Chicken jalfrezi pie with lime pickle pastry
What happens when curry meats pie? Behold, our chicken jalfrezi pie. It holds together complex spicing in the filling, with a crisp pastry and lime-pickle glaze to boot. Pie has never tasted so good.
If you like the look of this, you’ll love our Bengali-spiced cottage pie with parsnip mash topping
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Serves 6
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Simmering time 30 min, oven time 60 min, plus chilling
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2-3 (depending on taste) whole dried red chillies, chopped
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 200ml chicken stock
- 6 tbsp full-fat natural yogurt, plus extra to serve
- A few bushy fresh coriander sprigs, stalks chopped, leaves reserved to garnish
- 12 dried curry leaves, plus extra
- 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
- 4 free-range chicken skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
- 3 mixed peppers, cut into chunks
- 2 red onions, cut into chunks
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- Poppadoms to serve
- 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced, to garnish
For the lime pickle pastry
- 230g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- 1 tsp salt
- 65g salted butter, chilled and cubed
- 50g lard, chilled and cubed
- 4 tsp soured cream
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- 4 tsp cold water
- 1 medium free-range egg, beaten
- 3 tbsp lime pickle from a jar
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar
You’ll also need…
Method
- Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic, dried chillies, cumin and turmeric for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the tomato purée, then the tomatoes. Rinse out the tin with the stock and add to the pan with the yogurt. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Add the chopped coriander stalks, curry leaves and cornflour mixture, then cook gently for 15 minutes. Add the chicken, then cook gently for 5 minutes until the chicken is just cooked and the sauce is rich.
- Meanwhile, heat the grill. Toss the peppers and onions in the remaining oil, then arrange on a foil-lined grill pan or baking tray and grill for 8-10 minutes, turning, until charred in places and tender.
- Stir the garam masala and grilled veg into the curry, taste and season. Set aside to cool completely, then chill until needed (see Make Ahead).
- To make the pastry, combine the flour, salt and a good grind of black pepper in a bowl. Toss with the cubes of butter and lard, then use your fingertips to bring to a breadcrumb-like consistency.
- In a small bowl, mix the cream, vinegar and cold water, then make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the cream mixture. Use a dinner knife to mix the ingredients together to make a rough dough, then transfer to a floured surface and knead several times to make a ball. Wrap well, then chill for at least 30 minutes (see Make Ahead).
- Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry to 5mm thick. Brush the rim of the pie dish with beaten egg, then fill with the pie filling. Lay the pastry over the top of the dish, trimming the edges to fit. Press the edges down to seal, then cut a few crosses in the pastry top, brush all over with beaten egg and chill for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Meanwhile, make the lime pickle glaze. Push the pickle through a mesh sieve into a bowl (discard the solids), then stir in the sugar and
2 tbsp boiling water until dissolved.
- Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes, then brush all over with the lime pickle glaze and bake for 15 minutes more, basting the pastry with the glaze 1-2 more times to build the flavour and a deep golden brown colour. Serve the pie with poppadoms and extra yogurt, garnished with extra curry leaves, sliced chilli
and the coriander leaves.
Recipe from September 2019 Issue
Nutrition
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 627kcals
- Fat
- 28.8g (10.9g saturates)
- Protein
- 43.7g
- Carbohydrates
- 45.6g (15.4g sugars)
- Fibre
- 5g
- Salt
- 0.8g
delicious. tips
Make the filling to the end of step 3 and the pastry to the end of step 5 up to 2 days ahead, then cover and chill separately. Continue the recipe from step 6.