Mary Berry's One-Hour Chicken Pie

The speed of the one-hour chicken pie comes from using ready-made pastry and often calls for chicken breasts and crème fraiche to create a quick, creamy sauce. Some of Mary Berry's other chicken pie recipes are more elaborate, involving making pastry from scratch with suet or using a whole chicken and making a stock, which takes considerably longer. Known as "the doyenne of baking," Mary Berry has been a trusted figure in British home cooking for over six decades. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has published more than 75 cookbooks since her first one in 1970, "The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook". Her reputation is built on creating practical, reliable recipes for families. Before becoming a beloved judge on *The Great British Bake Off* from 2010 to 2016, she hosted numerous television series and ran her own cookery school from her home, which welcomed over twelve thousand visitors in sixteen years. The chicken pie itself has a long history, with its origins traced back to medieval England. Initially, the pastry, known as a 'coffyn', was not always eaten but served as a sturdy, edible container to preserve the filling. These early pies were a practical way to use up leftover tougher meats. By the 16th century, chicken pie became a popular dish at the banquets of the wealthy, featuring more elaborate and decorative crusts. The dish later made its way to America, where it became a staple of traditional cuisine and eventually a popular frozen convenience food in the 1950s.