South African Chicken Pie Recipe
I have always enjoyed my ex’s moms home made Chicken Pie which the Klutz sadly does not have the recipe of, not a good ending to that relationship sadly, nuff said. I tasked the Klutz with searching for the best Chicken Pie recipe ever, he came through with this lekkerlicious recipe traditional South African Chicken Pie from the Cook and Enjoy It cookbook by S. J. A. de Villiers. It’s another one of those tasty home cooked comfort food dishe.
Mrs de Villiers was the doyen of South African cookbook authors in her heyday. Her Afrikaans cookbook “Kook en Geniet” celebrates 63 years of happy cooks
The English version “Cook and Enjoy It” was given life in 1961 and both are still in print today after a number of revisions, it is a remarkable achievement testifying to the quality of this great book which is heartily recommend.
The Chicken Pie recipe is given below, which comes from the 2002 reprint of the 1992’s seventh revised edition and is basically a word for word translation of that given in the 1951 Kook en Geniet original edition, so it definitely qualifies as a traditional chicken pie recipe so lets get cooking, kook, eet en geniet.
Chicken Pie Ingredients
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion
500ml hot water
125ml white wine
8 peppercorns
1ml ground mace
5 allspice berries
15ml sago
30ml vermicelli
30ml butter
1 egg yolk
Juice of 1 lemon
4 slices ham
2 hard-boiled eggs
Puff pastry
15ml milk
Method
Wash, singe and cut the bird into pieces
Sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper and place in heavy saucepan
Chop the onion finely and add it, the hot water and white wine to the saucepan
Tie the spices in cheesecloth and add to the pan
Simmer the chicken gently until tender and the meat falls off the bones
Add the sago, vermicelli and 15ml butter stirring carefully to ensure the sago and vermicelli do not burn
Remove the bag containing the spices as well as all the large chicken bones
Preheat the oven to 230c
Beat the egg yolk, set 5ml aside and mix the rest with the lemon juice
Add the egg/lemon mixture to the chicken and stir slowly until thick and creamy then remove from the heat
Place the chicken in a pie dish with pieces of ham and sliced hard-boiled egg in-between and dot the meat with the remaining butter
Place a heatproof eggcup in the centre of the pie dish to prevent the pastry from sagging
Cover the chicken [and egg cup] with the puff pastry and garnish with strips of the pastry. Brush the top of the chicken pie with the reserved egg yolk and milk
Make a few slits in the pastry to let steam escape and then bake for 30 minutes
This traditional South African Chicken Pie can be served with chicken gravy or sour pie sauce with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
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