>>Recipe - Cake-tin Chicken Pie

Yesterday was a public holiday, and I thought I could treat my husband with one of his favourite dishes: home made chicken pie. Last week I watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate cookery course (100 recipes to stake your life on), and he used phyllo pastry to sort of wrap up a pie, in a cake-tin. It looked so pretty, and I wanted to try it with one of my own chicken pie fillings.

And wow, I think it turned out to be the best chicken pie I have ever baked! The pastry is made by using layers of buttered phyllo pastry lined in a buttered cake tin. I then filled the pie with the filling, put an extra 4 layers of pastry on top, and then I simply folded it all into the centre. This pie is a thing of beauty when it comes out of the oven, and it doesn't even run all over the place when you cut it. My only mistake might have been to over-brown the top, by not putting foil over the top in time...oops.

I start by roasting a chicken with lemon and herbs (I love the tangy zestiness that the lemon later gives to the stock), and then I made a stock from the bones and used it to make the sauce. It is all round amazing flavour.

I just really love the pastry, so try it yourself with a different filling or just use my recipe.

Ingredients for roasting the chicken

1 whole chicken
A little olive oil
Ina Paarman chicken spice
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
Half a lemon
1 onion cut into quarters
1 cup of water

Lightly oil the chicken and season with the Ina Paarman spice both outside and inside the chicken. Put the lemon, cloves and bay leaf on the inside of the chicken. Place the chicken in an oven dish, spread the onion around it and pour the water in the bottom of the dish. Bake the chicken for +/- 1 hour at 180 degrees, or until perfectly done.

Now, debone the chicken, placing the meat in one dish, and all the skin, bones, onions, left-over spice and lemon in a deepish pot. Add 3 cups of water to the bones and bring to the boil. Simmer thereafter for 20-30 minute, or until the flavour has developed. Strain the stock and set aside for the sauce.You will need 500ml stock, so if you don't have enough just add milk until you have the amount you need.

Ingredients for the filling

500 g mushrooms
A hand-full of fresh chopped parsley
60 g butter (be generous)
40 g flour (be stingy)
1 pack of Ina Paarman mushroom sauce
5ml english mustard powder, soaked in 30 ml water to develop the flavour
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the mushrooms and parsley and mix them in with the chicken meat. Melt the butter and add the flour. Now, add the stock in small amounts as if you are making a white sauce. Add the Ina Paarman sauce and mustard, and mix well.

Combine the sauce with the chicken and mushroom mixture and season to taste.

Now for the pastry

Butter a cake-tin. Lightly brush about 12 sheets of phyllo pastry with butter and layer inside the cake tin so the pastry makes flaps around the tin. Fill the cake-tin with the chicken filling, layer 4 more sheets of buttered pastry on top, and then fold all the flaps to the inside. Lightly butter the top of the pie, and bake in a prepared oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cover the top of the pie with foil (so it doesn't over-brown), and then bake for another 10 minutes or until filling is completely heated through.

Remove from the oven and let the pie cool for at least 5 minutes before removing the cake-tin.