Martin Bosley's Chicken Pot Pies

Here's how to make a homemade version of the best pie Martin Bosley has ever eaten.

Martin Bosley
  • prepare
  • cook
  • 6 servings
  • Moderate
Woman with homemade pie on black background, closeup
Caption:Woman with homemade pie on black background, closeupPhoto credit:africaimages.com (Olga Yastremska, Africa Images)

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The finest pie I can remember came from a quiet corner of San Francisco, behind the ivy-thick walls of the Huntington Hotel.

You slip inside almost unnoticed; the bar is dark, wood-panelled, softly worn at the edges. A barman, quick with a joke and a kind smile, presses a small glass of sherry into your hand and suggests, almost conspiratorially, the chicken pie.

When it arrives, there’s a gentle ceremony to it. The barman eases away the golden, flaky dome, letting the scent of tender chicken and velvety sauce rise and fill the air between you. Then he leaves you to it, to tear into the pastry, to spoon up the creamy depths, and to sit, for a moment, wrapped entirely in comfort.

Here is my version of that pie. You can make individual pies, in which case you will require six deep ramekins, or a single, deep-dish version in which case you will need a pie dish approximately 32cm in length.

Ingredients

  • For the chicken:
  • 8 free-range chicken thighs, on the bone
  • 1 medium carrot
  • 1 medium onion
  • 6 peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 thyme stems
  • For the filling:
  • 4 medium onions
  • A little unsalted butter and olive oil for cooking onions
  • 6 rashers of streaky bacon
  • 350g white button mushrooms
  • 70g unsalted butter
  • 70g plain flour
  • 2L of chicken stock (from the chicken pieces)
  • small bunch of parsley
  • 6 x 22cm sheets of puff pastry
  • A little beaten egg and milk

Instructions

  1. Place the chicken pieces into a heavy-based pot with the carrot, onion, each one halved but not peeled, the peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme. Cover with 2 litres of water, bring to a lazy simmer and let it chuckle away for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
  2. Make the rest of the filling by first peeling the onions and chopping them roughly. Cook them in a heavy pan with a little butter and olive oil until the palest gold in colour. Remove any rind from the bacon rashers then cut them into small pieces and add to the onions. Cook until the bacon is soft but without colour. Cut the mushrooms into quarters and stir into the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft.
  3. Remove the chicken from the stock and pull the meat from the bones, keeping the pieces reasonably large. Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour, stirring over a low heat until sandy in colour. Over a sieve, pour in the 2 litres of chicken stock from the pot you cooked the chicken in and whisk to a simmer for about 10 minutes and the sauce has thickened. Stir this into the onions and bacon then add the chicken, chopped parsley and thyme. Season well and pour the mix into six deep pie dishes and leave to cool.
  4. Heat the oven to 200˚C. Cut a suitably sized disc from the pastry sheets to fit the tops of the dishes. Brush the rim of the pastry with egg then lay over the top of the pie and seal, pressing the overhang against the sides of the dish. Brush the pastry with egg and cut a small hole in the top to allow steam to escape. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

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