Halfway pie

Once I'd made the ginger gems, I was only one recipe off my halfway mark of 288 recipes. It seemed only sensible to reach that milestone by making a family chicken pie (p141) for Mum, Dad and Nana.

Mum helped me out by deboning and cutting all the chicken thighs while I chopped up bacon, onion, garlic and mushrooms. These went into a frypan to cook until the onion was clear, at which point I stirred through a couple of tablespoons of flour, and began gradually adding stock.

Before long, the contents of my frypan were swimming in a nice brown gravy. I added the chicken, along with mixed herbs, milk and seasoning, then turned the heat down and let the chicken cook gently for about 20 minutes. When the chicken was cooked, the instructions were to 'allow to cool'. Well, I didn't have much patience with that concept, so I left it aside for a token five minutes or so before stirring through some corn and pouring the contents of the pan into a casserole dish.

The filling didn't fill the dish to the top, and since the pastry was to be sealed to the top of the dish, there was going to be a bit of a gap between filling and pastry. Perhaps I should have used a shallower dish, but I went ahead and placed the sheet of flaky pastry over the top. It sagged alarmingly in the middle, but it sealed to the edges ok. I made a halfhearted attempt at 'decorating' the top of the pie with pastry scraps, but really didn't put much effort into it.

After 20 minutes in the oven, the pie came out looking golden and delicious. Sure, it was still a bit saggy in the middle, but the pastry had all cooked properly, which was the main thing. What's more, it was very tasty. Chicken, bacon and mushrooms is always a good combination; throw in some creamy gravy and a crispy pastry lid, and you've got a very successful pie.

The gravy was perhaps a bit thin for a pie filling; I'd suggest using either more flour or less liquid than indicated in the recipe. But runny gravy wasn't enough to detract from the fact that this is a very good pie. I'll be making it again - why don't you try it too?