These chicken and vegetable pasties are delicious. Basically like a handheld meat pie, a pasty has a flakey pastry crust and is filled with savory seasoned root vegetables.
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Have you ever heard of a pasty (pronounced past-ee)?
A pasty is basically a handheld meat pie. The outside is a flakey pastry crust. And the filling can be anything really. In this case it’s seasoned chicken and root vegetables.
Pasties are sometimes called Cornish pasties because they were commonly found in Cornwall England in the mining towns. The miners would bring them for their meals in a pail with a heated rock to keep warm until dinner time.
I’ve heard it told that since they couldn’t wash their hands, the miners would hold the pastry crust edge with their grimy hands. They would eat all but the crust where their hands were touching and then throw that part away. I don’t know if that story is true or not, but if it is, they sure were missing one of the best parts.
Mmmh. The crust!
Growing up in northern California, where the mining industry flourished, there were several pasty shops in town. My first job was at King Richard’s pasties in Grass Valley, which is sadly no longer open. I really enjoyed working there. We wore little bonnets over our hair and white robes over our clothes. Patty was the one who ran the place and I still remember a lot of the things she taught me. I learned a lot about cooking and food. And of course that’s where I learned to love pasties.
These chicken and vegetable pasties are not exactly like any we served at the pastie shop. I never learned those recipes, but I think these pasties are equally tasty. And they always bring me a little nostalgia of those good old days whenever I make them.
Pasties aren’t hard to make, but I wanted to give you a few step-by-step instructions so you can be successful.
How to make these chicken and vegetable pasties
The Pasty Crust
The first step is making the crust.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (I like to use a pastry cutter, aff. link) and then add ice water to form a pastry dough. Then wrap the dough in plastic wrap to chill in the refrigerator while you are making the filling.
The Pasty Filling
The most important thing to remember about the filling is you want the everything diced small enough so it’s cooked through and tender by the time the pastry is cooked. I usually chop the vegetables about 1/2-inch and the meat a little bigger, about 3/4 to 1-inch.
I like using boneless, skinless chicken thighs the best because I think the dark meat gives the filling more flavor.
On the left is a picture of a turnip in case you’ve never used them before. I’ve made this recipe without turnips, just using extra potatoes and carrots, but I highly recommend the turnips. They are what give the pasty filling kind of the classic pasty taste.
The cheese in the pasty filling is optional, but I really like it.
Assembling and Baking
When I make these pasties, I usually roll out all the dough into circles at once. Then I divide the filling evenly between the pasties.
Scoop the filling on the lower half of each circle. Be sure to leave a 1-inch border around the edge where there is no filling so you can seal them up. I usually just dip my fingers in water and rub them around the bottom edge of the dough.
Then fold the top of the pasty over the bottom and press on the dough to seal it. Starting on one side, turn the edges of the dough over, folding to crimp.
Place the pasties on a parchment lined baking sheet (aff. link) and make a slit in each one with a knife to allow the steam to escape. Brush them with evaporated milk to help the browning process and then bake them.
I like to bake the pasties on an overturned baking sheet because it helps the bottom crust get a little better cooked. Nobody wants soggy pasty bottoms, do they?
When they come out, they should be perfectly golden brown and everything should be cooked and tender inside.
These pasties freeze well and also make good leftovers. We like to take them as meals-on-the-go (kind of like the miners did). I’ve found that if you wrap them in aluminum foil and stick them in a cooler, they will still warm for quite a while.
So tell me, have you ever had a pasty? What did you think?
Enjoy, my friends!
Chicken and Vegetable Pasties
These chicken and vegetable pasties are delicious. Basically like a handheld meat pie, a pasty has a flakey pastry crust and is filled with savory seasoned root vegetables.
Ingredients
Pasty Crust:
- 3 ⅔ cup (18.35 ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
- 1 ⅓ cup ice water see note
Chicken and Vegetable Filling:
- ¾ cup finely diced onions about 1 small
- 1 cup diced turnips about 1 medium
- 1 cup diced carrots about 2 medium
- 2 cups diced potatoes about 2 medium potatoes, washed and peeled
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon see note
- 1 ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese optional
- ¼ cup butter melted and cooled
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken trimmed of fat and chopped into 3/4-inch pieces, see note
- ¼ cup evaporated milk optional, for brushing on top of pasties
Instructions
For Pasty Crust:
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Add flour and salt to a large bowl. Slice butter into ½-inch pieces and cut into flour with pastry cutter or with two knives until butter is pea-sized.
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Mix in ice water into flour/butter mixture just until no dry spots remain. Add a little more ice water if needed to make a soft dough. Be careful not to overwork the dough or crust will be tough.
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Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes while preparing the filling.
For Chicken and Vegetable Filling:
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In a large bowl add diced onions, turnips, carrots and potatoes and mix together to combine (see note). Add flour, chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, and cheese (if using) and stir well. Pour melted butter over mixture and stir to combine. Add chopped boneless skinless chicken and mix well.
Assembling and Baking:
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Place an overturned baking sheet in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
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Dust a clean counter with flour. Divide the pasty dough into 6 balls. Roll out balls into 10-inch circles (they don’t have to be perfectly round).
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Divide the chicken and vegetable filling evenly between pasties, placing about 1 cup of filling on lower half of each circle (leaving about a 1-inch border around the edge of the circle). Moisten the lower 1-inch border of dough using your fingers dipped in a little water.
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Fold the top half of the pasty down over the filling, pressing down to seal. Starting on one side, turn the edge over, forming a crimp. Repeat this process all along the edge to form a nice border.
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Place pasties on prepared baking sheet and taking a sharp knife, make a ¼-inch slit in the center of each pasty. Brush pasties lightly with evaporated milk (if desired, helps in the browning process).
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Bake pasties at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. Turn heat down to 375 degrees F and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes or until pasties are brown and cooked through.
Recipe Notes
1. To make ice water, fill a cup with water and add ice. Let ice and water sit for about 10 minutes.
2. I use this homemade chicken bouillon for this recipe.
3. I’ve tried this recipe with both boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs. They both will work, but I slightly prefer the boneless, skinless chicken thighs as I think they have more flavor.
4. The most important thing to remember about the filling is you want the everything diced small enough so it’s cooked through and tender by the time the pastry is cooked. I usually chop the vegetables about ½-inch and the meat a little bigger, about ¾-inch.
Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat
All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat
Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.
My mother and her family are from Grass Valley. I also grew up eating King Richard’s pasties. I make a simplified version of them all the time , especially when I am missing my grandmother and my mom. Do you happen to have a recipe for the king richard’s original beef pasties? I can’t wait to try the chicken version.
That’s great Martha! Nice to “meet” another Grass Valleyian. This recipe is very different from the original King Richard’s chicken pastie. I was never given the recipe for any of their pasties when I worked there. Those were all proprietary secrets. 😊 but I have experimented with making beef pasties since then and I’ll share that recipe once I get it perfected. Enjoy the recipes!
The world’s only pasty museum is in the small town of Mineral del Monte north of México City. In the 1800’s lots of Cornish miners went México to work in the silver mines. They brought the pasty culture and that area is famous for their “pastes”. Being México, the fillings are very interesting.
Made today, I did a double batch and the filling and pastry worked out evenly. The pastry was divine. Our neighbors loved it also. Thanks for taking the time to do. I wonder if I could add more poultry spices next time? Or what else one might do to to make it vegetarian?
I think you could add poultry spices and that would be good. I’m no expert on vegetarian but I think these would still be really yummy with out the meat. Maybe just add a few more veggies to the recipe. Anyone else have any ideas for Matthew?
Hello! I was wondering if I could make these into mini pasties? I need to make quite a few of them and was wondering how that would change the recipe.
Hi Ellie,
Yes definitely you can. I do it all the time. They will bake a little quicker so check them earlier and I would probably even use an instant read thermometer to tell if they were done (165 degrees F internally). Good luck! 🙂
Is it possible to cook the filling first and then place it on the dough and bake?
I think that would work Pamela but I’m not sure if it would save any time as the crust still takes that long. Let me know if you try it!
This recipe sucks if its your first time making a pasty. Granted I also made a vegetable soup as a side which had way too many unnecessary steps.
The worst part about this recipe is that I had way too much filling and barely even close to enough dough and so now im stuck with leftover filling and pastys that may burn in the oven before the chicken and veg is cooked. Make something more simple.
Hey Timothy, sorry i didn’t get back in time with the answer to your first question. I’m not sure exactly on how long the dough could stay in the fridge but I would think a couple of days if you had it wrapped well so it didn’t dry out.
In response to this comment, I will say pasties are not a beginner recipe. If you don’t have experience making pies or pastries it may be something that takes a bit more time on your first try. I did carefully measure the filling ingredients when I created the recipe to avoid having too much filling for the amount of dough. I would love to have feedback on that if you feel it needs adapted any. Curious if you measured all the ingredients out exactly or just kind of eyeballed it. I’ve found that eyeballing it for me usually leads to too much filling in this recipe. 2 cups of diced potatoes, for example is a lot less potatoes than it looks like. Hope that helps!
Making this recipe for the first time this week.
How long can I store the dough in the fridge before using it?
Loved the recipe! I have extra filling. How long can I keep it in the fridge?
I would think probably about 2 or 3 days or so since it’s raw chicken.
Hi! I was wondering if you had any recommendations for reheating after they’re made. I live alone and love to cook and would love to have these on hand to take for lunch to work!
HI John. I prefer them warmed in an oven or toaster oven because the crust gets crispy, but more often I warm them up in a microwave just for convenience sake and they are delicious that way too!
Do you think you would be able to use cooked shredded chicken in this? Would there need to be timing adjustments?
Hi Julia, I think that would work just fine. I would probably not adjust the time since you still need to ensure that the veggies and pasty crust are cooked through. Good question.
Absolutely loved this recipe. The pastry was perfect and flaky. The filling flavorful!
I grew up with a pasty kitchen nearby and they served theirs with gravy to dip into but it wasn’t needed with this recipe at all.
My Dad lived in England in his late teens/early 20s and takes about getting pasties on a cold day was the best lunch ever! Thank you for the recipe. Definitely one I’ll keep and make again!
Thanks Stacey! So glad you liked the recipe. And I agree pasties make the best lunch on a cold day! Or any day! Hahah. 🙂
nice to meet you Heather, Just love it when a “Foreigner” promotes something that is part of our own culture. In South Australia, pasties are a big part of our life, mostly for lunch, or morning “smoko” as we call it. Our local bakery makes serious award winning ones. People truly go on “Pasty hunting trips” to find the best pasty in the land !!! – One ingredient that really makes ours a little different to yours, is pumpkin. We must have pumpkin and Pepper also in ours. I have read some American gold rush novels, and knew that they were a part of that era, as were the meat pies, that us Aussies also love. Looking forward to following you. Regards, Vicki from Australia.
Oh, i forgot to add, at least around 50 percent of Aussies, also serve them with tomato sauce, what you guys refer to as Ketchup !
I loved reading about pasties in your Aussie culture Vicki. And I am super interested in the pumpkin pepper pasties you talked about. If you have a recipe, send it my way. I’d love to try them. 🙂 And I’ve never tried them with ketchup, but that brings back memories from the pasty shop I worked at and people putting it on them.
Why salted butter? Salted butter and baking is unappetizing to me as it is likely less fresh. Also the amount of salt varies.
https://bakingbites.com/2007/11/can-i-use-salted-butter-for-baking/
You make a great point Ken. I’m sure you can use unsalted in this recipe. Just increase the salt in the recipe slightly (maybe by a 1/4 to 1/8 teaspoon?). I use salted butter for all my recipes because of convenience. Then I only have to buy one type of butter 😉
Having lived in England for my first half century, now California, I have eaten many Cornish Pasties, both excellent and, sadly, sometimes atrocious. Your recipe sounds excellent and I will certainly try it soon when I get my (just ordered) food dicer and processor. I may also experiment with a little curry powder (I blend my own) in some of them. I too use a lot of chicken thighs, preferring the dark meat. Thank you for publishing this ~ John,
Thanks John. The curry powder sounds like a fun twist! I’d love to hear how it goes. 🙂
Is the chicken added raw? It is not precooked?
Second question, how do you make a beef pastie? Would it be the same recipe but adding beef instead of chicken? And what kind of beef? Ground beef?? Thanks for the great post, looks amazing.
The recipe would be easy to adapt to beef. I haven’t perfected the beef pastie yet (I will post it when I do). I would use something like a tri tip or a sirloin roast and chop it in pieces rather than ground beef.
That’s right Daphne I just add raw chicken to the filling.
Can you use pre made rolled crusts such as Pillsbury? I use the for pies and they come out perfect every time. Thank you.
HI Marisa, the pastie dough in this recipe is a little more dense than pie crust. You could certainly give it a try, but I think pie crust may not hold together as well.
Pie crust has sugar to compliment the filling. I don’t know that you want sugar in a savory pie.
I’m going to try this recipe. I tried another crust recipe yesterday and it wasn’t perfect. I have fond memories of pasties for lunch at Hennessy. Hi Heather!!
Hi Tyson, I hope you like the recipe. 🙂
I’ve made chicken pies and added a bit of savoury to the crust.
Thanks for that idea Julia. I bet that would be good.
I actually grew up in Grass Valley and frequented the pastie shops! This recipe is true and tasty and very easy to make. Well done! My gram is Carol Judd, she was principal at Bell Hill for quite a while if you know her 🙂
Hey Jamae, that is awesome! I did’t know Carol but what a small world to find someone else who frequented the same places as me 🙂 Thanks for leaving me a comment and so glad you liked the recipe.
Thnx it’s very useful. So can we freeze pasties after fillin them n 4 hw long ?
Hi Sara, yes pasties can be frozen after filling them. I bake them before freezing (and in the pasty shop I worked at that’s what they always did). Mine never seem to last but I think they would probably keep well for up to 3 months in the freezer if they were sealed properly.
Hello, my husband was from Jackson, CA complete with a Pasty shop. Pasties are one of his culture’s foods that I had to learn to make (along with “green” spaghetti and pickled wax peppers). I struggle with the crust, pie crust being too tender, others too tough and not very tasty, so I am excited to try yours. Thank you!
Hi Jeanne, I love that you are learning to cook his culture 🙂 . Green spaghetti sounds a little scary though haha. Hope you love these pasties as much as we do!
I’ve tried this twice and it’s delicious. I am having some trouble with the crust though. It’s extremely sticky and very delicate. I think it needs to be dryer/thicker so it will get crisp and not puncture so easily, but other than different kneed times, which I’ve tried with no success, I’m not sure what other adjustment to try.
Hi Carissa. I’m sorry you’re having trouble. Here are a few suggestions I have. Make sure you are chilling the dough long enough. And don’t over mix it. You shouldn’t actually be kneeding this kind of dough. Just lightly mix it together. Also if you use a well floured counter when rolling it out that will help considerably. One more thing to try is not rolling out the dough too thin when making the pasties. That will help with the puncture factor as well. Good luck.
This Michigan girl gives it ☆☆☆☆☆! Great flavor and crunchy crust. I’ll be making them again once I figure out how to dice the veggies easier.
Thank you Cindy!! I use a veggie chopper sometimes because you’re right there are a lot of veggies to chop up!!