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Chicken and Chorizo Pasties

Is it a pastie is it an empanada? I don't really know but who cares when it tastes good. These pasties take a lot of influence from Spanish and Mexican empanadas but wrapped in the good old British shortcrust we know and love. It works just as well with puff pastry but really all depends on how you want to eat it. In my experience the shortcrust holds together better for that proper handheld snack.

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This recipe will make 2 large dinner sized pasties or enough to serve 6 if you want to make smaller party sized ones. These have gone down a treat when I've done them like that before, you just need to cut everything up a bit smaller and adjust down the cooking times by a couple of minutes so as not to dry the chicken out.

Ingredients

Makes 2 large pasties

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  • 200g chicken breast (or thighs)

  • 100g chorizo

  • 200g chestnut mushrooms

  • 1 tbsp olive oil

  • 1 tbsp garlic oil (or 2 garlic cloves finely chopped

  • 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (around 5 sprigs picked)

  • 1 small onion or half a large one

  • 1/2 block or 250g shortcrust pastry

  • 1 egg

  • 2 tbsp sweet sherry (optional but wow what a difference)

Method

Remove the outer casing of the chorizo and dice into 1 cm cubes. Add these with 1 tbsp of olive oil to a large frying pan and cook for 3 mins on a medium heat until they start to crisp up on the surface.

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Meanwhile dice your chicken into 2 cm cubes and add to the pan once the chorizo is done. This will be cooked for about 5 mins so while that is happening finely dice the onion and slice the mushrooms. To get these the right size to match the rest of the ingredients I cut each in half, lay the cut side down on the board and slice into about 6 slices each. that should give you half slices about 1/2 cm thick.

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Once the chicken is done turn down the pan to low and add the diced onion and chopped mushrooms along with 1 tbsp of garlic oil and 2 tbsp of thyme.

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After about 8 minutes when the onion and mushrooms are soft add 2 tbsp of sweet sherry to the pan with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Turn up the heat a little and simmer until the sherry becomes a sticky glaze.

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At this point turn off the heat and turn your attention to the pastry. The mixture can cool at this point as it will be reheated in the pastie so if you are preparing in advance for a party you can stop here, refrigerate the mixture once it is cooled and assemble the next day.

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Cut the pastry in two and roll each piece out to a large square about 1/2 cm thick.  Put half the mixture in the centre of each, wet the edges with water and fold over. At this point I cut the corners off to round it out just because it looks nicer and you don't get lumps of pastry with no filling at the corners.

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To seal pinch and fold the edge over to create a ridge around the joins which acts as a perfect handhold. This can take a bit of practice to look right so if you are worried just pushing the tines of a fork down on the joins will work just as well.

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Heat the oven to 180C - 360F

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Rub a little oil on a non stick baking tray, baking parchment of whatever you are putting them on in the oven. This sounds weird as they are non stick but it allows the base to crisp up better and avoids the dreaded soggy bottom.

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Now beat the egg and brush the top of each pastie with the mixture which will give you a great colour to each and a nice crispy exterior. Then prick each pastie twice on the top to let out the steam. We do it in this order as if you make the holes first the egg will just seal them up again. 

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Bake your pasties for 30 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Remove and serve.

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