Chicken and Tarragon Pie

This is the ultimate chicken pie, not only does is taste delicious but the process yields up to 3 litres of stock! If you have tasted the chicken pie at Donovans Restaurant in Melbourne, this one tastes very similar.

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Chicken and Tarragon Pie

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Stock
1 large whole organic chicken
1 brown onion, halved
1 celery stalk (leaves included), roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
10 black peppercorns
1/2 bunch fresh tarragon
water to cover approx. 4 litres
Filling
1 tbs butter
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled, halved and diced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Reserved chunks of chicken meat from above stock, skin and bones removed
2 tbs fresh tarragon, chopped
1.5 cups hot chicken stock
1/3 cup full cream milk
salt and pepper to season
1 sheet Careme butter puff pastry (thawed)
1 egg, beaten to baste

DIRECTIONS

Place all of the stock ingredients into a pressure cooker, fill with water and cook at maximum pressure for 30 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, place all the ingredients into a large pot, cover with water and simmer for 3-4 hours.

Strain the stock and tear the chicken off in chunks, discarding the bones and skin.

Reserve 1.5 cups of stock and set aside. The remaining stock can be ladled into individual containers and frozen for later use.

Pre-heat oven to 190C

Heat the butter in a frypan and gently sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrot for 3 - 5 minutes or until starting to soften. Add the flour and stir for 1 minute. Add the chicken, tarragon, hot stock and milk and stir rapidly until the sauce starts to thicken. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Spoon the filling into a pie dish. Cut out a pastry lid to fit the dish and place on top.

Poke a knife twice on top to create air circulation and baste the pastry with beaten egg.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and serve.