Next up for the rotisserie chicken challenge is Mehreen Karim, pop-up chef and food writer. She takes a grocery store chicken and turns it into a chicken korma pot pie topped with a heart-shaped puff pastry crust. Merging her two favorite dishes, Bengali chicken korma and pot pie, she creates a cozy yet spicy casserole dish that's easy to make at home.
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00:00Wait, this is so fun. I think my nails are shallot colored
00:06What an exciting day for me
00:11Hi, I'm Mehreen and I'm gonna turn this into this
00:19So I'm making a chicken korma pot pie
00:22which basically takes the spices and flavors of a traditional Bengali chicken korma and
00:28Mixes it with the fillings of a pot pie and of course the puff pastry topping that we all know and love
00:34Okay, let's open up the chicken and see what kind of bird we're working with. It's a big one
00:41This is definitely
00:44Bigger and seemingly juicier than the ones I get at the grocery store near me. Oh
00:49She is juicy. I'm gonna start just getting the legs and the wings off pretty much
00:55This is a special occasion dish, I do not make chicken korma pot pie often
00:59I think the last time I made it at home. I actually made little hand pies
01:05So we call them patties for Ramadan
01:07We usually make a bunch of little like puff pastry hand pies with a variety of filling and my feeling usually
01:14Resembles the chicken korma that we're gonna make today
01:15And then sometimes like when you're breaking down a chicken if you're cutting in like one millimeter off
01:22It'll feel tougher than it should be but once you find the sweet spot like where the socket meets the bone it is
01:28like butter
01:30So now that we have the legs and the wings off. I'm gonna cut around the breastbone
01:35I just touched like the top of the bone where it like spreads out to the two breasts
01:39That's how I know to move down and then I found a sweet spot where I can just cut a full line down
01:45The only reason I would want to carve it is because I would like to use the center of this chicken for a stock
01:52My main goal with this rotisserie chicken, there's so much fat involved
01:55There's so much skin and it would be a shame not to use it in the pot pie and the pot pie gravy because gravy
02:02Is just fat and if we can use the fat from the actual chicken, it'll be so much more flavorful than just butter
02:08So from here like after I have all the meat
02:11I'm just gonna start hand pulling these bones off because it's so easy and I will separate that into the same dish that will go
02:18Into the stock if I can help it. I would like to only use dark meat here
02:22it would just really consolidate the cooking time and
02:26Be juicy. Okay. I feel like this is about this is probably three cups of chicken actually because this looks like one and a half
02:32and one and a half
02:34It is chopping time
02:36So I'm just gonna start giving this a rough chop and along the way if I like find extra fatty pieces
02:42I'll throw them in the stockpile
02:46And again like every step of the process
02:48I'm just checking to make sure there's no extra skin that will fall off while it's cooking and
02:54These these are for lunch on a different day
02:58one of the
02:59Signature elements of a chicken korma is the onion or shallot paste that gets made at the beginning
03:05I think four
03:07Giant shallots should be enough, but we're gonna see I might even use more because they can surprise you
03:13There are so many alliums in South Asian cooking and I think that's like the number one
03:19Difference I've learned while doing pop-ups at restaurants is that the chefs are just like why do you need 20 pounds of onions?
03:26And I'm like, I'll show you I'll show you why I need 20 pounds of onions. We've never had leftover onions. Oh
03:32My god, there's a shallot in here. I almost like threw this baby away
03:36So a lot of my food influences growing up were not just South Asian but Southeast Asian as well
03:41So when I found Malaysian street food in New York City
03:45that was so exciting because that is just like special occasion food in my house because Malaysian cooking can be so
03:52Tedious there's lots of pastes and frying. I
03:57Guess that's one or two millimeters
04:00I mean, honestly when I spent time cooking on Next Level Chef
04:03I had no other choice, but to not look stupid and like learn how to properly claw and like make sure I
04:10Mise things out. So a lot of the basics of culinary school people were saying that they felt
04:17Being on the show was like a culinary school boot camp
04:22Mere qua. It's the name given to the celery onion and carrot mixture
04:29That's usually at the base of a lot of European dishes
04:32I don't know if it's just specific to French food, but it does show up in like a bolognese or Italian food
04:36It might have a different name though. I know in a lot of
04:39Latinx cooking they use sofrito, which is a similar version with I think they have like more bell peppers in there different ingredients
04:47And it's funny when I think about what the equivalent of a mirepoix is in South Asian cooking or Bangladeshi food onions ginger garlic
04:54So I feel like there's an aromatic base or trinity to so many different cuisines and this is the
05:00French slash European one in my head. This is much bigger than a
05:05Traditional mirepoix, but that's fine because I don't want the carrots to like melt away into this gravy
05:12I want them to be
05:14Analogous to the chicken as well
05:16So it is gonna serve as an aromatic base, but we already have a lot of that going on with the onions ginger and garlic
05:23That's the actual mirepoix here
05:27Okay, so I'm going to start by filling it about
05:31Halfway of the height of the ginger and garlic with the oil because we want enough
05:39Okay, I'm gonna start I feel good about that, okay, let's chop my whole body's diarrhea
05:46So
05:48Hopefully chopping it using this little chop button. We'll get it down to an even size and then now let's try to grind
05:57I'm gonna give it some time
06:00to reflect
06:01So take a spatula spoon, whatever and just push down your sides because we want to make sure there's no rogue
06:08Ginger bosses up here depending on whether you're using a blender or a food processor
06:14If it's been a smooth journey so far great continue
06:17But if you feel like it's been stagnating feel free to add like a glug of oil
06:23Okay, we're in a beautiful place because it is like mashed potatoes kind of
06:32Danish
06:33We have chopped all our veggies and aromatics. So now we're ready to fry
06:37We actually want to start the shallots off in cold oil and then turn the heat up and let them
06:42Residually heat up with the oil and then they'll come to a nice fry. So to start I'm just going to fill this
06:51deep pan about
06:53two inches
06:54Now before turning the heat on I'm just gonna I'm gonna run my fingers through the shallots a little bit to help them
07:01Detangle thankfully the oil is not hot
07:03So you don't have to be scared of plopping them in
07:06Once again continue to just like break it up in your fingers where you can
07:10Anything that doesn't get broken up. We'll stir it around
07:13So I'm turning the heat on to like medium high just to get it started
07:18I'm just gonna use a wooden spoon to start pressing the shallots down into a place where they aren't
07:25Crowded in clumps like they're definitely gonna be touching and that's fine
07:28We actually are relying on the shallots to release some of its moisture into the oil to prevent it from getting super crispy or burnt
07:36One of my favorite things about making fried shallots or fried onions is that you can just set it and forget it when you fry
07:41from cold
07:42It's when you start hearing it and smelling it where you're just gonna look at it and stir it around to make sure that everything
07:46Gets browned evenly
07:50When it starts to bubble and when I can smell the shallots like I'm gonna see that it's starting to cook
07:56Which means I just want to shake it around one time before I let it rest again at this stage
08:02You want to make sure that as soon as it starts bubbling you at least stir
08:09one time
08:10Because that means the base of the pan is probably the hottest and all of the shallots that are at the base are gonna get
08:16Hotter and fry faster than the ones at the top
08:20So all of the shallots now magically fit in one layer because they have now lost a lot of their moisture and steamed off
08:27Now they're finally starting to brown.
08:30I want to make sure these like golden brown ones stay where they're at. These other juicier pieces of shallots
08:37We'll just continue frying while they're off the pan. So now just using a spider or some sort of slotted spoon
08:44Drain as much oil as you can, but if not the paper towel will get it
08:48Wow, we thought the day would never be here
08:52So now we're gonna make a paste from the shallots and the chicken skin
08:58Actually, I'm not even sure that I've made shallot paste myself
09:01I've only heard about it from my own mom
09:03But we're gonna see if it works with chicken skin as well and I will get back to her
09:07So I'm gonna start off with like half the amount of shallots we have one
09:11It's nice to have crispy shallots on hand. So we might not need to use all of it
09:15We really just want like a few tablespoons of this paste to start off the base of our pot pie gravy
09:22And then I'm gonna put all the chicken skin in here because I do want to get the most out of that
09:27rotisserie chicken fat and
09:29Hopefully we shouldn't need extra oil because the fried shallots have reserved some of that oil. It was frying in but we'll see
09:41Okay, and that was just on the chop setting and it's looking pretty good so now to grind
09:47I'm very excited to smell this. Ooh
09:50That's a paste. Good job mini chopper
09:54Wow, and that is about the exact amount I wanted so to start off making our filling
09:59I'm going to set a deep saucepan pot on
10:04medium high heat and add about four to five tablespoons of butter and we just want to melt the butter down
10:11While we prepare to make a roux. A roux is a combination of butter and flour that's been cooked down
10:19A roux is gonna be a paste and that paste is going to keep the sauce thick as you add liquids
10:26So we're just gonna start by melting the butter down. I'm gonna start off with
10:30it's probably like three tablespoons, but
10:33Actually, I'm just gonna do all of it because I want this as pungently
10:37Chicken and onion-y as possible because that is the heart of a korma
10:41I'm just gonna let it break down into the butter and let all of the various fats get to know each other
10:49This is adequately melted. So now to add a few tablespoons of flour
10:55We want this to be a pretty dry almost dough like paste at the beginning
11:00Because we're gonna introduce many more liquids here that are gonna turn it into a smooth gravy. This smells so good
11:08I didn't think that the shallot chicken paste could smell any better. But then we introduce butter and
11:14It officially smells even better
11:17Delicious. I'm gonna add my
11:20Onions, I've grown up watching my mom say onions first and I could not possibly record this video
11:27And not do that and show it to her and just adding the onions won't get you that far
11:34we actually need to go ahead and start layering in our salt this will help the onions release a
11:41good amount of moisture and
11:43soften them
11:45So I'm gonna first start with
11:48ground coriander and I do have garam masala, which I'm also gonna be adding and I think
11:54After I let the spices mix in and cook with the onions a little bit
11:59I'm ready to add either water or a little bit of chicken stock
12:02If you have some lying around and this will also help the sauce and gravy start forming
12:08So just enough to like reach the perimeters of the pan and mash everything down
12:14You can see it's already starting to thicken
12:17I'm now gonna add about
12:19one
12:20heaping tablespoon of the ginger garlic
12:23Now that we have this liquid in here
12:25I'm gonna also add our carrots and celery because we want to give these time to simmer and
12:32Release their own juices like a cup and a half total of both
12:39That's gonna thicken some more
12:40I'm just mixing it now to make sure that all of the roux is dispersed and
12:44Getting a chance to thicken the liquid that we just put in. I'm gonna add a little bit more stock
12:51To give the celery and carrots a chance. We're going to now cover this
12:55I'm gonna leave it like slightly ajar so it doesn't bubble up
12:58I'm gonna let it go for a total of 20 minutes, but at about 10 minutes
13:03That's when we're gonna add in the chicken because the chicken needs a chance to also get to know everyone else
13:10So it's been about 10 minutes, let's go ahead and add the chicken
13:18I would like to add a little
13:21cheat code for sweetness
13:23It'll help bring out the savoriness to add a little bit of honey and to really make that caramelized
13:29Shallot flavor shine. So a dash of honey isn't gonna make it too sweet
13:33It's just gonna balance out all the savory notes and we're just gonna let this simmer now on
13:38medium heat and I want to get it even thicker and more reduced than where we're at because
13:45The final ingredient to any korma is some yogurt
13:49It is pretty classic to add yogurt to a chicken korma. Of course add some tang and creaminess at the same time
13:57So now we can take this off the heat and put it directly into our 9 by 13 casserole dish
14:05You can use one sheet of puff pastry dough roll it out to the size of a casserole dish about 9 by 13 and
14:12You can be done with that, but I have heart cookie cutters and I'm gonna use them
14:16I would love to shingle these on to the pot pie and create puffy little hearts everywhere because
14:23That's how it feels when you eat a pot pie
14:27By the time you roll out your puff pastry the surface of the pot pie filling should have cooled down just enough to not be
14:35boiling
14:39We have our pot pie filling ready to get shingled with puff pastry at this point
14:44Have a pastry brush out in case you have excess flour on your sheet of pastry a gentle brush will do
14:51I'm gonna start by
14:54Placing on the large hearts onto here and you want to work like relatively quick just so even the residual
15:02Warmth of the filling doesn't start melting the pastry and I think from here
15:08I'm actually just gonna start using the mediums and smalls
15:10When you brush egg wash onto something like pastry or breads anything you're basically giving it an extra
15:18Browning power so it'll brown much quicker and evenly
15:22Which also means it can act as like a paint of sorts not actually paint
15:26But some hearts can be more brown
15:29You can get creative some can be washed and some don't have to be and if your brush dips into the filling
15:36That's no problem because that filling is mostly some fat anyway
15:41So it'll also help the browning of your pastry. Now. I'm gonna fill in the gaps with some medium sized hearts. I
15:49Could put hearts on here for the rest of my life
15:53So now I will go and just put the wash on the little baby hearts and now we're ready for the oven
16:01I think this will go for maybe like
16:0325 ish minutes in the 400 degree oven and we'll be back
16:13It has been about 30 minutes, so we're gonna go ahead and take it out of the oven. Oh, she's gooey
16:24Hearts I
16:27Am so happy with how this turned out
16:30You should definitely let this cool you should let any casserole or puff pastry
16:35Pot pie cool for at least like 20 minutes
16:37I am going to serve myself a bowl of it and garnish it a bit and try it
16:45Okay, I think cuz it's so hot. It's like very wet right now, too. So it might be a little soupier
16:51We
16:53Have some extra crispy shallots from what was left over
16:58so I'm gonna sprinkle that in because that's just
17:00nice texture as always and a nod to the base of this whole flavor and a little bit of cilantro or
17:08Greenery never hurt. Now. Let's attempt a bite
17:16That is a corner that's exciting
17:22I'm very proud of myself
17:26I've made a few different versions of this and I always
17:30Find that the spices try too hard
17:34Which I'm so glad that I just leaned into that shallot puree because that is the reason this tastes like a proper gorma
17:42There is so much depth to this sauce
17:45Without relying on the garam masala to make it taste like gorma or without
17:50Relying on the coriander powder
17:52The ginger and garlic are definitely there like a bolstering up that juicy
17:57Red meat from the chicken and the chicken actually absorbed all those flavors really well as far as I can tell
18:03So I am extremely happy
18:06With this balance. I've made a version of this at pop-up and yeah
18:10This has completely changed the recipe that I first entered this video with for sure
18:15And I'm really glad that I made these changes because I think this is absolutely doable at home
18:20But also, I don't know. I've never tasted the exact merging of these two favorite foods before I've tried
18:25I've tried for years and finally feels like what I was looking for this whole time