Serves: 6

Cooking/prep: 1 hour

Christmas dinner pie is always a winner during the festive season, and this mouth-watering Christmas pie has to be one of the best ways to use up your leftover Christmas food. It’s the perfect Boxing Day treat, serving around 6 people and taking just 1hr to prepare and cook. This delicious Christmas pie is layered with leftover turkey, ham, stuffing as well as veggies too like carrots, Brussel sprouts and red cabbage. The shortcrust Christmas dinner pastry pie keeps all of the flavours and juices neatly tucked inside ready for the big reveal. This Christmas dinner pie recipe uses a genius time saving cheat of readymade shortcrust pastry but if you prefer making your own go for it! Serve with plenty of gravy and watch this meaty pie disappear in seconds. Trust us, the whole family will love this tasty Christmas dinner pie.

Ingredients

500g shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
200g braised red cabbage
200g sage and onion stuffing
200g baked ham
200g roasted carrots
200g cranberry sauce
200g cooked turkey
handful Brussels Sprouts, halved
200g sausage meat stuffing
gravy, to serve

STEP 1

Lightly grease the base and outside of an up-turned 18cm round cake tin, line the outside of the base with baking parchment and cover the sides and edges with tin foil. Heat the oven to 200C, gas 6.

STEP 2

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a rough 32cm circle. Place over the outside of the lined cake tin, fold the pastry around the sides to line the sides tightly and trim. Brush with egg wash and chill for 30 mins, then bake for 20 mins, keeping it upturned.

STEP 3

Collect and roll out the pastry trimmings into a 20cm circle and chill for 30 mins.

STEP 4

Once the pastry has cooled, carefully remove the cake tin, plug any holes with any extra pastry and begin to fill the pie. Spoon in the braised red cabbage, stuffing, ham, carrots, cranberry sauce, turkey, sprouts, sausage stuffing and top with the pastry lid.

STEP 5

Brush with egg wash, cut a cross in the centre of the lid and bake for a further 20 mins. Slice and serve warm with gravy.

Copycat KFC? Is the “leaked” recipe the real deal? 

Ingredients
256g all purpose white flour
2 tsp table salt
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
4 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp celery salt
2 Tbsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp dry mustard powder
3 Tbsp white pepper
1 Tbsp ground ginger
7 lbs chicken
Oil for deep frying

STEP 1

Mix all of the herbs and spices together first, making sure there are no lumps in the mixture from spices that have clumped in storage.

STEP 2

In a large bowl, add the herb & spice mixture to the flour and mix well until the spices are evenly distributed.

STEP 3

Cut 2 whole chickens into 9 pieces each (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 side breasts and a centre breast)

STEP 4

Dip each of the pieces in plain water, shake and dredge in the flour and spice mixture. Repeat for all of the remaining pieces. Leave the pieces to sit in the dredge for 10-15 minutes while the oil heats up. This will help the coating stick to the chicken better.

STEP 5

Preheat a vegetable oil filled deep fryer to 340 degrees F

STEP 6

Shake off the excess coating from the pieces and fry for up to 18 minutes for the largest pieces. Wings generally take 8-10 minutes, drumsticks about 12-15 minutes depending on size. I use a meat thermometer to test the pieces and remove them individually when they reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees F.

STEP 7

Place cooked pieces on a rack that has been placed on top of a cookie sheet.

STEP 8

Hold the cooked chicken in a 150 degree oven if you need to cook the chicken in multiple batches. In that always start with the latest pieces and end with the smallest to minimize the time in the oven.