NIGERIAN CHICKEN PIE - IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED

Disclaimer: this is quite a long post with lots of pictures but its so worth it!

Happy new year guys, hope you all had a great Christmas, I did but I'm glad to be back with this chicken pie recipe

I have always preferred chicken pie to meat pie; don’t get me wrong I love them both but I just love the chicken pie more. My favourite one when I was growing up was from Mr Biggs (yum yum).Obviously since I moved to the UK I have not been able to get my beloved chicken pie and so the hunt for home-made chicken pie ensued.

I found a few recipes and settled on one I thought sounded nice. WHAT A DISASTER!!!!!! Although the filling was ok, the dough was so hard I swear it could have caused a concussion if thrown at your head. I’m sure this was more to do with me than the recipe but I was so disheartened I vowed to stay away from pastries for life (ok a tad dramatic but I was upset).

However I was in charge of finger food recently for a party, I went through so many ideas but the damned chicken pies wouldn’t leave me alone so I gave in. As I knew I could develop my own filling recipe, I focused my search on the dough and finally found this recipe with step by step pictures! I was ecstatic, at least with pictures I could ensure everything was looking as it should.

With some tweaking and testing, I arrived at the recipe below and I have to say they are amazing. Everywhere I take them people always as k for the recipe so here I am sharing it with you all!!! Make this for your next party or for that friend that knows all your secrets, trust me it’s worth it. 

NIGERIAN CHICKEN PIE -

Ingredients

For the dough - recipe adapted from avartsy cooking

770g of plain flour

500g of margarine

½ (125ml) cup of cold water

1 beaten egg (for the egg wash)

Directions
Place the flour in a bowl; using a spoon drop scoops of the margarine into the flour.

Work the margarine into the dough using your fingertips until it starts to look like breadcrumbs.

don't you love my magical colour changing bowl? hehe

Add the water in small additions working it into the flour mixture after each addition; add just enough water to form a dough. The amount of water you use will be dependent on the humidity in your area so you might be need a little less or a little more so be careful as you do not want to add too much.

Keep kneading until the dough is smooth ensuring your hands don’t get too warm. If they do hold a bag of frozen peas or something cool for a few seconds and continue to knead

Once the dough is smooth cover with a clean napkin and put in the fridge to rest for a minimum of 30 minutes (I have left my dough to rest for over 5 hours before and it was perfectly fine, also this dough freezes beautifully so if you have any leftover scraps, wrap tightly in cling film and pop it in the freezer till you need it next.

For the filling
1 kg of chicken thighs - you can use any part of the chicken you like, I just like the thighs the most
1/2 tsp knorr aromat
1 tsp curry powder
2 knorr cubes
1 tsp garlic granules (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp onion granules
1/2 tsp of salt
1 scotch bonnet chilli - it only adds flavour and not heat so even if you don't like spicy food this wont be too spicy I promise
1 large sweet potato
1 large white potato

Directions
Place chicken in a pot, add the seasoning, the chilli and pour enough water to just cover the chicken.Boil the chicken until it is completely cooked through.

Take off the heat and transfer the chicken pieces onto a large plate and shred using 2 forks discarding any skin and bones. 

Mash the scotch bonnet into the stock and return the to the heat and boil until the stock has reduced down to about a quarter cup, leave to cool and skim off any fat that rises to the top.Peel, wash and boil your potatoes until very soft.When the potatoes are cooked, mash them and stir in the shredded chicken. 

Stir in the stock one tbsp at a time until you get the desired wetness for your filling; allow to cool completely. 

Assembly

Preheat your oven to 190C. Firstly divide your dough into equal portions. I weighed mine to ensure they were all the same size; each portion weighed 73g.

Roll the dough into a circle wide enough to cover the folder, mine was about 5 inches with a thickness of about 1/8in (I used Wilton spacers to ensure even thickness). Place a heaped teaspoon of the filling into the middle. Moisten the edges of the dough with a little water and close the folder and pinch off the excess dough. Open to reveal your pretty chicken pie ta-da!; repeat until all the dough and filling is used up

Without meat pie folder: Roll out your dough and cut out circles of about 5 inches diameter, place a heaping teaspoon of filling in the centre, moisten the edges with a little water. Fold over and press the Press the edges together to seal and crimp the edges with a fork

Line a baking tray with baking paper or foil paper and dust with flour to prevent them sticking. Arrange your pies on the baking tray and using a pastry brush, brush on the egg wash. 

Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.

ta-dah!