a bunch of coriander
• 1 green chilli (optional)
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Bowl full of breadcrumbs (I blitzed 2 slices granary bread in a blender)
• Drizzle vegetable oil

Firstly pre-heath the oven to 180 degrees and then prepare the flavourings, finely slice the spring onions, mince the garlic clove and grate the ginger and add to a large bowl.

Roughly chop the coriander and add to the bowl. Finely slice the chilli and set aside if preparing for small children, or throw in the bowl.

Add the prepared mashed potato into the bowl too.

Now chop the haddock into bite sized pieces and throw into the bowl. Mix everything together until everything is well combined.

Now get three bowls and add to the first, the flour and a generous seasoning. To the second bowl crack in the egg (give a quick whip) and into the third and final bowl add the breadcrumbs.

Now is time to make each fishcake and there is no other way than with your hands. Take a generous handful and shape with your hands into thick rounds. Once you are happy with the shape, place onto a plate or a piece of parchment paper, and repeat the process until happy with all of the fishcakes. 

Haddock Fishcakes

Now drizzle the oil into a non-stick pan and place on a low heat to allow to heat up before a quick browning of each fishcake.

Now to complete the fishcakes, take one and dip into the flour first and turn around so it becomes coated in the seasoned flour, then dip into the egg mix, and then finally the breadcrumbs so they are fully coated, then return to the plate or the parchment paper and repeat until each fishcake is coated.

Now wash your hands - by now they will probably be duly coated in an eggy, breadcrumb mix. 

The pan should now be warm enough for you to quickly fry the fishcakes for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. 

Then place onto a baking sheet and into the oven for 15 minutes to cook through. Enjoy!

Some other fishcake recipes that might be of interest:

Spiced Tuna Fishcakes
Mexican Style Salmon Fishcakes
Thai Salmon Fishcakes
Lightly Spiced Salmon Fishcakes
Colcannon Mackerel Fishcakes

Busy Parent's Cooking Hacks

I try to cook from scratch for my family most of the week, but with work, various family activities and let’s face it, the challenges of every-day family life thrown in, some days it doesn’t happen and we reach for freezer favourites or order in.

As it’s a universal issue and I’ve realised that in my guise of ‘working Mum’, I have a few tricks and tips in my armoury to help make midweek meals easier to produce when time and energy supplies are dwindling.

Be a smug batch cooker
Family life is hectic, and aside from the uber organised, not everyone has a stash of pre-prepared, labelled and homemade meals in the freezer. But actually, most of us cook the family classic dishes, the crowd-pleasers on a regular basis, so why not cook an extra-large batch, and portion up to freeze? Meals that lend themselves well to this include Bolognese or meat ragu, chilli, curries, casseroles and homemade pasta sauces that double up as a quick pizza sauce too. It is honestly such a great feeling coming home from work, or a busy day out with the kids to a home-cooked meal ready and waiting for you to warm up at home.

Slow Cooked Beef and Lentil Curry

Greek Chicken One-Pot Casserole

Multiple meals
When batch-cooking, you need not feel restricted to constantly having the same meals time and time again, I mean, I get bored easily, let alone my kids, so I make things that work in a multiple of ways. A Bolognese doubles up as a lasagna filling, chilli makes a mean burrito or enchilada filling, and a casserole such as chicken and mushroom makes for a banging pot-pie filling.

Perfect the leftover dinner
Transform your leftover roast dinner meat into a variety of delicious dinners; the possibilities are honestly endless. Make a mean noodle soup with any meat, stock, ginger, garlic, spring onions and chilli, sliced greens or lettuce, soy, a dash of fish sauce and sesame oil and a handful of beansprouts and coriander at the end. Other ideas are to serve the leftover meat with herby couscous, salad and a yoghurt dip, rehydrate in a BBQ sauce and serve in wraps with sour cream and salad or make a quick potato-topped pie.

Pork Noodle Soup

Leftover Roast Chicken & Mushroom Pie

The beauty of a sandwich
After a heavy day at work or school a simple sandwich might not cut it, but if you elevate it to a club sandwich (3 layers baby), with all of your family’s favourite fillings, think roast chicken, deli meats, cheeses, pickles and salad and throw a skewer in the top, this is a lot more exciting. Serve with a few oven chips, or dare I say it, crisps. It might not be the most nutritional thing they eat that week, but it will be fun.

Throw it in a bun
So, so, so many things can be served in bread rolls, ciabatta, brioche buns or my personal favourite stand-by, part-baked baguettes. This is great for when patience, time or energy is lacking for peeling potatoes or cooking up rice or pasta. I’m not just talking about burgers and sausages (though these work too), but any kind of meat works here with coleslaw and salad as would fish fingers. You could really mix it up and serve chilli or Bolognese in a bun too (hello sloppy Joe).

Quicky pizzas
These pizzas are such a standby fail-safe meal in our home, popular with all. The base can be anything from tortilla wraps, naan bread or even pitta. A simple tomato sauce (defrosted from the freezer) is smeared over the top and then add any fillings you like and that you have in stock. Peppers, onions, mushrooms, sweetcorn, sliced meat, olives; the options are endless, and you know what, just throwing on some grated cheese works too.

Pitta Pizza

Eggs is eggs
My Mum always said ‘you can always make a meal out of eggs’ and this is a rule to remember. You can serve eggs a whole heap of ways on toast, but the good old fashioned omelette or frittata is another winning meal you can prepare in five, and have on the table in another five using simple ingredients you have in your vegetable rack. Another egg-concoction that can be savoury and goes down a storm with kids is crepes or pancakes. Easy, cheap and quick – winner!

Crepes

Base bags
OK so this might be taking kitchen organisation a step too far, but if you are truly time-poor, it’s a great shortcut midweek, when resources are minimal. Get a ton of onions, garlic, celery and carrots and finely dice and equally distribute between a few bags for the ‘base’ of many a meal. These work as the start of many stews, pasta sauces, ragus, soups and loads more. They freeze well and are super useful when you’re in a hurry.

Flavour saviours
As cheesy as it sounds, having a few additional ingredients to hand at any given time in the kitchen, can rescue the bland, enhance the mundane and generally improve meals in a mere moment. As well as your usual olive oils and balsamic vinegars, I’m talking about flavoured oils such as chilli, garlic and truffle to drizzle over pasta, soups, stews or even pizza. Spicy sauces are another way of injecting a quick-fire hit of heat into any dish, sriracha and hot pepper are my favourites.