Recipe: Chicken and Onion Pie

This is another recipe in the vein of "what do I have sitting around the house and what can I make out of it?" Last night's dinner was conceived during my drive home from work keeping a few things in mind.  It is getting colder, so I wanted to cook something warming.  We haven't gone grocery shopping in a while and I was feeling lazy so it needed to be stuff we had in the house.  I did a mental inventory: I roasted a chicken a few days ago that needed to either become soup or be frozen in the next few days.  We had a sack of onions that was starting to look a little peaky when I roasted the chicken.  We had flour, and butter, and some milk and eggs.

SAVORY PIE.  I noodled around on the internet and got the basic idea from a few different websites.  I decided to do an entirely different crust and voila: Chicken and Onion Pie!

Recipe after the jump!


This is pretty easy, and the most time intensive part is making the pie crust.  Don't mind the horrible quality of the photos.  The lighting in the kitchen is really bad, and I'd much rather just get on with cooking than take pictures anyway.  Maybe in the new place I'll bother to break out the digicam for these.

Two Crust Pie Crust [adapted from the traditional Betty Crocker recipe]
2 C flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp butter
4 to 6 Tbsp ice-cold water
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and butter and start mixing with a pastry cutter or two knives.  Do this until the pieces are about the size of small peas.  If I can't find my pastry cutter and I get sick of the knives [it's hard work!], I often times get in there with my hands and break up the larger chunks.  Try not to work it around too much, or else the gluten in the flour will make the crust less flaky and delicious.  Start adding the cold water a table spoon at a time and mix in with a fork.  Once the dough is starting to get wet and coming away from the sides of the bowl, gather it into a ball and divide in half.  Wrap the halves in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.  This will keep for a few days in the fridge, and also freezes really well if you want to make ahead.  Move on to the filling.

Chicken and Onion Pie Filling
4 medium onions, sliced into thin rounds.
3ish C cooked chicken diced.
whatever butter is left over from making the pie crust [like a 3rd of a stick, or 3 Tbsp], plus a tablespoon of olive oil.
1/2 C flour
1 C milk
1 large egg yolk
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp curry powder.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. [around 180 degrees Celsius.]
Saute the onions in a medium pot on medium heat with the butter and olive oil.  Throw in a dash of salt and pepper, and the curry powder.  When they onions have gotten translucent and a little golden, add in the flour to coat the onions and then the milk slowly to make a thick [delicious] goo.  Add in the egg yolk [save the whites for an optional eggwash for the pie top] and mix it up.

When the filling is ready, roll out the pie crusts one at a time to a little less than a quarter of an inch, or until it's wide enough to fit over the pie plate.  

 

Don't trim the sides yet [do as I say, not as I do], but make sure they definitely hang over the pie dish all the way around.  Add the filling and set the whole thing aside while you roll out the second crust.   

Wet the edges of the first crust and set the second on top, pressing down gently to make sure there's contact all the way around.  Now you can trim the edges with a sharp knife [just use the pie plate as a guide] and seal as you wish.  I prefer the three-knuckle technique, but there's no reason you can't press with a fork all the way round, or use one of those fancy contraptions.  Cut a few steam vents in the top.  An optional step would be to do a quick eggwash, which is a fancy way of making the top glossy.  Do this if you know how, but otherwise, don't bother, and just check it to make sure it's not burning on top and cover with foil if it gets too dark.  It'll be delicious no matter what 

 

Bake for 30 minutes in the previously heated 360F oven.  Remove and let sit for a few minutes [if you can stand it].  EAT.