Leftovers Glorified — Curried Chicken Pie

Every time I make a batch of curative chicken stock, I end up with a pile of practically inedible chicken meat.  The main objective of stock making is the beautiful broth, so everything that goes into the pot becomes merely a source of the minerals and flavor.  Sadly, at the end of the process all those rich stock ingredients turn into mushy, bland, unappetizing looking things, which I typically try to get rid of as soon as possible  — out of sight, out of mind.

This time was no different. I threw away mushy vegetables, used breast meat in an improvised chicken pot pie with young lima beans, and picked over all of the remaining dark meat in a hope to make chicken salad eventually.

As it often happens in my household, I plan for one thing, but end up doing something quite different.  We’ve been hit by bad weather, and it has become really unpleasantly cold and mind-blowingly windy in the last couple of days. Cold weather is the best game-changer when it comes to meal planning — all of a sudden I find myself thinking of creamy soups and savory pies that go so well together.  So for today’s dinner we enjoyed a cup of creamy asparagus soup and a Curried Chicken Pie, which is a spin on an earlier post, crust replaced with a sheet of puff pastry, which I happened to find in the freezer.

So there you have it — cold weather + old recipes + bland leftovers = happy family.

If you don’t happen to have curry spice mix in your pantry, I suggest you acquire some immediately; it can be a real life saver for bland leftovers, such as picked over boiled chicken or all that extra turkey you end up with after Thanksgiving.

Curried Chicken Pie

• about 4 cups of boiled chicken meat, bones removed
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 generous tbsp yoghurt or an equivalent mix of milk and sour cream
• 1/2 tsp Garam Masala (Indian spice mix)
• 1/2 tsp curry spice mix
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• a small handful of chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, cilantro or dill
• 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed according to the instructions

Thaw the puff pastry, as indicated on a box.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet.

Mince onions, garlic and chicken meat in a food processor.

Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. The resulting farce should be feathery soft. If you feel it’s too dry, add a bit more yogurt.

Roll the pastry out into a 15″ round on a floured surface.  Since the pastry is rectangular coming out of the box, you can roll it into a 15″ square, and remove the corners with the scissors later.

Place the pastry onto the parchment. Fold the farce onto the center of the pastry and spread to about half of the diameter of the dough. Level the farce.

Fold and pinch pleat the dough around the farce as shown on the photo.

Bake on the middle rack for about 45 minutes, or until the crust is browned nicely. Remove from the oven and let set for about 3-4 minutes.  Slice like pizza, into 6 segments, and serve.