Chicken & Mushroom Skillet Pie by Alison Roman
This recipe is taken from Alison Romans - Nothing Fancy - pages 200 - 201. There are quite a few steps to this recipe where I put extra time in and made from scratch. The chicken stock, pie crust, kale massaged with olive oil (reduces the bitterness). These aren't necessary, you can opt for store bought stock and pie crust. However, as always, made from scratch alternatives will elevate the flavor and experience.
Side Notes
Cost of non-staples: $35
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 kg bone in, skin-on chicken thighs
kosher salt
black pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
4 garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
2 leeks (thinly sliced)
450 g mushrooms (sliced or bite-sized pieces)
60 g unsalted butter
3 tbsp plain flour
750 ml chicken stock
250 ml heavy cream or crème fraiche
200 g kale (stalks removed)
1 tbsp dried tarragon or 3 tbsp fresh tarragon chopped
3 tbsp chopped chives
1 disc The Only Pie Crust (Alison Roman), or 1 sheet thawed flaky pastry
1 large egg, beaten
My Pantry Staples
kosher salt & black pepper
canola oil
garlic
butter
plain flour
dried tarragon
egg
pie crust dough
The Method
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken, side-side down, and cook until the skin is deeply golden and crisped (10-12 minutes). Flip the chicken and cook until brown, 8-10 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a large plate to rest, leaving the fat and golden bits behind for the rest of the pie filling.
Add the garlic and leek to the pan, season. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leek is tender (4 minutes). Add the mushrooms and season. Cook until the mushrooms and leek have started to brown (8-10 minutes).
Add the butter and allow to melt through the mixture. Add the flour and stir to coat everything. Cook without browning 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, stirring to scrape up any bits that have caramelized on the bottom. Bring to a simmer and season again. Add the cream.
Remove the stems from the kale and rinse. Drizzle with a little olive oil and massage the kale whilst also tearing into bite sized pieces for about 2-3 minutes.
Separate the chicken from the skin and bone, leaving these out of the pie. Add the chicken, kale, tarragon and chives to the pan and mix everything well.
Preheat the oven to 215C. Roll out the dough (made from scratch or store bought) until the dough is round and large enough that it will hand about 1-2 cm over the edge of your skillet. Place the dough over the skillet and filling.
Use a pastry brush to coat the top of the dough with the beaten egg. Using a sharp knife, make a few slits in the center of the dough to allow some steam to escape. Bake until pastry is deeply golden brown and the filling is bubbling up (45 minutes or less depending on performance of your oven). I used low fan setting and 200C and cooked for 30 minutes, based on the average performance of my smallish oven.
Allow to cool slightly before serving with a couple of slices of fresh bread to dip into the soupy pie mix. (See Nigella's No Knead Bread).
