Chicken Pastel

  

This has been one of the hardest recipes I have tried yet, all because I had to make a pie.

Making the filling was easy enough, but I had succumb to the temptation of straying from Rey's recipe and changed some parts of the recipe to my liking.  The recipe had no intention to thicken the sauce of of the filling so I decided to add some rue to thicken the sauce.  Also instead of using the recipe to make the pie crust, I used Alton Brown's pie crust which I've been wanting to try.  So in the end I kinda made a Filipino-style chicken pot pie.

The Filling (based on Reynaldo Alejandro's The Philippine Cookbook)

• 2-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts, cubed into bite size pieces.
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 1 cup margarine 4 Tbsp margarine
• 1/4 cup finely diced onions 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced in half 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 pepperoni, sliced into pieces
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp white wine
• 1 diced carrot
• 1 1/2 cup diced potatoes
• 1 14 oz can vienna sausage 10 oz vienna sausage
• 3/4 cup green olives
• 1/2 cup sweet peas
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• salt & pepper
• 1 beaten egg

Additional ingredients for rue:

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup warm milk

Directions:

I marinated the chicken in juice of one lemon and 3 Tbsp soy sauce for one hour.

Then I started with cooking the mushrooms first in the 4 Tbsp margerine.  When raw, the mushrooms were a little over 2 cups but when cooked their sizes reduced to a cup.  I set the cooked mushrooms aside for later.

 I browned the chicken, but then once cooked I cut the chicken to smaller pieces and set it aside for  later.

Then in a large pot I caramelized the onions before adding the mushrooms, vienna sausage, sweet peas, carrots and potatoes.

Once throughly mixed I added the chicken broth and I allowed the pot to simmer for an hour to cook the potatoes, carrots and soften the chicken.

This was when I realized that the sauce was not as thick as I'd like, so I added rue to thicken the stew.  Simmer for another 20 - 30 mins to allow the filling to thicken and turn off the heat and let it cool.  Meanwhile I made the crust.

                                      

Then after following Alton's recipe, I assembled the little pies.  Then placed it in the oven until the crust is cooked.

                                      

The recipe was good but because I'm not too familiar with making pies this was harder than I thought it would me.  Furthermore, the recipe just wanted me to top the pie pan with the crust but I wanted a whole pie (so I create problems for myself, hahah).