Can I Make One Large Chicken And Ham Pie Instead Of Four Small Ones?

Our answer

Nigella's Chicken And Ham Pie recipe (from FEAST) makes 4 individual pies in dishes of around 300ml (1 1/4 cups) capacity. It is possible to make one large pie and we would suggest using a 20cm (8-inch) or 23cm (9-inch) round pie dish.

There is quite a lot of pastry in this recipe for a single double crusted pie, so you can either decorate the pie lavishly with the trimmings, freeze the leftover pastry to use at a later date or you could follow the pastry recipe for the Egg And Bacon Pie but use 150g (10 tablespoons) of butter for the pastry, rather than the mixture of butter and vegetable shortening. Glaze and bake the pie following the instructions for the Chicken And Ham Pies, but increase the baking time to 30-35 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is piping hot.