These mini pies are a great way to enjoy one of the staple dishes from Winterfell. I came up with the recipe for them back in February for HBO’s Take the Black event in NYC. Recently, reader Rachel asked if I could post the recipe. Naturally, that meant I had to make another batch of them. What a shame… ;)
The pies are transportable, and savory with just a hint of sweetness from the raisins and honey. If you happen to have leftover honeyed chicken (I know, it’s unlikely!), you can use it to make this pie. They are conveniently made in a muffin pan, either regular or jumbo-sized, and will quickly disappear. After you have thoroughly picked over the chicken for all the good meat, use what’s left to make some awesome chicken stock!
Mini Honeyed Chicken Pies
–makes around 6 jumbo muffin size pies, or around 12 smaller pies
Cook’s Notes: If you have already made honeyed chicken, you can skip several of the steps here. Just add the sauce to the roux, followed by the broth, and continue as below.
Ingredients for pastry dough:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 egg yolk (save the white for glazing)
- ½ cup water
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 egg white beaten with a bit of milk, for glazing
Ingredients for Filling:
- ~1 ½ lb. cooked and shredded chicken meat
- 2 Tbs. butter
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2/3 cup honey
- ½ cup dried currants, or chopped golden raisins
- 1 ½ cup chicken broth
- Hefty pinch of salt
- Pepper to taste
Roux:
- 2 Tbs butter
- 2 Tbs flour
Rub the stick of butter into the flour and salt, then add the egg yolk and enough cold water to bring the whole mixture together. Chill in the fridge while you prepare the filling. Combine all ingredients except the chicken and the roux in a saucepot, and cook for around 10 minutes. In a smaller separate pan, make the roux by melting the 2 Tbs. butter, then add the 2 Tbs. flour. Stir to combine, then add a ladle of the broth from the other pot. Do this a couple of times, while stirring, then add the butter/flour mixture back into the main pot. Add the chicken and cook for a few more minutes, stirring to make sure the meat absorbs the juices. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Preheat the oven to 375F. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out to 1/4″ thick. Cut circles large enough to fit into the muffin pan you intend to use, as well as smaller discs to serve as the tops of the pies. Press the larger discs of dough into the muffin cups. Spoon the filling into each dough-cup, then wet the top of the dough with water. Place the smaller discs on top of the filled pies, and gently fold down the outer dough so it covers the tops. Poke a couple of vent holes in the top of each mini pie, brush with glaze, and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on size, until the tops are nice and golden.
Oh, happy day! I was looking for an excuse to use up the rest of my currants from the pork pie recipe!
Excellent! They’re really good in scones, too. ;)
Awesome recipe – looks so delicious! I need to try these for sure!
Cooking this now, seems like an awful lot of liquid, over 3 cups. Is this right ?
If you have less than 1.5 lb of meat, then the ratio might be a bit off. The goal is to have enough of the saucey gravy that it fills in the gaps between pieces of chicken in the pies. You don’t have to use all of the gravy, but it’s there if you need it!
How did they turn out?
Really really good. The recipe is a keeper. I used dates and medley raisins, ( what I happened to have on hand ). I did end up with almost a cup of sauce left over but that was fine, I just strained it and put it out on the table. May try it with phyllo dough .
I still think cherries go better with the honey chicken recipe than raisins. Gives it a more Northern feel – in our house its known as ‘Winterfell Chicken’.
Now, where did I put that muffin tin…
Thank you for the recipe, I’m rather excited about making these.
Does the recipe still work if you substitute Frey for chicken?
I feel like you might have to add extra sauce. Those Freys are tough, stringy bastards.
When cooking Frey’s I would suggest using the medieval pork pie recipe found here https://www.innatthecrossroads.com/2011/04/13/pork-pie/.
Flavor wise it is probably a better match for long pork and mincing should solve the issue of the meat being tough and stringy.
Ah, yes. Very good.
I have to admit, I’ve been having fun watching all the mundanes freak out on twitter and etc over the Red Wedding. I simply cannot grok how it is that so many people were taken by surprise. Don’t these Yahoos read?
Even GRRM was shocked at that.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/oh-shit-i-totally-forgot-that-happens,32673/
These were amazing!!! The perfect dinner for the season finale! Cooking notes: I sauteed some freshly cut scapes from our garlic plants, and put those in the filling. It was lovely. Wound up only getting 8 in my regular muffin pan. Maybe I rolled the dough thicker? Thank you for another great recipe!
Made this for dinner last night, very impressed. I was dubious about the vinegar-and-honey sauce at first, but the end result was delicious and quite unique.
I substituted red wine vinegar for the cider vinegar, and cranberries for the raisins. I also used frozen puff pastry rather than making my own. The pies came out delicious, although perhaps a bit too vinegar-y (I’d use half a cup next time) and I managed to jam too much mixture into the pastries, which made quite a mess of the oven.
Thanks for the recipe!
My roommate and I made this for a Pagan gathering today, for Litha/Midsummer. We used pie crust mix to shorten our prep time, and left off the currants/raisins due to personal preference, and substituted lemon pepper for regular pepper.
It turned out really well, and the handpies were devoured. Based on the difference in flavor between our test-run of the filling a few days ago with store-brand honey and today’s version with some vastly-superior honey, the quality of the honey can make a HUGE change in the ratio of flavor between the honey and the apple cider vinegar.
I actually became a fan of ASoIaF because of this blog and the official cookbook, so thank you.
About to make this again with fillo dough. Also using dates.
Tried this recently and they were amazing! I used a little over one and a half pounds of chicken and had a generous serving left over after filling the pies. There was some extra liquid after I finished putting together the filling, but I decided to let it cook down while I rolled out the dough and it ended up as a nice thick sauce. While the mixture was cooking I was concerned about the vinegar overwhelming the honey, but after baking the taste really mellowed out and it was wonderfully balanced. I also used craisins, which worked really well.
Thanks so much for this recipe!
This has become a semi regular meal in our house. Variations are endless. Dried cranberries, Cherri’s, thinly sliced sautéed onions. Topped it with fig.
Made these tonight with some leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Pretty good. Gonna try ’em with cherries instead of raisins next time probably.
I am making this for a second time. I added dried apricots with the raisins. I also added a bit of bacon. (I had just got done making the filling for Beef and Bacon Pie and said what the heck!) I also made my roux in the pan that I had browned the Bacon in. I am going to make a large pie thinking this should hold together well once it sets. Now off to make a double batch of my Mom’s perfect pie dough!
Update: The large pie came out great. It holds together well.
I made these for the GoT premiere. I used gluten free flour, but I think they came out just as good! I substituted the butter in the pie crust for coconut oil and added some flavored vinegar for an extra flaky crust, I also used some dried berries I made last fall as well as some cranberry raisins. Everyone loved them!
Was there a particular medieval recipe this was inspired by?
Made it this evening, and had a ton of leftover filling, I might have left the bread too thick. I also had trouble with the tops, so the filling made a mess on the muffin tin.
That said, the filling is delicious and I’ll definitely be trying the normal honeyed chicken recipe in the future.
I made these last Sunday for the premiere. They were very tasty but next time I will cut down the vinegar to 1/2 cup. All four of us agreed it was way too much. They were a lot of fun to make and eat.