Dining Down Under: Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie

An Australian interpretation of a German chicken pie borrowed from the English and the French. Confusing? No, delicious.
By Christina Soon-Kroeger

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It’s been raining steading all day. The air is chilly and an unfriendly wind is tormenting all the trees in the garden, blowing them from side to side without mercy.

I don’t like this weather. I’m like a cat: I don’t like being cold and I hate getting wet. So I am going to stay inside, work on my laptop and bake a pie.

Not just any pie though; this pie was inspired by my mother in law’s chicken pie or ,originally found in France and England and enthusiastically adopted by the Germans.

The first time I ate my mother in law’s pie I was struck dumb with admiration. I didn’t come from a pie-baking family – I come from a stir-fries, curry and noodles family. Sure, my mum made the occasional lemon meringue pie but that was usually from a packet.

So I watched my husband’s mother making this pie with great attention, taking note of how she casually manipulated the pastry and leisurely made the filling. She made it look so easy.

A word about the filling: it contains chicken’s liver, and is extremely good. Now before you get all sniffy or squeamish consider this: what we dislike or fear in terms of food is often about our cultural familiarity with it. For example, fried liver and onions is a traditional dish in France, England and Germany. Moreover, let’s not forget that liver is the key ingredient in that lovely French appetizer, pâté. So if you like pâté, you will love the chicken livers in this pie. If you don’t, then simply increase the amount of chicken by an additional thigh.

My mother in law is visiting us from Hamburg, Germany, at the moment so I thought I’d surprise her with my version of her pie. I used frozen shortcrust pastry rather than make it from scratch as she does and used more filling than usual to give the pie a lovely full look.

Her verdict?

“It’s better than my pie,” she said, giving me a hug.

I’m not sure that’s true but I do think it was nice of her to say it.