Recipe: Tom Kerridge’s Chicken, Bacon & Pistachio Pie

Tom Kerridge is an English chef and owner of the first gastropub to gain two Michelin stars, The Hand & Flower in Marlow. He is well known for balancing tastes and textures, and using familiar ingredients to create big, intense flavours. Over the bank holiday weekend, I thought it would be a nice idea to delve into his latest cookbook ‘Tom Kerridge’s Best Ever Dishes’ (2014) and try his Chicken, Bacon & Pistachio Pie. The recipe uses Chicken Mince, see my tips on where to get this from in step 2, and filo pastry (found in the freezer aisle!) to create a pie for 6 people. Best served with mash and greens. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil, for cooking
• 250g smoked or unsmoked bacon, sliced
• 400g minced chicken, leg meat only if at all possible
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 200g button mushrooms, sliced
• 500ml rich chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon brined green peppercorns, drained
• 100g shelled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped oregano
• 1 x 250g packet of filo pastry
• 150g butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Step 1

Warm a saucepan of vegetable oil over a medium heat, adding the bacon and cooking until it starts to brown.

Step 2

Next add the minced chicken and cook, stirring now and again, until it has turned golden brown. If you struggle to find minced chicken (of which, Tom recommends leg meat only) then I suggest you try turkey. I was able to find minced chicken in the Halal meat section of the Tesco in Brixton.

Step 3

Once the bacon and chicken is cooked through, drain the meat in a colander over a bowl, making sure you reserve the fat. Pour the fat back into the pan and put it back on the hob over a medium-low heat.

Step 4

Add the onion and garlic into the fat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft.

Step 5

Tip in the mushrooms and the cooked mince. Cover with chicken stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to simmer and cook until the sauce reduces and thickens. The recipe recommends 10-15 minutes but it took us longer, as it depends on the type of pan you use.

Step 6

Once the sauce has reduced, turn off the heat and stir in the green peppercorns and most of the chopped pistachios, saving some for the garnish later. Add the fresh oregano and season, before leaving to cool.

Step 7

Preheat the oven to 200°C / Gas Mark 6 and grease a 20cm diameter ovenproof dish. I chose to use a beautiful pie dish from Anthropologie which was the perfect size.

Step 8

When the pie mixture is almost cooled, you need to work the pastry casing. Take one sheet of filo pastry at a time and brush it with the melted butter. Sprinkle on some dried oregano and place a second piece of filo directly on top of the first. Brush that sheet of filo with butter and sprinkle with more dried oregano. Repeat the process until you have a decent amount of layers – working quickly so the filo doesn’t dry out.

Step 9

Press the layered filo into the greased pie dish, then spoon the chicken mixture into it, pushing it right up against the edges. Bring the edges of the filo up and over the filling.

Step 10

Repeat step 8 for the remaining sheets of filo pastry and then push it down on top of the filling. Brush the top with another layer of butter and sprinkle with the remaining pistachios. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the top is crisp and golden and the middle is hot.

You can pick up your own copy of Tom Kerridge’s Best Ever Dishes from Amazon here.

P.S. For any friends and family reading this, yep I made a pie with mushrooms in. Don’t worry, I chopped them up very small and they definitely aren’t my favourite vegetable yet but it’s all part of my plan to try and like everything. Next on the list, tin tuna… blergh!