Qmee recipes – Christmas pie
As it’s almost Christmas we’ve chosen something very festive for our recipe this week – Christmas pie! Just combine a few key Christmas flavours to make a pie that both children and adults will adore.
Take a look at the ingredients you’ll need and the method you’ll need to follow.
Here’s what you’ll need…
2 tbsp olive oil
Knob of butter
1 onion, finely chopped
500g sausage meat or skinned sausages
Grated zest of 1 lemon
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
85g ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped
50g chestnut, canned or vacuum-packed, chopped
2 tsp chopped fresh or 1tsp dried thyme
100g cranberries, fresh or frozen
500g boneless, skinless chicken breasts
500g pack ready-made shortcrust pastry
Beaten egg, to glaze
Here’s what you’ll need to do…
- Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil and the butter in a frying pan, then add the onion and fry for 5 mins until softened.
- Cool slightly.
- Tip the sausage meat, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, apricots, chestnuts and thyme into a bowl. Add the onion and cranberries, and mix everything together with your hands, adding plenty of pepper and a little salt.
- Cut each chicken breast into three fillets lengthwise and season all over with salt and pepper.
- Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan, and fry the chicken fillets quickly until browned, about 6-8 mins.
- Roll out two-thirds of the pastry to line a 20-23cm springform or deep loose-based tart tin.
- Press in half the sausage mix and spread to level. Then add the chicken pieces in one layer and cover with the rest of the sausage. Press down lightly.
- Roll out the remaining pastry.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and cover with the pastry lid. Pinch the edges to seal, then trim.
- Brush the top of the pie with egg, then roll out the trimmings to make holly leaf shapes and berries.
- Decorate the pie and brush again with egg.
- Set the tin on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 mins, then cool in the tin for 15 mins.
- Remove and leave to cool completely.
- Serve with a winter salad and pickles.
And there you have it – the perfect Christmas Pie for the days that follow the 25th December. Happy Christmas to all of our Qmee users!
