Chicken and Mushroom Pie
This is a proper filling-first British pie: chunks of chicken thigh, deeply browned mushrooms and a thick, creamy sauce, all under a crisp lid that shatters into flakes under your spoon. We use good all-butter shop-bought puff pastry and put our effort where it counts, into the filling.
- Prep
- 35 min
- Cook
- 1 h
- Rest
- 40 min
- Total
- 2 h 15 min
- Servings
- 6
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 590 kcal
Ingredients
For the filling
For the lid
Makes: 1 pie (24 cm), 6 portions
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
Oven
200 °C · top and bottom heat, no fan
With a fan: 180 °C
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Step 1: Brown the chicken
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat and brown the chicken in 2 batches for 4–5 minutes each, until golden all over. Transfer to a bowl; it will finish cooking in the sauce.
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Step 2: Cook the mushrooms
Add the butter and mushrooms to the same pan and cook for 7–8 minutes, until their liquid has evaporated and they are nicely browned. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft, then the garlic and thyme for 1 minute more.
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Step 3: Make the sauce
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir for 1 minute. Gradually pour in the hot stock, stirring constantly to prevent lumps, then add the cream and mustard. Return the chicken with its juices and simmer for 10 minutes, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and the chicken is cooked through.
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Step 4: Cool the filling
Taste and adjust the seasoning, then spoon the filling into a 24 cm deep pie dish and let it cool for at least 30 minutes. Hot filling melts the butter in the pastry and stops the lid from rising.
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Step 5: Add the pastry lid
Heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F). Roll the pastry slightly larger than the dish, cut a 1.5 cm strip from the edge and press it onto the dampened rim. Brush the strip with egg, lay the rest of the pastry on top, press the edges together, trim and crimp with a fork.
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Step 6: Glaze and vent
Brush the lid with beaten egg, avoiding the cut edges so they can rise, and cut 2–3 small slits for steam to escape.
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Step 7: Bake
Set the dish on a baking sheet and bake for 30–35 minutes, until the pastry is tall and deep golden and the sauce is bubbling at the edges.
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Step 8: Rest and serve
Let the pie stand for 10 minutes so the sauce thickens slightly and doesn’t flood the plate.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Stick with thighs rather than breast. They stay juicy through both the pan and the oven.
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Variation
Swap some of the button mushrooms for oyster mushrooms or porcini, or cook a sliced leek along with the onion.
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Tip
Make the filling a day ahead and chill it. The pie then comes together in 10 minutes, and cold filling is exactly what puff pastry wants.
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Storage
Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days and reheat at 180 °C for 15–20 minutes, with foil loosely over the lid.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 6 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 590 kcal | 3,540 kcal |
| Protein | 30 g | 180 g |
| Fat | 36 g | 216 g |
| Carbohydrates | 34 g | 204 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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