To make a Chicken-Pie is a traditional Stuart recipe for a classic of quartered chicken baked in a cream-based pastry crust with lettuce, butter and spices that's finished with a wine, butter and egg yolk sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Stuart version of: To make a Chicken-Pie.
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Original Recipe
To make a Chicken-Pie (from Hannah Woolley's Queen-like Closet 1670)
18. To make a Chicken-Pie.
Make your Paste with cold Cream, Flower, Butter and the yolk of an Egg, roul it very thin, and lay it in your Baking-pan, then lay Butter in the Bottom.
Then lay in your Chickens cut in quarters with some whole Mace, and Nutmeg sliced, with some Marrow, hard Lettuce, Eryngo Root, and Citron Pill, with a few Dates stoned and sliced: Then lay good store of Butter, Close up your Pie and Bake it:
Then Cut it open, and put in some Wine, Butter, and Sugar with the Yolks of two or three Eggs well beaten together over the fire, till it be thick, so serve it to the Table, and garnish your Dish with some pretty Conceits made in Paste.
Modern Redaction
The Eryngo root referred to in this recipe is the root of Eryngium campestre, the sea holly, which has a spicy taste and which has been used medicinally for generations. It has also been candied and served as a sweetmeat from Elizabethan times. I would not gather from the wild, as it is endangered. But it is produced commercially in North Africa. If you can buy it, use the powder, otherwise substitute a mix of ground cloves and fresh ginger.
Ingredients:
For the Pastry:
500g plain flour
200g butter
1 egg yolk
100ml double cream
3 tbsp (about) iced water
For the Pie:
1 oven-ready chicken, quartered
100g butter, diced
1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
50g diced marrow or shredded suet
2 crisp lettuces, shredded
2 tsp dried eryngo (sea holly) root
4 tbsp finely-grated citron or lemon zest
100g dates, pitted and sliced
For the Custard:
200ml white wine
100g butter
3 egg yolks
Method:
Begin with the pastry. Sift the flour into a bowl. Dice the butter, add to the flour and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Lightly beat the egg yolk and cream and add to the dough mix. Stir together to bind then slowly add the remaining water, initially mixing with a palette knife an then with your hand (adding just enough enough to bring the mixture together) into a solid mass.
The dough should be stiff and dry and it is much easier to roll out if you wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before rolling. When ready to use roll out on a lightly-floured surface to the size of your dish. Take 2/3 of the dough and roll out on a floured work surface until large enough to line the base and sides of a baking tin that's large enough and deep enough to comfortably hold the chicken pieces.
Scatter half the diced butter over the pastry then arrange the chicken pieces on top. Dot with the remaining butter and season with the nutmeg and eryngo root. Scatter over he diced marrow (or suet), shredded lettuce, citron or lemon zest and dates. Roll out the remaining pastry and use to cover the pie. Crimp the edges of the pastry together and trim off the excess. Make a few slashes in the top to allow the steam to escape then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 160°C and bake for about 80 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the chicken pieces are cooked through.
Take the left-over pastry and form these into fanciful shapes. About 30 minutes before the pie is done, place these in the oven to bake.
When the chicken pie is almost done, prepare the custard. Combine the wine and butter in a pan and heat until the butter has melted. Take off the heat and beat in the egg yolks. Place back on the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens.
Take the pie out of the oven. Cut a hole in the top and pour in the custard. Replace the pastry in the hold and decorate with the shaped pastry pieces. Serve immediately.
