Coq au Vin, Chicken Mushroom Pies includes Pie Bottoms and Puff Pastry Lids.

You won’t resist these Pies! They are Drop Dead – Deliriously Delicious! Eat your heart out or sail on by!

Makes: 14 Pies Each Pie Serving: 828 calories

Notes:

⦁ Pre-grill your chicken thighs with a pan beneath to catch all those lovely juices and fats! ⦁ Any leftover chicken stock, fat or juices may be used for bangers and mash which makes delicious gravy that is GMO-free – Never toss this gold out! Catch all you can, to save for other dishes. Store in a sealed container, refrigerated.

⦁ Don’t forget to include your lovely natural chicken stock juices. I had some extra in my pan which I previously collected from grilling chicken thighs.

⦁ If you’d like to change your ingredient quantities, just copy-paste below ingredients as entered and alter them on calorie count.com by clicking tools, recipe analyzer and entering your copy-pasted ingredients, altering them and then clicking the recipe analyzer button beneath the ingredient, entry window.

⦁ Leeks may be replaced with 2 large onions

⦁ You may replace chicken fat with half oil to butter

⦁ You may add a little water/whey/milk/cream if you wish and allow to slow simmer for another 30 – 35 minutes or until you can taste the wine is well cooked in and the flavors have melded together.

⦁ If you like a stronger garlic flavor you may add your crushed garlic 5 minutes before switching off the heat.

⦁ Chicken keeps its form and shape better if grilled rather than pan browned or fried which tends to give it a bland look and turns it stringy.

⦁ My total weight of 8 chicken thighs was 1.666 kg – Included in above calorie count.

⦁ I used streaky bacon bits. Streaky bacon dices better from frozen.

⦁ Parsley may be replaced or combined together with finely chopped green onions.

Coq au Vin Chicken Mushroom Pie Filling

Total Recipe Weight (filling): 2976 g Total Calories (filling): 5, 331

Ingredients:

8 chicken thighs (with skin and bone)

4 garlic cloves, crushed or to taste

60 g Chicken fat

125 g bacon

3 leeks, finely chopped

250 g mushrooms, whole or sliced

500 ml wine, dry white (Riesling) of your choice

50 g (25 ml) Cake flour or All-purpose

250 ml cream or to taste

Salt to taste

5 ml black pepper, freshly ground to taste

6 sprigs parsley

Method:

Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt and cayenne pepper. Grill chicken with the skin side facing down, on a rack with a pan, placed beneath it to catch the juices. Turn over when done and grill skin side up until done or golden brown and crispy. Set aside to cool. Bash garlic together with some salt into a paste and set aside. Add reserved chicken fat to wok or large saute pan, followed by chopped leeks and bacon – Saute until tender or until the bacon has rendered its fat. Add garlic and mushrooms. Saute 5 minutes. In a small teacup placed on the scale, weigh-in flour. Gradually add 30 ml wine and stir to a smooth paste gradually adding more wine to create a smooth batter until teacup is full. Add teacup contents to the pan whilst stirring briskly. Gradually add the balance whilst continuously stirring – together with the cream until sauce is cooked and thickened. Remove and discard bones from chicken. Dice up the meat and add to the sauce. Bring to boil. Lower heat and cover. Allow simmering 25-35 minutes on very low or until casserole is cooked to your liking. Add finely chopped parsley and or green onions. Season to taste. Turn off heat and allow to go cold.

Puff Pastry Lids or Toppings

Total Weight of Pastry: 779 g Total Calories of Pastry: 3,082

Makes: 15 – 16 standard pie tops for individual pie foil containers – The one’s your meat pies come in. – Click here to see the video and follow the method below.

Note:

If you don’t have lemon juice, you may replace with vinegar, but freshly squeezed lemon juice is always best.

Ingredients:

250 g cake flour or all-purpose flour

3.75 ml cream of tartar (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

40 g (63 ml) cornflour

250 g butter, diced into small cubes

5 ml of lemon juice

168 g (168 ml) water, ice-cold

62.5 g (125 ml) Flour for dusting

NOTE:

Keep pastry chilled at all times and if you don’t have pie pastry cutters to cut out your pie bottoms and tops – use suitable circles like a wide-mouthed drinking glass, soup mug or similar utensil. – Pie cutters are by far the best for this job as they cut out the perfect sized circles. – If your pie cutter is slightly smaller than the larger circle I’ve used, then roll it out slightly thicker and reroll it a bit more after cutting so that you get a good fit. – I use the larger circle side of my cutter for both pie bottoms and tops and I place bottoms in foil pie containers, ungreased and press it out with a hand-held pastry press – working it up the sides to tops and re-chill before adding my cold meat filling – followed by positioning tops/pie lids over and pressing them into position. Don’t forget to make a little slit in center of pies with a steak knife so that your steam may escape.

Method:

1. Pulse first four dry ingredients together in a food processor to blend.

2. Add chilled butter a few at a time and pulse.

3. Pulse until just finely crumbled and no more. Do not over process.

4. Add lemon juice to iced water.

5. Open processor and add liquid evenly. Close and pulse until the dough just about comes together.

6. Turn dough out onto the floured countertop. Sprinkle top with flour and using your fingers – work quickly, forming dough into a square or rectangular shape. Do NOT use hands or palms as they are too warm for the dough. Bring the dough together and wrap in plastic or cling wrap. Refrigerate to allow the dough to rest for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

7. Remove dough and place on a floured countertop. Sprinkle with flour and pound with a rolling-pin just to soften it up enough to roll. Depending upon your own countertop or workspace surface – Roll into a 4 – 5 mm thick square or rectangle.

⦁ Roll and fold 6 times see the video

⦁ Roll out 4 – 5 mm in thickness after each turn (1 turn = 4 layers)

A. Fold both opposite sides or rectangular ends together to meet up or form a seam in the center so that it looks like an opened book with 2 layers and then fold these two layers together again like you are closing a book – creating 4 layers and brushing off excess flour as you do so – Roll out 4 – 5 mm in thickness – Repeat by making a 2nd turn and then wrap dough after each 2nd turn in plastic or cling wrap to chill for at least 30 minutes – There must be no risk of butter melting.

B. Repeat by making another 3 and 4 turns. Wrap dough each time in plastic or cling wrap to chill for 30 minutes.

C. Remove pastry from plastic wrap and make your 5th, 6th, and final 7th turn – Keeping pastry chilled – cut out 14 pie lids. Place between the plastic film and refrigerate.

⦁ Note:

If you are faster at making your turns you may do 3 turns and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and then complete your final 3 turns. Rolling out to to a thickness of 4 – 5 mm each time.

⦁ If you want to cut chilling time after each turn – wrap the pastry in plastic cling wrap to chill in freezer for 20 minutes.

When the pastry is ready – Cut out lids – place between plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to place lids on pies.

Shortcrust Pastry for Pie Bottoms or Shells

Total Weight of Pastry: 757 g Total Calories of Pastry: 3,183

Refrigerate pie shells to chill until filling is cold and ready to go in.

Makes: 14 – 15 pie shells for individual standard – meat pie foil containers.
This is the most economical way of making pies – using a formula of 3:2:1 translated to 300 g flour to 200 g butter and 100 g or ml of ice-cold water. Puff pastry will not rise or puff up on the bottom and sides of pies. You will also lower your calories and costs.
Notes:
If you want to economize or have extra saved chicken fat or schmaltz to put to good use – The formula is 3 parts chicken schmaltz/fat to 7 parts butter or lard with an equal hardness to that of butter. If you are using an even harder or solid baking fat, which contains no water – like Wolsum in South Africa or Crisco in America or Trex in the U.K. – The formula then becomes 4 parts chicken fat / schmaltz to 6 parts Wholsum / Crisco / Trex. – See below examples.
If you are using: Trex, Wholsum or Crisco – To economize – you may substitute 40 % of Trex with chicken fat (Schmaltz) reserved from grilling chicken thighs – Example: 102 g schmaltz + 150 g Trex, Crisco or Wholsum = 252 g.
If you are using: butter – You may substitute part of it with 30 percent Schmaltz – Example: 76 g schmaltz + 176 g butter = 252 g butter.
You may also experiment - replacing schmaltz with a vegetable oil like sunflower or canola if you wish.

Ingredients:
378 g cake flour or all-purpose flour
2 pinches salt, to taste
252 g butter or hard vegetable fat
126 g (126 ml) water

Method:

Food Processor Method: Add the first two ingredients to a food processor and pulse to blend. Dice butter or hard vegetable fat into small cubes and gradually add in portions to flour mixture in food processor and pulse until finely crumbled. Open up the processor and add in the water. Pulse until dough comes together. Empty pastry onto floured countertop and bring together into a ball. Press into a square or rectangular shape and chill at least 30 minutes or at best overnight to allow gluten in pastry to relax and absorb the moisture.

Hand Method: Sift flour together with salt into a large bowl, add butter and rub in with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add ice-cold water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a lightly floured countertop. Wrap in cling film and chill while you get on with the filling. Roll pastry out 4 – 5 mm in thickness Do Not prebake your pie crusts – The meat filling MUST go in cold and the oven temperature must be ready when pies go in. Allow pastry to come close to room temperature but still remaining cold to the touch before baking. Bake pies in preheated oven at 220 C or 430 F for about 25 – 35 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Watch carefully and if it looks like it’s going to burn lower temperature as you go along if necessary. Baked in this way you will always get the most “puff” out of your puff pastry. – Serve and enjoy! – Delish!

Coq au Vin, Chicken Mushroom Pies includes Pie Bottoms and Puff Pastry Lids.