Crustless creamy chicken pie / Shepherd's pie

This one's for you Melissa! "I want to make a chicken pie, but what do I do about the crust?"

I often get asked this question. Mashed potato topping is my crust substitute! Gluten-free and no fiddling with pastry! Boy, what a relief those days of laboriously making sourdough pastry and rolling it out by hand are behind me! Here's the recipe for my crustless creamy chicken pie which my kids and I enjoyed tonight. Very easy and befitting of a winter's evening:

Pie filling ingredients:

• 300g left over cooked chicken pieces (e.g. reserved from making bone broth- yes another way to use up that darn chicken meat!!)

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 knob of garlic, diced

• ¼ cup tomato puree

• 2 carrots, chopped (approx. 200g)

• 1 small sweet potato or piece of pumpkin, chopped (approx. 200g)

• A few florets of cauliflower, chopped (approx. 145g)

• 1 ¼ cups frozen peas (approx. 170g)

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaf

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/8 teaspoon paprika

• Handful of fresh parsley or coriander, chopped (approx. 30g)

• 2 tablespoons butter for sautéing

• 200ml full fat cream

• Unrefined salt cracked pepper

Mashed potato topping:

• 4 potatoes, chopped (approx. 480-500g)

• 80g butter or cream

• unrefined salt

• cracked pepper

• Gruyere OR reggio cheese, grated (approx. 60g)

this is what pie looks like pre mashed potato topping

Directions:

Sautee onions, garlic and dried herbs in butter on low heat, covered, in a large frying pan until soft (5 -10 minutes). Add parsley, tomato puree and frozen peas. Sautee for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Steam carrots, sweet potato/pumpkin and cauliflower until soft. Add vegetables, chicken and cream to onion mixture in frying pan and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to an oven proof baking dish.

To make mashed potato, steam potatoes until very soft. Place in jug or canister and add butter/cream, salt and pepper and blend with hand held blender until smooth. Spread mashed potato on top of pie and top with grated cheese.

Place dish on an oven rack just above the middle of the oven under a heated grill element to melt the cheese and brown the top of the pie. This will only take a matter of minutes. Be careful to ensure that it does not burn. Because the ingredients in the pie are all cooked the pie does not need further cooking in the oven, unless you have prepared the pie ahead of time and need to heat it up.

To make a Shepherds'  pie simplysubstitute cooked beef or lamb pieces (eg reserved from making beef bone broth) instead of chicken and omit the cream.  

Kali Orexi!