Thai Green Curry Chicken Pies

I don't know about you, but I have a stack of food magazines gathering dust in my living room - actually, if I'm honest, I have two stacks in the living room (which doesn't include the slightly smaller stack on the coffee table), another stack in the bedroom, and yet another stack in the bathroom - okay so I like to read food magazines while I'm lying in the bath every morning - doesn't everyone?  (No visual imaging thanks very much - please just don't go there!)

Now every so often the stacks get a bit of a dust off, and sometimes magazines in one stack change places with those in another stack.  I "oooh" and "aaah" over things, and dog ear the corners of pages of things I want to make (yes, I heard some of you gasp at the mention of dog earing, but honestly I promise I never do this to a book, only magazines), but for some reason I seldom seem to actually cook anything from the mags.  So about a year ago I made a pact with myself - no buying any more magazines until I had cooked something from each and every one of the magazines I already had.  Well, I did stick to one side of the bargain - I haven't bought any more magazines (though I have been sorely tempted), but I still haven't been cooking out of them.

So I've decided that maybe if I make a deal with you, I'll get a bit more disciplined about this and start to whittle my way through the magazine pile.  I'm going to try to cook one recipe a week from one of my magazines and commit to sharing it with you.  Also to try and keep myself on track with my mission, I'm joining in with the Magazine Mondays event hosted by Ivonne over at Cream Puffs in Venice.

I decided to kick this off with Thai Green Curry Chicken Pies, from the August 2004 edition of "ABC delicious" magazine.  Now this was one I had actually made before (probably back in 2004 when I bought the magazine), but it was such a goodie I thought it was worth revisiting and sharing with you.

Thai Green Chicken Curry Pie Recipe

Adapted from

"ABC delicious" Magazine, August 2004

Makes 2 large or 4 small pies
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1 tablespoon plain flour

salt & pepper

500-600g boneless chicken thighs, cubed

neutral flavoured oil for frying

150g button mushrooms, sliced

Thai green curry paste (see note below)

400ml can coconut cream

2 kaffir lime leaves

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 lime, juice and grated zest

2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten

(Note:  the original recipe calls for 4 tablespoons Thai green curry paste - the paste I have is very concentrated and very hot, and 1 heaped teaspoon of mine was plenty (and I don't mind hot), so you will need to judge for yourself how much paste to use)

Season flour with salt and pepper, then toss chicken in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat, and once hot cook chicken pieces until browned all over (you will probably have to do this in batches).

Set chicken pieces aside and add a little more oil to the pan if necessary.  Add the mushrooms to the pan, and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the curry paste to the pan, and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.  Return the chicken pieces to the pan, stir to coat well with the curry paste.  Then add the coconut cream, kaffir lime leaves, frozen peas, lime juice and grated zest.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove the kaffir lime leaves, stir in the coriander, and then set aside to cool.

(This dish can be made ahead up to this stage - if doing so, now put this mixture into an air-tight container and refrigerate until ready to use.)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Set your pastry sheets out on your work bench;  cut a 1cm strip from each side of the pastry;  set one of your bowls or pie dishes in the middle of the pastry sheet and cut a circle about 1cm larger than your bowl.

Now divide the chicken mixture between your bowls.  Press the pastry strips around the edges of each bowl, and brush each one with water.

Place a pastry lid over the top of each bowl, press firmly onto the pastry rims to seal (I like to use the back of a fork), and trim away any surplus with a knife.  Make some holes in the top to allow steam to escape.

Brush the top of each pie with beaten egg, then bake for about 20 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Yes, I did use store-bought pastry, and I did use a store-bought curry paste - so go ahead and shoot me!  As I've told you before, I don't believe that being a busy person means that you have to compromise on what you eat and feed your family - with just a couple of little shortcuts, and a bit of forward planning it's easy to dish up a great meal without having to resort to "drive-through".  Yes, I do like to keep my food real and as unprocessed as possible, but sometimes "keeping it real" means I have to cut a corner or too - and, if I'm to be perfectly honest, even if I'd had the time I doubt if I would have made my own pastry!  That's just a leap too far for me - one day, maybe.

This made a great mid-week meal for me - I was able to make the chicken filling in the morning (it could just as easily have been made the day before);  assemble the pies late afternoon before I went off to teach my yoga class;  and then as soon as I'd finished work all I had to do was pop them in the oven for 20 minutes - just enough time to dress a few crisp, green salad leaves and pour a glass of pinot gris!

I will definitely be making this again, and I think that next time I will actually double the quantity of filling so I can freeze a batch to make my life even easier!

I'm submitting this post to the Hearth and Soul blog hop, a place where you'll find lots of wonderful people who are passionate about great food and cooking from the heart - do go and have a look at what they're all cooking this week.

I'm also submitting this post to Magazine Mondays - mmmm, can't wait to see what else is cooking.