Minced Chicken Quiche

Ready to be baked!!!

Ideally this should have been my first experiment with baking. But alas I did give it a shot. We did have a reason to celebrate this time around. AR's new job!!. Though reluctant at first owing to the amount of time it takes for the preparation, I did finally give in to my temptation.Let me tell you, you are not going to be disappointed with the end result.

To me these tarts, quiches, pies, flan all look similar but did you know they are not. 

From here I got to know they are different all together;

• Flan – baked dish consisting of an open topped pastry case with a savoury or sweet filling.
• Quiche – French term for a baked flan with a savoury filling thickened with eggs – primarily eggs and milk or cream.
• Pie – baked dish of savoury or sweet ingredients encased in, or topped with, pastry.
• Tart – an open pastry case containing a sweet or savoury filling, but according to some chefs, usually filled with sweet ingredients.

So basically you can prepare a Vegetarian filling or a Non Vegetarian filling when it comes to Quiche and I went ahead with the Non Veg this time.

Now to the actual work

Ingredients

For the pastry
1 cup + 2tbsp flour (200gm)
100gm unsalted butter, frozen cut into cubes or grated
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 beaten egg
Salt as per taste
Few ml ice cold water.

For the filling

Minced and sauted Chicken - 1 to 1.5 cup
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 beaten eggs
Pepper and Salt - as per taste

My way of making

1.Mix together flour, salt and baking powder together. Rub into this the butter, and mix until it resembles bread crumbs

2. Add the egg and mix the dough together. Few drops of ice cold water could be used as well in case the egg does not suffice. Transfer the dough to a floured surface.

3.Roll the dough to about equal thickness on all sides. The beauty of this pasty is that it does not require your base to be in any required shape at all, broken edges can server their purpose too.

4. Transfer the rolled out dough to a greased pie tray. I used a 71/2 inch sized tray. Press the rolled out dough to the sides and cover the tray on all sides, this might be tough for the first time but it gets better as you go. If the dough cracks, it does not matter just press down some from areas where you think its a bit thicker than the rest.

5. Keep this prepared dough refrigerated for about 2-3 hours.
6. Prepare the filling as per your choice. I did not have the minced chicken readily available so I went ahead with a simple minced and sauted chicken. 

6. Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

7. Beat the eggs well and to this add milk. Mix well and add to it salt and pepper if needed.

8. Thats it we are almost there, bring out the pie tray from the refrigerator, assemble the chicken, and top it with the egg-milk mix. Top it with some shredded cheese. At this juncture I use AR's help generally since I am bad at shredding cheese or butter.

9. You could decorate your quiche with decorative strips from the remaining flour and assemble them criss cross. Trust me you would not mind eating your quiche as it is without all these stuff, nevertheless I did it.

10. Bake the quiche until the top browns and is crusty for around 25-30 minutes. 

Minced chicken

Out from the oven

And a wedge for you :)

Note
1. Thanks to AR for patiently clicking to my satisfaction.

2. See to that the egg-milk mix does not overflow the crust else you might end  up in a messy oven when the dish is done.

3. I have used just one egg in the mix since I was not sure if it would overflow. Remember when in doubt, don't.

4. Eggetarians could try this dry vegetable filling made from panner, mushroom, cauliflower etc.

Inspired from Joy of Baking and Edible Gardens.