Pastel de Pollo (Colombian Chicken Pie)

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Chicken cooked with garlic, mustard, oregano and white wine, then bound with cream and sealed inside puff pastry. It bakes in twenty minutes and it can be fried instead. A quick version of the Colombian pastel de pollo, made with bought pastry. Serves four.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: chicken pie

Servings:

Calories: 806kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

1 sheet puff pastry bought, chilled or thawed; this is the shortcut that makes the recipe quick
1 chicken breast cut into small cubes, or cooked and shredded (see step 1)
30 ml white wine about 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon mustard
80 ml heavy cream about ⅓ cup; it goes in once the filling is cold
Salt and pepper, to taste
A little oregano dried, added with the wine
Oil a teaspoon, for frying the chicken

Instructions

In a pan over medium heat, add a teaspoon of oil and the chicken breast cut into small cubes, with salt and pepper. (You can also do it the traditional way, poaching the breast and shredding it.)
Add the garlic paste and the mustard.
Once the chicken is cooked through, add oregano to taste and the white wine. Let the alcohol cook off, then turn off the heat.
While the filling cools, flour a work surface and lay out the puff pastry. Roll it out with a rolling pin.
Cut the rolled pastry into whatever shape you want: circles, triangles, squares.
Once the filling is completely cold, stir in the cream. (You can blend it smooth at this point if you prefer.)
Fill the pastry with the chicken, lay a second piece of pastry over the top, and seal the edges firmly so nothing escapes in the oven. (They can also be fried until golden on both sides instead.)
Put them on a baking tray and prick the top of each one with a fork. This lets the steam escape: without the holes the pastry puffs up and bursts at the seam.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how big you made them.
Take them out once they are golden.

Notes

The filling has to be completely cold before the cream goes in, and cold again before it touches the pastry: warm filling melts the butter in puff pastry and it will not rise. Seal the edges properly and prick the tops, which are the two things that stop the filling escaping. If you would rather fry them than bake them, the recipe allows it and they come out closer to a Colombian street empanada. This uses bought puff pastry, which is what makes it a forty-minute recipe.

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