Poultry Farmer Pie {Creamy Chicken and vegetables topped with Mashed Potato}

I don't usually make the aftermath photos the main ones, but this looked so delicious!

Remember a few months ago I posted up this recipe for Meat & 3 Veg Pie? Well, at the time, I said to myself - I must try this with chicken one day. And today is the day! Told you I get round to things. Eventually.

The creamy chicken and veg base in all its glory.

Remember also when I wasn't ready for winter and made these Bountiful Brownie Bites to ward off the onset of the cold weather? Yeah, well I might be paying for it now because it has been too, too cold in Sydney ever since then.

So, this cold early July week was the perfect time to give this pie a whirl. And guess what? It turned out great! I used a Masterfoods meal base again - No, I don't have shares in the company, they're just easy and available in my local supermaket. And I decided to top it with mashed potato this time, and leave out the pastry. Sort of like a Shepherd's Pie.

"Knobbed" with butter and ready to go in the oven.

So now all I need to do is name it, because I was reliably informed by my fellow diners that you can't possibly eat anything that doesn't have a name. So, I looked up the equivalent of a guy who looks after chickens. Like how a shepherd has sheep. Google is no help. The best it can come up with is a Poultry Farmer. Not very exciting, but Poultry Farmer Pie it is!

Poultry Farmer Pie

(This pie will take about 30 minutes to prepare and 10-15 minutes to bake. It easily serves 4 people for dinner with nothing else.)

 

Ingredients

4 Chicken Thigh Fillets (without skin), cut into 3-4 cm pieces
2 small onions, chopped
1 packet Masterfoods Oven Easy Chicken and Leek Recipe Base (or other recipe base for chicken)
1/3rd cup Thickened Cream (lite if you prefer)
1 cup Milk (lite if you prefer)
1/4 of a Cauliflower
2 carrots
1 cup peas
3 cups Mashed Potato, made to your liking
Splash of Olive Oil or other for frying
Small knob of butter (optional)

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Make mashed potato as you like it.  
3. Fry onions in olive oil until softened.  Add chicken pieces to the pan and fry until browned.
4. Add recipe base and stir until chicken is coated. Then add cream and milk and stir through.
5. Add cauliflower and carrots and simmer with lid on until they are soft. If you don't think you have enough liquid for the vegetables to cook, add milk in splashes until you are happy.
6. Add peas and cook for a further minute or two until the peas are soft.
7. Transfer to ovenproof pie dish and cover with mashed potato. Drag a fork over the mashed potato to give it rough edges. These bits will become crispy while baked.
8. Place small pieces of butter in various places in the mashed potato.
9. Bake for 10-15 minutes until butter is melted and mashed potato has developed crispy edges.