Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Stay cozy during these chilly months with this ultra creamy chicken and mushroom pie with puff pastry crust! Filled with a savory and decadent cream sauce, smoky bacon and fresh herbs, every bite of this meat pie is comfort food at its finest.

Why You Need to Make This Recipe

Chicken and mushroom pie is popular British comfort food and — oh, my! Speaking from experience, this is one hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal you’ll want to make over and over again. Whenever chilly weather hits, I love to treat my friends and family to this chicken meat pie, and it always meets rave reviews and makes for happy bellies.

Similar to a chicken pot pie, this divine dish is loaded with a decadent, silky herbed cream sauce and hearty, flavorful add-ins. The puff pastry gives this savory pie a perfectly flaky, crisp crust for an unforgettable finishing touch. Sounds like a crowd pleaser, huh?

Plus, we serve this chicken-mushroom pie family style from a casserole dish. Not only does a good family-style meal make for a cozy, interactive meal that brings people together but it’s also great for easy entertaining with little fuss.

Ingredients

Let’s gather our ingredients for this easy chicken and mushroom pie.

• Chicken thighs: We use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for easy prep.
• Baby bella mushrooms: These mushrooms have a more intense flavor than white button mushrooms, so I prefer them here.
• Bacon: Because bacon makes everything better.
• Roux: To thicken our sauce, we make a roux from butter and flour.
• Garlic: For the perfect savory flavor.
• Heavy cream: This gives our sauce the most decadent touch.
• Chicken stock: I love the richness and depth of flavor this adds.
• Nutmeg: This adds a lovely nutty undertone to cream-based sauces.
• Cheese: We use a mixture of cheddar and Parmesan.
• Worcestershire sauce: I love the tangy zip this adds.
• Fresh herbs: This trio includes thyme, rosemary and sage.
• Puff pastry: For the ultimate flaky bite.
• Egg yolk: With a simple brushing, this helps give our puff pastry the perfect brown crust.
• Cooking tools: We need a skillet, slotted spoon, whisk, rolling pin, pastry brush and a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Now let’s start cooking. To make this chicken and mushroom pie, we start by cooking chopped bacon in a large skillet until it’s nice and brown.

After browning the bacon, we remove the bacon and add our chicken thighs. Like the last step, we cook until browned.

Now we remove the chicken and cook our mushrooms until browned. Lots of browning here. The bacon and chicken will leave some fat behind, but if the pan gets too dry, feel free to add a pat or two of butter.

At this point, we’re ready to make our roux. We do this by adding more butter to the skillet and then whisking in flour. After cooking for a few minutes, we add garlic and then slowly pour in our chicken stock and heavy cream and whisk until smooth. Now we add our chicken, bacon and mushrooms back to the skillet and bring to a simmer to thicken the creamy chicken and mushroom pie filling.

Once we reach a simmer, we stir in our herbs and seasonings along with the cheddar and Parmesan. We give the cheese a chance to melt and then pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Before popping the chicken pie into the oven, we lay puff pastry on top and fold the edges so that it lines up with the interior of the baking dish. Now we brush the puff pastry with the egg and bake until its browned to our liking and bubbling around the edges.

Can You Make Ahead of Time?

Sure, that’s not a problem. Here are the make-ahead directions I’d follow.

We make the creamy chicken and mushroom pie filling as we would, but instead of putting the puff pastry top, we pour it into our baking dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap or store in an airtight container. When it gets close to dinner time, we pull the filling out of the refrigerator and let it sit in room temperature for an hour, we add the puff pastry and bake. How’s that for easy entertaining?

Expert Tips and FAQs

• I recommend using chicken thighs because of their richer flavor, but you can certainly substitute white meat if you prefer.
• For the Parmesan, we need to freshly grate the cheese. The canned Parmesan does not melt and will leave us with a grainy texture.
• I also recommend grating the cheddar instead of buying shredded cheddar. The shredded cheddar in a bag comes with a coating to prevent sticking, so freshly grated cheddar melts nicer.
• As the sauce simmers, you’ll want to use a rolling pin to make the puff pastry fit the baking dish. Puff pastry sheets generally aren’t large enough to cover a 9-inch-by-13-inch casserole dish, but that’s nothing a little rolling can’t fix.
• While I love the flavor fresh herbs add, you can substitute dried herbs. Because dried herbs are more concentrated, we don’t need to use as much. Instead, you can use 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon dried sage and 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary.
• For a pretty presentation, I like to lightly score the puff pastry before placing on the baking dish.

Perfect Pairing

You’ll love a British brown ale with this comforting meal. With the brown ale’s earthy hops and nutty, toasted notes from the malt, it matches nicely with the herbs, mushrooms and chicken while its medium body holds up to the cream sauce.

A pinot noir is the perfect wine pairing with chicken and mushroom pie. The wine’s earthy notes match well with the herbs and savory mushrooms, and we get a nice acidic kick to give our palate a break from the rich cream and puff pastry.

When only a cozy British pub comfort food will do, I hope you try this chicken-mushroom pie with puff pastry. Please let me know how you enjoyed this recipe in the comment section and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. You can also catch me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers!

Looking for More Comfort Food Recipes?

• Braised red wine short ribs
• The best coq au vin
• Maple-braised turkey legs and thighs
• Beer-brined pork schnitzel

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