Chicken & Mushroom Pie

• 2 large        Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut roughly into 1cm cubes)
• 1 medium   Onion
• 2 cloves      Garlic
• 1 tblsp        Butter
• 1 tblsp        Chicken Seasoning
• 100g           Button Mushrooms (or any other mushrooms if unavailable) Cut into quarters.
• 150g           Full Fat Cream Cheese
•                    Salt & Pepper to taste 

• Preheat your oven to 170*C
• Sauteé the onion and garlic in the butter until it is softened slightly.  Stir in the chicken and cook until it is no longer translucent on the outside.  Add the chicken seasoning and mix well.
• Add the mushrooms and mix well.  Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 20 mins. Do not add any liquid and boil off any excess liquid once the chicken is tender and fully cooked. 
• Stir in the cream cheese to create a thick, creamy sauce as it melts.  If it is too runny, then you’ll have to boil it for longer and if it is too thick, then you can add a little more to get the right consistency of a creamy pie sauce.
• Set aside and leave to cool whilst you make the pastry.

• Melt the cheese and butter on a low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan, stirring continuously to combine the melted butter with the melting cheese.  It should resemble a runny cheese sauce. Set aside and allow to cool for 3 minutes.
• Mix the pastry dry ingredients together well
• Whisk the egg well with a fork
• Quickly add the dry ingredients and the egg into the cheese mix and rapidly beat with a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients.  This will take a minute or two until it resembles a soft, warm dough-like substance.
• This pastry is too soft and sticky to be rolled, so divide the mixture evenly into 4 pieces, one for each pie.  Set aside 1/4 of each of those four pieces for the tops of the pies.
• Gently roll the small pieces of dough in your hands to create a ball and then shape them into a flat round for the top of the pies.
• Place the larger piece, one each, into four of the holes in a deep muffin tin pans.  Press the dough evenly up the sides and over the bottom of each muffin tin to create the bottom and sides of your pies.
• Once this is completed, divide the chicken mixture between the four pies, filling them compactly and fully.
• Gently lift the lids and place them on the top of the pies, pressing the edges gently together.  Don’t worry if the pastry breaks, it is easily just pushed together again and it melts together further whilst baking.
• Put two little slits in the top of the pie lids to allow steam to escape and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.  If the pies look to be getting too brown after say 15-20 minutes, just put some tin-foil over the top to protect them.
• When cooked, leave them in the pan to rest for a couple of minutes before trying to get then out of the pan, or they might just fall apart because whilst very hot, they are quite delicate.
• I usually run a knife carefully around the edge of the pies to loosen them and then place a baking tray on the top of the pies and carefully turn it upside down to release the pies onto the tray.  From there I use a fish slice to lift them onto hot plates for serving.

If you have got the creamy sauce mix right, you should have no need for gravy.  Enjoy!