Chicken Spinach Quiche

I love baking, in winters because it makes the whole house smell and feel cosy when you have a bread loaf in the oven, and in summers because I don’t have to stand all the time near a stove top, melting and smouldering with the steam from the pans. I chuck something into the oven, put the alarm on and go do whatever I want to. Still I always shrank from a recipe that involved short crust pastry. The very idea of handling short crust pastry dough in the hot and humid weather of Lahore freaked me out till I tried out this recipe. I made this super easy chicken spinach quiche for the first time in the month of June, and miraculously it turned out picture perfect. The biscuit was light and the filling was moist and flavouresome. Now it’s a frequently made favourite main course in our house. I added spinach to it, you can bake it with just chicken or add any vegetables of your choice.

6 SERVINGS

For chicken spinach quiche :

For Short Crust Pastry:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups plain flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Filling:
1/2 kg chicken mince
2 onions
2 green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons soya sauce
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup Spinach, boiled and mashed
3 eggs
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

What You Need To Do:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly grease a 9 inch round pie pan (preferably with a removable bottom). Place butter, flour and salt in a food processor. Mix till it looks like fine bread crumbs. Add egg and lemon juice… mixture should form a ball. Knead dough lightly (do not overhandle the dough), wrap in plastic sheet and referigrate for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare your filling. Caramelize onions in a medium saute pan in olive oil. Add chicken and all other ingredients except spinach, eggs and cheese. Cook for 7-8 minutes. Flour a surface, roll out the dough into a thin round. Gently shift the pastry into the pie pan. Prick the bottom of the quiche, place butter paper over it and fill it with beans or chick peas. Bake for 15 minutes. Take it out of the oven, remove the beans. Spread mashed spinach at the bottom and then fill the pastry with the prepared chicken filling. Beat 3 eggs with cheddar cheese…pour over filling. Turn down heat to 160 degrees C and bake till mixture sets (about 30-35 minutes).

Serve it piping hot with homemade chilli-garlic sauce and green salad. Fear short crust pastry no more 🙂
The recipes for homemade chilli-garlic sauce and green salad are available on our site.
http://www.foodaholic.biz/green-salad/
http://www.foodaholic.biz/homemade-chilli-garlic-sauce/