Chilean chicken & sweetcorn pie

Cooking interesting food sometimes means taking risks and this was one of those. Right up until the very end, I was fully prepared to pick up the phone and order a pizza. Honestly, it was a close call. I even got the pizza menu out and decided what I wanted. Bravery was however the keyword of the day and I decided to try a forkful when it had cooled down enough to eat. Not bad. I would almost go as far as to say quite nice, although I was probably the one in the family who liked it the most. It will not be a boomerang dinner.

So, what in the world possessed to cook such a touch and go meal? The world, that's what did it. My mission to find 52 meals to cook from around the world. While scanning Pinterest for Chilean recipes, I stumbled across something golden looking with green flecks and red edges and it sucked me in. Reading the recipe, it was all good. Chicken, good, egg, good, sweetcorn, good, seasoning, good, capers, none in the fridge, so not to worry. The only item worth worrying about was the raisins. I did consider leaving them out, but what if they were what made the dish distinctly Chilean... I added them, but in hindsight, I should have gone with my gut instinct. The ended up being sweet surprise pellets in the otherwise not too bad savoury dinner.

The recipe called for cooked chicken, which I didn't have. Apparently it is often used as a leftover meal, but I had planned it badly by cooking something non-chickeny the day before. To remedy this issue, I decided to grill some chicken fillets and why not use a Chilean marinade? This ended up being a great idea, as there were leftover pieces of chicken after making the dish and they satisfied those who were not overly keen on the dinner itself.

The pie recipe said that it serves 4 people. Well, that must be 4 not very hungry people, or alongside something else. I had 1/4 of the pie and it was only just enough with a side salad and I'm not a hugely big eater. If there was a shortcrust base, it would be a much more filling, but not half as healthy.

Marinade

1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped

1/3 cup coriander leaf, finely chopped

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (The recipe called for 2 tsp, but I chickened out.)

1 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp red vinegar (I used rose wine)

a slosh of olive oil

Chicken & sweetcorn pie

2 cups chicken, cooked and chopped

2 cups chicken stock

1 boiled egg, chopped

olive oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup onion, chopped

1 medium leek or 6 spring onions, sliced

1 tsp corn starch

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

salt & pepper

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp dried coriander leaf or 3 tbsp fresh, finely cut

3 cups sweetcorn, cooked

1 cup milk

1 tbsp flour

2 tsp dried basil or 2 tbsp fresh, finely cut

1/4 raisins (I would leave these out if I made the dish again)

2 tbsp capers (Don't know about these, as I didn't have any)

1. Mix all marinade ingredients.

2. Score the chicken to allow the marinade to penetrate into the fillets. Place the chicken in a shallow bowl and cover with the marinade. 

I covered the bowl with cling film and the marinade to do its job for an hour in the fridge. The lemon juice is known to work as a tenderiser and help the other flavours to get deeper into the meat.

3. Place the chicken fillets on a meshed baking tray and cook in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, depending on thickness. Make sure the meat is cooked through.

Top tip: Pour water into the tray below the meat. Not only will it make the washing up a doddle, but while grilling from above, the chicken will steam from below and remain juicy.

4. Leave to cool down before cutting the pieces you need for the pie. Box up the rest for later, if you want to serve them alongside the pie.

5. Marvel the beauty of the chicken fillet and try not to eat it while cooking the rest of the meal. While marvelling, boil an egg and set aside to cool down.

6. Cut 2 cups of the chicken fillets into small dice.

7. Cut the onions and garlic. 2 medium onions overfilled 1 cup.

8. Slice the leek and split the white slices from the green.

9. Soften the onion, garlic and the white part of the leek in a little oil. Save the green slices for later.

10. Add cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper and tomato puree.

11. While the onion mixture is soaking up the seasoning, in a bowl blitz the sweetcorn with a stick blender until almost smooth. Add flour and set aside.

No, it doesn't look appetising. Try not to worry about it.

12. To the onion mixture, add corn starch and mix well, then pour in the stock and leave to simmer.

13. Add milk to the sweetcorn mash and whisk until smooth.

14. Well, smoothish.

15. Allow the sauce to thicken until it passes the 'brief island test' before adding the chicken.

The brief island test is when you drag a spoon through the sauce and the bottom of the pan is revealed for a brief moment, before the dry island is flooded. This differs from the path test, where a dry path remains open for a while after dragging the spoon through the sauce.

16. Add the chicken and coriander.

17. Simmer on low heat to reduce the sauce further while cooking the sweetcorn.

18. Pour the sweetcorn mixture into a non-stick pan and simmer on medium heat. Keep stirring, or it will stick and and burn, even in a non-stick pan.

19. Peel and chop the egg.

20. Cook the sweetcorn mixture until it is really thick and easily passes the path test.

This really doesn't look good, but again, try not to worry.

21. Add the green part of the leek, along with salt, pepper and basil.

22. Take the pan off the heat and mix well.

23. Spread an even layer of the chicken mixture in a large deep pie dish. Scatter egg (and raisins and capers, if using them) over the chicken sauce.

24. Carefully spread the thick sweetcorn mixture over the chicken and egg and try to cover the entire surface. Place the pie dish on a baking tray covered with tinfoil, in case the sauce bubbles over.

This is when I seriously started to doubt my decision to cook this dish. I am very well aware of how it looks and let me tell you, the camera shows it exactly as it was. After shoving it into the oven, I got the pizza menu out and ticked the delight I was going to order if the meal tasted as bad as it looked.

25. Cook the pie for 25-30, until the sweetcorn topping is golden an bubbly. Leave to cool down for 10 minutes, while making a side salad. Warm up the grilled chicken pieces, if you want to serve them alongside the pie. 

26. Enjoy your meal.

I actually quite enjoyed it and could put the pizza menu away for another day. It wasn't my favourite dish, but it was totally edible. The raisins though, not great. I do like fruit in savoury dishes, but preferably not raisins. As I was the one who enjoyed the meal the most, I left the chicken pieces for the other members of my family.