Chicken and Potato Cornish Pasties
A brilliant, easy-to-make home style recipe for a deliciously flaky savory lunch!
These chicken and potato pasties are a delicious, savory lunch. The half-moon shaped pastries are filled with herbs, chicken, and potatoes, wrapped up in a delightfully flaky crust. Pasties make great lunches on the go, are also brilliant for make-ahead meals, yet are also delicious when combined with a side salad or steamed veggies.
Cornish pasties were first popularized by the miners of Cornwall in Southern England. Miners would bring meat-filled pastries in a bucket kept warm by a heated rock to eat a simple but hearty meal while on their shifts to keep their strength up. During the Industrial Revolution, when efficiency was everything and break time was scarce, pasties and hand pies were the best means to keep worker’s fed, a practice which eventually spread worldwide (and is still popular!).
Chicken and chopped potatoes create the pasties’ ballast, while onion, common pantry herbs and spices, and mustard are combined with cheddar cheese and sour cream to bind the savory flavors together into a tasty mix. Crimping (folding) your pasty is a simple process, and it won’t take long for you to get comfortable. If you need a visual aid to get the hang of it, click here for a simple, reliable method!
Our Chicken and Potato Cornish Pasties are made with chicken breast meat, but you could easily substitute with ground chicken, or even pulled rotisserie chicken (you wouldn’t have to cook it until the pasties are folded). This recipe also works just as effectively with turkey, or even pork!
While I prefer to get my savory meat pies from bakeries and gas stations (I have a radar-like ability to find the best ones), the flavor and taste I can achieve when cooking Cornish pasties make them my go-to at home pastry. Cornish pasties can be filled with just about anything savory, and you’ll get a flavorful, hearty, and portable meal backed by fluffy, buttery flakes of pastry!
Chicken and Potato Cornish Pasties
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 3-4 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
- 1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 cups ground chicken (12-14 oz)
- 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 6 sheets puff pastry
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
- 2 eggs, beaten lightly (for egg wash)
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan at medium-high temperature. Add the potato and cook for 3 minutes. Add the ground chicken, onion and garlic, and cook for a further 4-5 minutes, or until the onion becomes translucent.
- Add the mustard, herbs, sour cream and cheese. Stir the mixture until heated through, then remove from the heat. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
- Cut one 10-inch round from each pastry sheet, discarding any excess. Spoon a quarter of the pasty filling into the center of each round. Using a brush, coat the edge of the pastry with a little of the egg wash. Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling, and pinch the edges together with a fork to seal the pasties.
- Place the Cornish pasties on a baking paper lined oven tray. Brush them with the remaining egg wash, and then cook for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Serve the chicken and potato pasties with ketchup, or the sauce of your choice.
Recipe adapted from Women’s Weekly Food