- Hi, guys. Welcome back to my channel.
Today, we are making chicken and mushroom pie,
one of my favorites for the Fall.
You will love the hearty chicken and mushroom filling
and that buttery puff pastry on top.
It's so delicious.
So if you need to impress somebody this fall,
this is the ticket. (giggles)
First we are going to roast our chicken.
I really like to roast the chicken
because I find that you get more succulent chicken
that doesn't dry out.
It also creates a situation
where you're passively cooking the chicken
while you can be actively cooking the sauce,
so I find it's a little bit quicker this way.
So I'm working with bone in, skin on chicken breasts.
I think that's the best cut of meat
to keep it nice and moist and delicious.
And this is gonna go in at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for just about 45 minutes
or until it's golden brown
and cooked through.
So while our chicken is in the oven,
we can prepare our puff pastry.
So I just have a sheet here of store-bought puff pastry.
So this brand actually comes folded
and because of that,
this is how I kind of came up
with just the decorative scoring,
which I'm gonna show you how to do in a second.
So I like to get a little flour on the board
just because we're gonna roll it out a little bit,
just so that it can completely cover
our cast iron skillet
that I am going to bake this in.
And I'm gonna be working with a 10 inch cast iron skillet.
Okay, so now the trick is just to score,
so about halfway through.
You don't wanna go all the way through,
because then you'll have too many open slits
and the sauce will actually ride up through the slits
(laughs) and make your pastry all damp
and bubble through the slits.
I actually learned that from experience.
So don't go all the way,
go about halfway,
and then you want to just trace the panel lines,
like this.
I like to do this because then you can use
three different patterns,
which I think adds to the beauty of the puff pastry
once it's baked.
So we're gonna go diagonally first,
about, I don't know, an inch or so apart.
And then you're just gonna do the opposite direction
on the other side.
It doesn't have to be totally perfect and match up.
I think the key is just to make
just some decorative slits.
I don't know, I think it makes it look really homey
and sort of cozy-like.
Then I'm gonna take my rolling pin,
and this is one of the reasons
why I like a French rolling pin
because it makes it really easy to drape pastry on
when you need to move it,
which is kind of hard when you have
rolling pins with the handles.
So we are just going to gently
pop this on here and transfer it
onto our baking sheet.
So I'm gonna place this in the fridge
until it comes time to pop it on top.
And the reason why I like to do it in advance
is you will notice by the time you've handled it,
you've rolled it out, and done all your scoring,
this pastry is pretty soft.
If we were to put this on top of our filling
and put it in the oven,
it would probably melt straight away
and wouldn't puff up.
So puff pastry does best when it's really, really cold.
In fact, I even like to put it in the freezer,
the whole pie in the freezer,
before it hits the oven
because I find you just get the better puff that way
and it doesn't melt on you
before it actually puffs up.
Okay, now for the filling.
So I've got my 10 inch cast iron skillet
heating up here,
to then I'm gonna add four slices of bacon
that I've just chopped into small pieces,
like bite-size pieces.
And I love using the bacon
because we are basically going to cook this bacon
until it gets nice and crispy.
And then it's gonna leave us this beautiful fat
that we are then going to cook the vegetables in.
It really does add a ton of flavor
and prevents the need from just adding more oil
and more butter.
And I really love the cast iron skillet for this recipe
because the even heat of cast iron
will get to some of the crispiest bacon.
It also adds a great color to our caramelized onions
and mushrooms.
You'll see how brown and delicious they get.
Then we're gonna spoon out our bacon
and allow it to drain on a plate lined with paper towel.
So now see all of this beautiful fat?
We are going to cook our onions in this.
So I have one and a quarter cups of sliced onions,
yellow onions, that I've cut into little half moons,
(oil sizzling)
and we are just going to pop them in here
and let them get all translucent,
caramelized and delicious.
(light upbeat music)
And honestly, the longer you let them cook
in the bacon fat,
the more delicious they're going to be
'cause they're gonna get really tender
and silky and sweet and caramelized.
They're just so good.
Then once they start to look like this
and they're getting nice and golden brown
and delicious looking,
then you can add the fresh thyme.
So I like to use at least two tablespoons
of freshly chopped thyme,
just because this is gonna also flavor
the rest of the pie.
(oil cracking) Now just be careful
because if you wet the thyme, like I have,
you hear all that crackling and snapping,
that's the water hitting the bacon fat.
So word to the wise,
make sure you dry off your thyme
which is something I didn't do
before I threw it in there,
so that's why you hear all that snap, crackle, and pop.
(giggling)
Okay, now that our onions are looking good,
we can go ahead and spoon them out.
Then we are gonna add our mushrooms.
So basically what we're doing at this stage
is just adding more and more flavor.
So, so much of cooking I think
is just really adding components on top of each other
so that you're building the flavor as you go along.
So by the time we're done with all of this sauteing,
we're gonna have the most flavorful delicious sauce.
So it is worth the effort.
So I've got eight ounces of white button mushrooms
that I've sliced.
Now, because bacon is pretty salty,
I'm actually not salting these vegetables,
which is typically not the way I like to do it.
I usually like to salt and pepper as I go.
But in this instance,
I like to wait till the end,
just to test for seasoning
because if you keep putting salt on each component,
by the time you get to the end,
you're gonna have a pretty salty filling, (chuckles)
so I like to wait.
And the trick with mushrooms in getting them browned,
which is gonna bring out their best flavor,
is just to sometimes let them sit.
So I know it's tempting to kind of get in there
and start stirring things around really quickly,
but then it's just gonna take longer for them
to actually brown.
So you can see the beautiful color that they get
by just letting them sit there and hang out a bit.
Then you can add your mushrooms to your bowl
with the onions.
Okay, now for our sauce.
So to do that, I'm gonna create a rue,
which is typically equal parts butter to flour,
but for this recipe,
I like to do three tablespoons butter
to two tablespoons of flour.
I think that gets kind of the best texture, to be honest.
So once your butter is nice and foamy,
then you can add in the flour.
And then whisk in the flour until you get a nice paste.
And then just cook it for about a minute or so.
And see, it's just soaking up all of that flavor
that the bacon and the vegetables added,
so you don't wanna wash your pan out
before you do this. (laughs)
We're gonna add two cups of chicken broth.
In it goes. (pan sizzles)
Then increase the heat to a medium high flame.
This is gonna help that broth thicken up a bit.
It'll also thicken once it's in the oven
with the puff pastry baking.
And then we're gonna add some seasoning.
So I like to do, I don't know,
two to five dashes of Worcestershire sauce.
There you go.
I mean, more than two to five,
but (laughs) I love the flavor of Worcestershire sauce.
And then we also wanna add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard,
and then also some freshly cracked pepper.
You could choose to add some heavy cream
if you wanted to.
I kind of like a nice brown sauce with this
because of the mushrooms,
but a little splash of heavy cream
isn't gonna hurt anybody.
(laughs)
I don't know, I find that sometimes
it can dilute the flavor too much,
so I just put a little dash.
There.
Then, we're gonna add in
all of our gorgeous vegetables.
So I've got my mushrooms and the onions,
and then I just shredded my chicken off the bone.
I like to leave it kind of nice and generous chunks,
so I wouldn't shred it too much.
I think it's best to leave it kind of hearty that way.
There, and then we are just going to stir all of this up
until we have our gorgeous looking, delicious filling.
As this simmers in the oven while the puff pastry bakes,
it's just gonna develop even more flavor
as all of these ingredients mingled together.
This is the time to taste.
(tapping ladle on skillet)
So let's see.
Do we need some salt?
Oh, it's delicious.
I would not touch it.
I would not add any salt
because if we got the salt from the bacon
and then you've got the salt from the Worcestershire sauce,
so that's kind of salty too.
So I would leave it just as is,
but you try it at home and you add salt
if you feel you need to.
Mmm.
That is so good.
Okay, now, oh wait!
We forgot our bacon.
Just a minute.
(laughs)
The star of the show,
we can't forget that.
So I have all my crispy bacon here
and that is going in.
There we go.
Now here comes a very important part.
You wanna let this cool for at least 15 minutes.
That will allow the filling to cool enough
so that when we put our puff pastry on top,
we're not gonna melt it right away.
It's best that it starts to get warm
once it's in the oven.
Okay, so this is nice and cool.
And in fact, because I was shooting
and I needed to hurry this up,
I popped this in the freezer,
but you could absolutely do the same thing, too.
Just pop it in there for like 10 minutes.
There, just gonna plop this right on top,
there like so.
Now, the other thing I like to do
is just turn under the corners there.
And if it's really chilled,
it might crack a little bit,
but that's okay.
You can just mold it back into shape.
You want to work quickly.
You don't want to dilly dally because remember
that filling, although it's cool,
it's still a little bit warm
and you don't want it to start melting on you.
Then we're going to brush it with a beaten egg
just quickly.
Here we go.
And the egg can help seal it to your pan,
just if you get the edges like that,
and then it'll also give it a beautiful golden shine
once it's baked.
All right, there we go.
We're gonna go in for 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 20, 25 minutes,
just until it's golden brown and popped up.
This looks so good.
(light upbeat music)
Oh, this is so good.
(laughs)
You're gonna love me or hate me for this one,
because this is not low calorie,
but let me tell you it is high on deliciousness.
I hope you guys give it a try
and let me know what you think.
I think it'll be a new winner at your house, for sure.
(laughs)
All right, you guys.
I'll see you back here next week
where we're gonna kick off
all of my Thanksgiving recipes.
I can't wait.
Until then, bye.