Friday 12 June 2015

Chicken Fajitas Cornish Pasty and Chips

Created to Celebrate England v Mexico in Women's World Cup

Half a giant chicken fajitas pasty is served with homemade chips

England take on Mexico this coming Saturday in the 2015 Women's World Cup and I thought this fixture provided a great opportunity to create a dedicated English/Mexican fusion dish. I had quite a few ideas but finally settled on the concept of an English Cornish pasty filled with Mexican themed chicken fajitas, served with homemade chips. I've covered making chips many times before on this blog so the instructions which follow are for making the pasty only.

Diced chicken breast meat is combined with fajitas spices

Ingredients (Serves Two)

1 large skinless chicken breast fillet
1 teaspoon powdered Mexican fajitas spice
Handful mixed sliced bell peppers
1/2 pound premade puff pastry
1 beaten egg for glazing
Little vegetable oil for baking tray
Homemade chips/fries to serve

Mixed sliced bell peppers are stirred in to marinated chicken breast meat

Directions

Chop the chicken breast fillet in to approximately three-quarter inch chunks. Add them to a glass or stone bowl (never plastic - it will be stained forever) with the fajitas spice. Stir well to coat all the chicken in the spice mix, cover with clingfilm and leave for at least an hour to dry marinate. After this time, stir the pepper slices through the chicken.

A large dinner plate is used as a template to cut pastry circle for pasty

Put your oven on to preheat to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6. Roll out the pastry on a dry, clean, floured surface to a square large enough that a circle can be cut from it using a thirteen inch dinner plate as a template.

Chicken fajitas pasty filling is added to one half of pastry circle

Arrange the chicken and peppers combination on one half of the cricle as shown above. Be sure to leave a border of at least an inch for folding over and crimping the pastry. Lightly brush this border with beaten egg.

Pastry is folded over to form basic pasty shape

Fold over the empty half of pastry, ensuring it fits smoothly over the filling.

Pastry is carefully crimped around open edge of pasty

Crimp the edges of the pasty and leave it to sit and rest for a few minutes while your oven gets up to the required temperature.

Chicken fajitas pasty is ready for the oven

Lightly oil a baking tray and use a large spatula to lift the pastry on to it. Glaze the pastry all over with beaten egg and cut a steam vent in the centre with a sharp knife.

Chicken fajitas pasty removed from the oven

Cook the pasty in the oven for half an hour, by which time the pastry should be beautifully risen, golden and crispy.

Chicken fajitas pasty is rested on a wire rack

Lift the pasty on to a wire rack and let it rest for ten minutes. You can use some of this time to give the chips their final fry.

Chicken fajitas pasty is halved to serve

Lift the pasty to a chopping board and cut it in half. Serve half the pasty per person with some chips.

Tucking in to chicken fajitas pasty and homemade chips

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