Contrary to one reviewer's opinion people didn't eat rancid meat in the middle ages. The spices they used were what was available at the time and pleasing to medieval palates. This is a delicious recipe--the version I use contains several eggs as well as a little roasted pork another commonly used meat on non-fasting days. We leave out the nuts due to allergy but almonds were a very common ingredient in the middle ages so leave it in if you can.
Holy cow.... How delicious and as one reviewer already said filling!:-) Thank you SO MUCH for posting this recipe. It is a welcome addition to my family's favorites and a fun way to incorporate a History lesson into an everyday kind of event. Before tripping upon this recipe I would not dream of eating ANY "pot pie" or "a la king" type of dish as I found the tasteless slimy fillings to be a complete turn-off. Dégoûtant! However the rich thick (thanks to the ground almonds) and well-spiced filling of this pie pleased the entire family. Perfect on a cold Winter's day. The only modifications I made were an egg-wash on top for a beautiful golden brown glaze... and the addition of a handful of frozen peas/carrots (which I also HATE but ATE... LOL) in an attempt to sneak in some veggies for the children. Added those to the chicken's cooking water near the end of the cooking time. Oh almost forgot - I added green cardamom pods to the chicken cooking water too. However they didn't lend much flavor... with the exception of a lone pod I missed fishing-out that exploded in my poor husband's mouth - a bit too much flavor there! Whooooooops. A tip to keep the edges of the pie crust from getting too brown: If you're already brushing the crust with an egg-wash try rinsing the brush and giving the edges a good soaking brush with just plain water. I did that twice once the crust edges had reached optimum color and the edges stayed beautiful. The color was unifo
I was a bit skeptical about trying this but I thought why not? Thank goodness I did... The filling was absolutely delicious. I'm not a pie fan myself as I always find they never have enough filling but this was absolutley beautiful thanks:)
Authentic in the sense that heavy spices would have been used to mask the taste and smell of rancid meat (since there was no refrigeration until the 20th c.) but my husband and I did not find the taste at all appealing. I had to toss over half the pie because neither of us were going to eat the leftovers. I don't know how authentic the cheese part is and the peasant most likely wouldn't have had access to the myriad of spices this dish calls for. It would be interesting to make for a school project but I wouldn't make it otherwise. It might have been slightly better if I hadn't used chicken breast - fatty thigh and leg would probably be better.
This pie is delicious and I would absolutely make it again and again. It was pretty easy and not overly time-consuming. I did have to make some changes. I don't like almonds so I did not include the ground almonds although my boyfriend thinks it would be very good with them. I also did not have any mace or white pepper and because I used a bouillon cube to make the broth I omitted the salt. It does start out very soupy but solidifies very nicely when baked. And to answer my brother no you do not have to cut it with a sword!
I made this in individual sized pies. A doubled recipe made 6. It had a little too much liquid so in the future I would cut it back by 1/4th. It was very good. The different spices made it interesting.
This was a really nice twist on a chicken pot pie-the mace makes a big difference in the flavor.
I was nervous about what my husbands opinion about this would be. No fear he really liked it. In fact I think that he liked it more than me. The only complaint was that I over reacted a little to people who said that it was too soupy after cooking. My came out a little too dry. But the flavor and texture was still very good. I really recomend using the whole wheat pie crust.
One of my all-time favorites!!
