This Family Favorite Chicken Pie became our Family Favorite Chicken Pie dating back to my husband’s late grandmother some 50+ years ago.

Ingredients

• 2 whole chickens – cut up into smaller pieces
• 1 onion – chopped
• VOO – Virgin olive oil
• 2 heaped dessertspoons full of crushed garlic
• Salt – to taste
• Chicken spice – to taste
• Rosemary – to taste
• Basil – to taste
• 10 cloves
• 2 cups of boiling water
• Box puff pastry / or filo pastry
• 1 egg
• Milk

this For later use

Method

1. Fry onions in VOO till golden and translucent, add garlic and fry another minute or two.
2. Spoon mixture out on a plate and set aside
3. Add extra VOO in a large pot, add chicken, stir and fry till you have all the pieces a golden color.
4. Add all spices, to taste and also the cloves.
5. Add water, and bring to a rolling boil and then cook for ±1 hour till meat soft and tender and falling off the bone. Be careful, do not overcook it.
6. Now we usually let this just sit overnight, in the pot as it will still have enough heat and cook a bit more.
7. The next morning, heat it just enough in order for you to not burn your fingers, and it’s easy to handle and debone thoroughly.
8. Shred the meat and leave it in the juice.
9. Prepare your baking dish. Spray or butter the bottom. I use filo pastry, much easier than rolling out the puff pastry.
10. Place one sheet on the countertop, paint it with the egg wash along the edges and a few spots in the middle, and then add another sheet on top.
11. Continue until you have at least 5 or 6 sheets stacked on top of one another. Take this stack and place it in your dish.
12. Make sure you have the edges also covered with the pastry.
    Now spoon the chicken out onto the pastry. I usually use a slotted spoon to ensure that I do not have a lot of juice, leave it till the end, then you will be able to see if you need to add a tad more, depending on how juicy you like it and it is.
13. Remember when it’s cold, you will not see as much juice, but when baking and heat you will notice the juice.
14. Egg wash the pastry sheets at the edges, as you will now add the top layer of filo sheets and they need to stick together.
15. Now start the process over again with the filo pastry sheets, another 5 or 6 sheets, and lay that over the top of the meat.
16. Egg wash the edges of the top sheets and bind them to the bottom edges. I usually fold them to ensure that I lock down the meat and juice inside.
17. Egg wash the entire top.
18. Bake in the oven at 375F for ± 40-45 minutes and you have a good golden color and the pie nice and warm.

Source: Alwyn Slabbert (husband’s memory from how his grandmother used to make it) and now a family favorite.