Chicken, lemon and vegetable pie

Ingredients (makes one family-sized pie)

• 1 pie crust (see recipe below)
• 8 chicken legs (or 600 - 800 g diced chicken leg meat)
• 2 cup diced pumpkin, diced in 1 cm cubes
• 1 onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• 2 sweet corn cobs, use 1 cup frozen sweet corn kernels as replacement
• ½ cup brown rice
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 lemon
• ½ bunch coriander, use parsley as replacement
• 2 tbsp butter, use coconut oil as replacement
• 1 cup water. Use chicken stock or vegetable stock if available
• 2 tbsp wholegrain flour from either wheat or spelt
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Pie crust

• 375 g whole grain flour from either wheat or spelt
• 150 g butter
• 180 ml water
• Pinch of salt

Heat your oven to 170°C.
Place all the ingredients into a mixer bowl and knead for seven to nine minutes to a firm elastic dough.
Cover with a damp cloth and rest for approximately 30 minutes.
 

Method
Place the rice into a saucepan, add one cup of water, cover with a lid, and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum and cook the rice until all the water is absorbed (approximately 30 to 35 minutes).

While the rice is cooking, remove the skin of the chicken legs.

With a sharp knife, cut the meat off the bones and reserve the skin and bones for stock.

Cut the meat in small cubes, approximately two centimetre and chop the onions and garlic finely.

Chop celery and carrots into little cubes and cut the sweet corn off the cobs.

Finely zest the lemon skin.

In a heavy pan, melt half the butter and add the chicken meat and roast it on a high heat until golden brown, transfer into a bowl. Reduce the heat to medium and place the remaining butter into the pan.

Add pumpkin, ginger, garlic, onion, celery, carrot, corn and lemon skin and cook for four to six minutes until slightly golden brown.

Add the flour and mix it well with the vegetables.

Add the chicken, cooked rice and water or stock and bring to boil.

Cook the mix until it is thick and creamy and remove from the heat.

Wash and dry the coriander and chop finely (including the stalks). Add the coriander to the mix and season with salt, pepper and juice of the lemon.

Photo credit: Trupps' Cooking School