Chicken and Broccoli Pie


This recipe I have been using for years and it is from the Julie Le Clerc 'Simple Cafe Food' Book.  It is great for Crew Food or for a casual guest lunch (depending on guests) and children love it! The paprika pastry is a great recipe and can be used in other recipes when a savoury pastry is required.

This is Julie Le Clerc's website http://www.julieleclerc.com/about.htm

This pie recipe can be easily altered into a vegetarian version by adding cauliflower to replace chicken adding cheese to the sauce and folding through toasted pine nuts.  Use vegetable stock for the sauce.

Other variations:
Chicken and mushroom
Spinach, mushroom, feta
Chicken, spinach and Parmesan with toasted pine nuts

Chicken and Broccoli Pie


Ingredients:

Paprika Pastry:

3 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
250g butter, cubed
1/2 cup of sour cream

Filling:

5 small/medium Chicken breasts, skin removed
400g head of broccoli
125g butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 Tablespoons plain flour
2 1/2 cups stock
1/4 cup cream
salt and pepper



Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Pastry:

Place sifted flour, salt and paprika in a food processor and add butter.  Process this until crumbly then mix in sour cream to form a dough.  (If doing by hand, sift flour, salt and paprika into a bowl, add cubed butter and rub into the flour mixture until bread crumb texture is formed, add sour cream and form into a dough). Lightly knead and chill for 20 minutes.

Place chicken breasts into a saucepan and cover with warm/hot water and gently simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain off the chicken stock liquid to be used later and remove chicken, cool and slice.

Cut broccoli into florets and blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes, remove florets and plunge into cold water to stop the broccoli cooking.  Drain and dry well.

Melt butter in a saucepan and make the sauce by adding flour and garlic to the melted butter off the heat.  Mix until it forms a smooth paste this is a roux.  Add 2 1/2 cups of the warm stock from the cooking of the chicken, stirring all the time.  Return the sauce to the heat and cook until the sauce thickens.  Add the cream,  salt and pepper.  Cool the sauce.

Roll 2/3 of the pastry to a 3 mm thickness and line a 24cm loose-bottomed pie tin.  Combine the chicken, broccoli, sauce and pack into the pastry case.

Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the pastry to form the lid.  Fit lid onto the pie and crimp the edges to bind.  Chill for 20 minutes.  Place in preheated oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Bake for 45 minutes or until pastry is crisp and golden brown.

Serves 8 -10

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