South African Chicken Pie Recipe

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

1 chicken of around 1.5kg

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.