It's too hot to be eating this delicious pie in New Zealand right now. But if you're above the snowline and looking for a fantastic pie to worm you and a few hungry friends and family this Christmas, I strongly recommended this favorite Chicken, Grape & Champagne pie to you.
It goes well with a glass of Champagne (surprise, surprise) or a Pinot Gris.
Bon Apatite
Craig
Chicken, Grape & Champagne Pie
Ingredients
- 40g Butter
- For cooking extra virgin olive oil
· 3-4 large chicken thigh fillets with skin-on (about 770 g), cut into 3/4" square bite-sized pieces
- To taste Sea salt
· 2 leeks, white parts only, cleaned and thinly sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup Champagne or sparkling white wine
- ¼ cup plain flour
- 1½ cups Homemade chicken stock
- 1½ Tbsp finely chopped French tarragon
- 1½ Tbsp finely chopped thyme
· 225g seedless green grapes (to yield 1 cup picked grapes) or preserved grapes or 110g sultanas reconstituted in a little of the Champagne.
· ½ preserved lemon, flesh removed and rind rinsed and finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp Verjuice
- To taste freshly ground black pepper
- 1 quantity sour-cream pastry
- For greasing olive oil spray
- Sour Cream Pastry
- 125g plain flour
- 100g unsalted & chilled butter
- 60ml sour cream (approx.)
Method
Heat butter in a large frying pan over high heat until nut-brown, then add a splash of olive oil. Season chicken with salt, then sauté in batches until lightly coloured. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add leeks and garlic to the pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until soft. Increase heat to high, then deglaze pan with Champagne (or sparkling white wine) and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes or until wine has reduced by half. Sprinkle in flour and whisk in well to combine, then add stock and bring to the simmer. Add chicken, and thyme, stirring gently to combine, and then cook for 4-5 minutes. Add verjuice and simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Add Tarragon and preserved lemon, season with pepper and add salt if needed. Remove chicken from heat and when cooler add grapes and then pop into the fridge to chill.
Meanwhile, make sour-cream pastry (*see below). This pastry is quite buttery, so it needs a quick burst of high heat when you start cooking in order to seize the pastry and stop it from being soggy.
Preheat fan-forced oven to 220ºC.
Grease 6-8 large individual 10 cm x 7 cm pie tins with olive oil spray (or you could 1 large pie tin). Roll out pastry until 3 mm thick, and then cut out 4 x 19 cm rounds for the pie bases and 4 x 12 cm rounds for the lids. Line each pie tin with a 19 cm round, then divide the cooled chicken filling among the tins, top with the lids then twist the pastry of the sides and top together. Pierce a small hole into the centre of each pie, and then brush the tops of the pastry with a little beaten egg. Place the pies in the fridge to chill, about half an hour.
Bake pies for 5 minutes then reduce to 200ºC and bake for a further 20 minutes or until pastry is golden. Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly before turning out and serving.
Sour Cream Pastry
Chop all the butter into small cubes. Weigh flour and put into mixer. Blend flour and butter until it resembles a large breadcrumb consistency. Add sour cream gradually (see note below).
Turn onto a floured bench and pull together with your hands into a rectangle shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes before rolling out and lining your tin.
Blind bake at 200ºC for 12 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes.
*NOTE: Check consistency before adding all of the sour cream and do not add all if it is not needed. When lining the tin, have the pastry come up high as the pastry will shrink.