Chicken Pot Pie ♨ - My first Daring Baker's challenge!

Although I remember reading some interesting posts about daring baker's challenge on some of my favorite blog's, it was quite recently that I decided to register. So like any other enthusiastic blogger I was all eyes for the month's challenge. I am sure by now you know what my challenge was. So in the following weeks I laid out my choicest plans for creating an out of the world pie. I decided to settle for an authentic pot pie with steaming chicken (& lots of veggies) filling in white sauce, well contained in a flaky buttery short crust pastry!  
Watch this space for a similar post on fish pie (salmon in coconut milk as filling)...but for now I would like you to bake and dig into a nice chicken pot pie on a chilly night... I am sure once you prepare a pie, the request for more would keep coming in!!

Hannah of Rise and Shine was our October 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she challenged us to bake our own double crusted savoury pot pies. Using any from-scratch crust and filling we choose, we were allowed to get completely creative with our recipe, showing off the savoury flavours and fillings from our own home or region.                                                                                           

Chicken Pot Pie ♨ - My first Daring Baker's challenge post
Recipe adapted from MariasMenu

There are a few ways to get creative here, try different kinds of crust and fillings. Once you decide these, inspire the artist in you and get your creative juices flowing with pie side crimping or top crust designing (lattice, cut out shapes ...). Use your signature style and personalize the pies as these are definitely going to get repeated on your menu!! Thank you Hannah for this challenge, you made me go that extra bit to make my pie super special :D

Ingredients:

For the Short crust pastry
200 g Plain flour 
a pinch of Salt
100 g Unsalted Butter (chilled, cut into cubes)
1 Egg, slightly beaten
Water (1 Tbsp, if required)

For the chicken& veggie filling
4 or 5 Chicken thigh pieces (cooked and cut into bite size pieces) 
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp Ginger+Garlic, finely chopped
2 Green chillies, finely chopped
3 Carrots, cut into bite size cubes
2 Potatoes, cooked and cut into bite size cubes
1/2 cup Green peas (frozen)
small bunch of Spring onions, chopped
Few Coriander leaves, finely chopped (optional)
1/4 tsp Garam masala (optional)
1 tsp Black pepper, freshly ground
Salt, to taste
Oil, as required

For the white sauce
1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 Tbsp Plain flour
1 cup Milk
1 tsp Black pepper, freshly ground
Salt, to taste

Method:
Pastry making:

• Tip the plain flour with salt into a mixing bowl and mix well.
• Now add the butter cubes and rub into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
• At this stage, mix in the slightly beaten egg and water( if required) and form a soft dough. Ensure you don't over mix as it will make the pastry tough.
• Let it chill in the fridge for 30 mins while you prepare the pie filling.

Preparing the filling:

• Heat a pan and add little oil to sauté the chopped onions, ginger-garlic and green chillies.
• Once the onion mixture turns translucent, add the chopped carrots and potatoes and sauté further for 5 mins. Followed by the chopped spring onions and frozen green peas, cook for another 2 mins. 
• Now add the cooked chicken bite size pieces and mix well.
• Add garam masala (if using), salt (as per taste), ground black pepper and chopped coriander leaves (if using).
• Now cook until everything is done. Then remove from fire and set aside.

Preparing white sauce:

• Heat a pan and melt the butter completely. Then add the plain flour and stir continuously for few mins until it forms a nice golden mixture (make sure you do not burn it).
• Now slowly add the milk while continuing to stir and combine the whole mixture well. Add little salt and ground black pepper.
• Once the sauce thickens, remove it from fire.
• Now mix the previously prepared chicken & veggie filling mixture with the white sauce and your pie filling is complete and ready for the oven.

Rolling the pastry and baking the pies:

• Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C/ gas 4. Prepare the pie tins/ dish by greasing them with butter. 
• Roll out the refrigerated pastry dough depending on the size/shape of the dish you are using.
• Transfer the rolled out dough to the prepared pie dish with the help of your rolling pin.
• Once it fits the edges correctly, trim the excess off the edges and prick the base pastry with a fork all over. 
• Now bake the base pastry for around 8 mins until it is slightly firm or it attains a light biscuit colour.
• Take out the baked pastry from the oven and spoon in the filling mixture.
• Complete the top pastry layer with a lattice pattern or cut out patterns or whatever you desire and crimp it well to the filled pie base.
• Using a pastry brush then give an egg wash on the top pastry (this gives the pastry a shine on baking).
• Return the pies to the oven and bake for around 15 mins.
• Then increase the oven temp to 200 C and bake for further 5 mins, till the top crust forms a light golden brown colour.
• Now remove the pies from the oven and let them cool in the dish for few mins.
• Later remove from the pie dish and serve hot!

Notes: I did not use any standard size pie dish, so the oven timing and quantities may vary based on the dish that you use. I made a medium pot pie and four mini pie's with the above mentioned pastry dough and filling mixture. 

                                                                            ♥ Thank You ♥