Dinner and a Miniseries: Pride and Prejudice

Chicken and Parsley Pie is the perfect accompaniment to the five-hour extravaganza that is Pride and Prejudice. Both are scrumptious and oh-so-English. I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about what is one of my absolute favorite movies ever, even though it's really a miniseries. In fact, I think it's better than the book. (Sorry, Jane!) I first discovered Pride and Prejudice a couple of years after it aired. I was in middle school, I didn't have many friends anyway, so seclusion and five hours of Britishness seemed like a good plan for the weekend. I've watched it at least once a year since then and I've owned it on VHS (six of them!) and DVD (only two). That means I've seen Pride and Prejudice at least a dozen times and it never gets old.

Chicken and Parsley Pie

Pastry
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cold, cubed salted butter
2 tablespoons lard

Gravy
1 teaspoon butter
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon flour
2/3 cup chicken stock

Filling
Shredded meat from a roasted or boiled chicken thigh and drumstick
Minced leaves from 20 parsley stalks
2 cooked rashers of bacon, sliced into lardons
salt and pepper
nutmeg
1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the pastry, work the butter and lard into the flour until the mixture is like lumpy sand. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture comes together in a dough. Cover and refrigerate.

Start the gravy by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When bubbling, add the shallot and cook until translucent, turning down the heat if shallot starts to brown. When shallot is cooked, stir in the teaspoon of flour and cook about a minute, then stir in the chicken stock. Turn heat up and bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Boil for about a minute then remove from the heat.

Place the shredded chicken, parsley and bacon in a 1-quart capacity baking dish and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour gravy over the top and set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to about 1/8" thickness. Cut a hole out of the middle and place on the baking dish. Trim and use trimmings to make a rose to place over the hole. Place baking dish on a baking sheet and bake for about half an hour, or until pastry is lightly browned.

Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan then lift the pastry rose off the pie and pour the cream into the pie. Replace the rose.

Serves 2

Adapted from "Chicken and Parsley Pie" in Laura Mason, The National Trust Farmhouse Cookbook (London: National Trust Books, 2009), 110-111.

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Darcy and Elizabeth / Bennet Sisters

P.S. I found out this morning that google turned my word verification back on! So aggravating! Please please please let me know if you ever see word verification on this blog so I can turn it off immediately. I loathe it.