Proper chicken pie | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

What pastry is best for pies? ›

Shortcrust pastry is the best for pies that fully encase a filling as they tend to be firmer and less likely to leak. Puff pastry is great if you prefer just a pastry lid on top of the filling. Ready rolled shop-bought pastry are easy to handle and quite reliable - even professional chefs appreciate the convenience!

Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency. Tapioca starch is preferable for products that will be frozen because it will not break down when thawed. We like tapioca in blueberry, cherry or peach pies.

Cornstarch as Pie Filling Thickener

Cornstarch is faster-acting than flour and forms a smooth, relatively clear filling.

A watery potpie may be the result of not cooking the filling for long enough or adding too much liquid to the filling. Another possible reason for the pie being watery is if you add watery vegetables like spinach or green beans to the filling rather than potatoes or carrots, which soak up liquid.

Adding Thickener

A thickener prevents the filling from being too watery by adding a substance that will absorb some of the liquid that seeps out of the fruit. A small amount of thickener should not alter the flavor of your pie. Use cornstarch as a thickener.

A sweet treat bursting with hand-picked strawberries, juicy raspberries and ripe blackberries in a flaky pastry crust and topped with streusel and whipped topping.

Metal pie pans bake up the most even crusts, since metal is a great thermal conductor. While stoneware can bake up a good pie, the material isn't as conductive and retains heat better, which can result in less evenly browned crusts.

According to Oxford English Dictionaries, a pie is defined as "a baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry." Merriam-Webster concurs with its first definition — "a meat dish baked with biscuit or pastry crust"—but its second definition provides the most leeway for Berry to, ...

While flaky pastry is somewhat easier to process, it produces a lower volume after baking. Therefore, it is not a good substitute for traditional puff pastry applications such as vol-au-vents or bouchees but is more suited for pie crusts and turnovers.

I just ate some leftover chicken pie, cold. It was delicious. But you can give it a slight warm up so you don't dry it out.

Can you freeze leftover chicken pie? ›

This pie can be frozen, perfect for when you need comfort food in a hurry. Check the tips section for freezing instructions.

If you want to make a puff pastry base for your pie

As you warm up your oven, put a baking tray in to heat up. Then when you put your pie in the oven, sit the dish on top of the hot baking tray. I find that this really helps to cook the base of the Steak Pie and stop a soggy bottom.

The acidic properties of vinegar inhibit gluten, some will say. This theory proposes that once the water and flour are combined, gluten starts forming, causing the dough to grow tough. Adding an acid, the theory goes, stops the gluten in its tracks and rescues the crust from toughness.

Stir a tablespoon of cornstarch into 2 tablespoons of cold water and add it to your filling mixture to thicken it.