Delia Smith Cold Chicken Pie Recipe

Five layers fill Delia Smith’s cold chicken pie, three of herby pork sausagemeat and two of diced chicken seasoned with mace, all under a domed lard and butter crust. It serves 8, and she meant it to be the star of a picnic or any meal eaten outside.

The recipe sits in the poultry chapter of her Complete Cookery Course (1992). Cream goes into the sausagemeat until it’s as soft as a cake mixture, her own comparison, which makes it easy to smooth into even layers with a spoon, to my mind.

It’s a long, slow bake. Half an hour at 200°C gets the pastry going, then another 1¼ hours at 180°C cooks the deep filling right through, so I’d make it well ahead.

Delia Smith’s Cold Chicken Pie

Recipe by Anne Morgan

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

40

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

45

minutes

Calories

480

kcal

A domed shortcrust pie layered with chicken and lemony, herb-flecked pork sausagemeat, baked slowly and served cold in wedges.

Ingredients

• For the pastry:

• 50g (2oz) lard, at room temperature

• 50g (2oz) butter, at room temperature

• 225g (8oz) plain flour, sifted

• cold water, to mix

• beaten egg, to glaze

• For the filling:

• 2 or 3 skinned chicken breasts, about 700g (1½lb) in all

• 1 teaspoon ground mace

• 450g (1lb) pork sausagemeat

• 6 spring onions, finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, or ½ teaspoon dried

• 1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves, or ½ tablespoon dried sage

• grated rind and juice of ½ lemon

• 2 tablespoons double cream

• salt and freshly milled black pepper

prime30 days freeMissing an ingredient?✓ Free fast delivery   ✓ Cancel anytimeTry Prime freeUnderlined ingredients link to Amazon UK. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Directions

• Heat: Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 6, and have ready a 20cm (8in) round pie tin with a rim and sloping sides, 5cm (2in) deep.
• Pastry: Rub the lard and butter into the sifted flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add just enough cold water to make a dough that leaves the bowl clean. Rest it in a polythene bag in the fridge for 30 minutes, then use half to line the tin.
• Chicken: Cut the chicken into 1cm (½in) pieces, put them in a bowl with the mace and season with salt and pepper.
• Sausagemeat: In a separate bowl, mix the sausagemeat with the spring onions, thyme, sage, lemon rind and 2 teaspoons of the lemon juice. Stir in the cream to make a soft mixture, adding a little more if it needs it.
• Layer: Spread a third of the sausagemeat flat in the pastry case and cover it with half the chicken, sprinkling over the rest of the lemon juice. Add another third of the sausagemeat, then the rest of the chicken and a final layer of sausagemeat.
• Lid: Roll out the remaining pastry and lay it over the pie, which will be piled up like a dome by now. Seal the edges well and brush the top with beaten egg.
• Bake: Bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4, and bake for a further 1¼ hours.

Notes

• I let it cool completely in the tin and then chill it, since it's eaten cold, which is my own timing rather than the book's.
• If you can't buy loose sausagemeat, skinned pork sausages do the same job, a swap of mine.

FAQs

How do I take it on a picnic?

In its tin. The picnic chapter of the same book says to leave the pie in its baking tin, wrap it twice and wait until you get there to slice it.

Radishes and crisp spring onions are her idea of good crunchy picnic food. Take tomatoes whole, she says, because cut ones go soggy, and the same goes for cucumber.

Does she have a chicken and ham pie?

No, there isn’t one in her main cookbooks. This pie gets its pork from 450g of sausagemeat instead, so to my mind it’s the nearest she comes to that idea.

If you’d like ham in it, strips of cooked ham could replace some of the sausagemeat, which is my own suggestion rather than hers.

What are her chicken and herb picnic pies?

Six small pies from The Delia Collection: Chicken (2003), baked in a muffin tin and meant for food on the move. The filling is close to this one, with chicken, mace, pork sausagemeat, herbs, lemon and a spoonful of cream.

Their pastry is different, though. Vegetable fat is melted in milk and water, brought to the boil and stirred into strong flour with mustard, mixed spice and nutmeg, then pressed into the tin while still warm.

Can I serve it hot?

You can, though it’s written to be eaten cold, so that’s my own call. For a pie meant to be served hot, her cider-poached chicken and leek pie bakes in just 20 minutes.

How far ahead can I make it?

A day ahead suits it, in my experience, as it needs to cool and chill before it travels. Keep it covered in the fridge and take it out a little before you eat so it isn’t fridge-cold.