Time to eat humble pie

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A chicken pie is the ultimate comfort food, to cook and to eat. Be it a chilly winter’s day or a sweltering summer evening, you can’t go wrong with a chicken pie, that is, as long as you don’t go wrong in making it. For a pie, half the battle is won with the pastry.

Get the pastry right and your pie will be great. Just to be on the safe side, we are using store bought puff pastry here.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
3 (500g) chicken breasts, cut into 3 cm pieces
5 bacon rashers, trimmed, thinly sliced
300 gm button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup plain flour
600 ml thickened cream
1 cup fresh herbs, chopped (such as parsley, basil and chives)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 bunch spinach, trimmed, washed and chopped
6 sheets puff pastry, partially thawed
4 medium potatoes, boiled, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups grated cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp milk

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease eight, 7.5 cm pie tins. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, bacon and mushroom. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add the flour. Continue stirring till a paste forms then gradually stir in the cream to form a smooth sauce. Stir in herbs and cumin. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Place spinach in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover. Heat in microwave on high (100 per cent) for 3 to 4 minutes or boil water with a pinch of salt in a separate pan and blanch the spinach for a minute or two and remove. Drain.
Cut 4 pastry sheets in half diagonally. Line base and sides of each pie tin with pastry and trim the edges. Divide the potato evenly over pastry bases. Top with chicken mixture, spinach and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Brush edge of pastry with combined egg and milk.
Cut each remaining sheet of pastry into 4 squares. Place 1 pastry square over 1 pie. Trim edge. Press edge together to secure. Repeat with remaining pastry and pies. Brush tops of pies with egg mixture. Using a small knife, make a small slit in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape during cooking. Place pies in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden and puffed. Let stand for five minutes before serving.