Chicken Pie Easter Special

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Before we start making the dough for the chicken pie make sure that the butter is soft and water is ice chilled water. Soft butter does not mean melted butter it simply means that when you press your finger to the butter it is so soft that the finger goes through it without resistance.

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Sift flour on to a cooking table, add soft butter, sugar and start rubbing them together with hands. Do this till the entire flour is crumbly. This process will make the pie dough texture very brittle and crumbly.
Make a well and pour chilled water in it and mix together to make a dough. We do not have to knead this dough a lot, just make sure that the dough comes together with minimal cracks. Now place this dough in the fridge for at least 30mins to rest and firm up for rolling later. Ideal time would be an hour of rest or more.

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Heat a pan, pour oil, butter and let it melt. Add in chopped garlic and lightly stir it. Add in the onions, celery and cook them on medium heat for a min. We do not have to brown any of the ingredients just light stir frying is all we need.

Sprinkle some dry flour and cook till it turns blonde in colour. Increase the heat and add the chicken chunks. Sprinkle salt, oregano, thyme and toss the chicken. Make sure to cook the chicken on high heat for 3-4 mins.
Add fresh green peas and carrots and cook them for another 2 mins. Because the chicken and veggies will be cooking in the oven later we do not have to fully cook them on the pan.

Sprinkle chilli flakes and pepper powder, stir and pour cream. Stir it in and turn off the heat. Let it cool a bit and then add in the grated cheese, mix it well. Now let the filling cool down completely.

Bring the dough out of the fridge. It should be tight and firm for us to roll easily. In case the dough is still very soft, simply give it more time in the fridge.

Lightly flour the kitchen counter and place the dough. Spread it a little with your hands and then using a rolling pin roll it out flat. Use very little dry flour to roll it evenly. Roll it out thin to about ¼ cm thick in all directions.

Place the mould next tot eh dough, roll the dough over the rolling in to pick it up and place it over the pie mould and unfold the rolling pin so that the pie dough sits on top of the mould (refer to the video).

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Press the dough gently to push it towards the bottom and side of the mould. Press on the sides and then press on top of the edge of the mould to cut off the excess. dough.
Place the pie mould in the fridge for the time being.

Mix together the remaining dough and then give it some rest in the fridge. Roll it out thin ¼ cm again and this time cut 9inch long and 1.5cm wide strips to make the lattice work on top of the pie.
Remove the pie Doug from fridge and add the filling, spread it evenly, do not press it down.

Once the strips are cut, place them vertically with a gap of 1cm between them. Now to prepare the lattice work with these strips, simply roll back alternate strips and place a strip horizontally. Refer to the video to have a better understanding. Bring back the rolled up strips to their original position to set the pattern for the lattice work.

Now roll back the other strips and place another strip horizontally, bring back the rolled strips to original position. Repeat till the entire lattice work is don on the pie. Lightly tough the strips with water under neath them where thy are toughing the edge of the pie mould. Press on top of the pie mould to cut off the excess pie dough.

Break an egg in a bowl, pour milk and whisk them. Using a brush lightly brush this egg wash on top of the lattice work. Egg wash will give it a very bright and shinny top after baking.

Place the pie in a pre heated oven and bake it at 170c for 45-55mins or till the upper crust gets a good colour. Remove from the oven and place it to cool down for 5mins. Using oven mittens separate the pie from the mould and place the pie on to a serving platter. Slice the pie to serve. Happy easter.