Wealden Times | WT233 | October 2021 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

Fearsome
Feasts
Recipes: Jo Arnell Photographs: David Merewether
There are a few cheats included within these devilishly
simple Halloween bakes and they shouldn’t take long to
make if you are short of time, or want to dash out trick or
treating – parts of the recipes can be prepped in advance
too and assembled nearer teatime. Little monsters can
have some frightful fun joining in with decorating
Jack O’ Lantern
Chicken Pies
Preparation time: (if you are roasting
the chicken first) 1 hour 30 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes Serves 6-8
These pies are scarily simple to put
together and can be made to suit
the size of the pie dishes you have to
hand – make cute individual servings
or one big pie. These are made
with sweet potato and chicken (feel
free to substitute pumpkin). Make
the filling in advance if needed.
Equipment: roasting pan, 3 small
pie dishes – or 1 large (I used
three 15cm cake tins instead)
• 2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg, or 1 tbsp milk for
brushing onto pastry
• 1 large whole chicken, roasted (I like
to use roast chicken meat for chicken
pie and make stock from the carcass,
so generally do this the day before, but
you can use ready cooked chicken and
a stock cube for the gravy to save time)
• 500g peeled and diced sweet potato
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 small tin (220g) chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 200ml chicken stock
1. Toss the sweet potato and
chopped onion in oil, sprinkle with
oregano and bake in the oven (gas
mark 5, 170˚C) for approximately
15 minutes until softened.
2. While the vegetables are cooking,
shred the cooked chicken into a mixing
bowl. Add the remaining ingredients
and combine. Tip into the pie tins.
3. Unroll the pastry and cut a circle
approximately 1cm wider than the pie
tins. Cut a Jack O’ Lantern face into
the pastry and carefully lift onto the
tin. Make a stalk from the remaining
pastry and join it to the top of the
face (this is a bit of a fiddle and not
compulsory – I rested the stalk on
a ramekin while in the oven).
4. Brush the pastry with egg or
milk and bake the pies in a preheated
oven (mark 6, 180˚C) for 20
minutes until golden. Serve.
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