Operation Chicken Pie

Here is a snippet of what we had for dinner last night. I made the meal for my partner and my parents and the pie crust was the nicest pastry I've ever made. I changed from my usual recipe to a recipe which thrives on keeping the pastry cold.

Ingredients:
155 g all-purpose flour
2 g salt
115 g butter, chilled and diced
60 ml ice water

It tasted great and everyone commented that the pastry was as good as shop bought. The tip is to keep the pastry as cold as possible - pop it in the freezer when you aren't using it.

The filling for my chicken pie was based on a recipe from Chef in Training called Crock Pot Italian Chicken. It was really delicious and really easy to make so I recommend you give it a try. I added a chopped carrot, a handful of sweetcorn and a handful of chopped button mushrooms to give more weight to the filling for when the chicken fell apart during cooking.

The Chef in Training Italian Chicken recipe in the slow cooker with added vegetables.

The finished chicken pie complete with wonderful, thin and flaky butter pastry.

It didn't turn out of the plate very well but that's down to my own impatience.

For dessert, I made a trifle with a difference. The bottom was a cheap strawberry jelly with a few left over strawberries chopped up and included. Instead of making the jelly with water, I topped it up with cold lemonade. It adds a nice tang to the jelly and you can feel the fizz of the lemonade whilst you're eating.

Lemonade jelly with added strawberries.

Jelly with added custard. It was finally finished off with strawberry fromage frais.