There will be an update to this post coming after the holiday season of 2024. In future, I will not be cooking the pork and bacon in advance of baking all the ingredients together in the pie shell, which is more traditional anyway. I’d always been a little freaked out about this but shouldn’t have. I still think it’s a good idea to cook the chicken in advance of the bake in order to reduce some of the moisture. We’ll see…

Yorkshire Christmas Pie gives me a warm, Charles Dickens kind of Christmas feeling. It features sausage, chicken, chestnuts, dried apricots, cranberries and spices like nutmeg, mace and ginger. The pie has been an annual tradition for Deb and I ever since a massive Christmas Eve blizzard changed our holiday travel plans in 2017. Since we couldn’t go anywhere, we decided to try a new cooking experience in the spirit of “A Christmas Carol.”

Yorkshire Christmas Pies have their roots in the gigantic wild game pies of the middle ages. Large birds, like geese, would be stuffed with consecutively smaller birds along with other wild game and baked with fruit and spices in a pastry crust.

The basis for this pie comes from the recipe on the BBC Good Food website. I’ve tweaked it in several ways. The BBC recipe calls for sausage, but does not specify what kind. I used my recipe for homemade English Banger Sausage. I cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces to make serving easier and I’ve increased the amount of dried apricots and roasted chestnuts and added an egg to help as a binder.

This is wonderful heritage food that deserves to be kept alive. It’s not fast, convenience food but it’s not fussy to make either. Only a modest skill level is needed to make an explosion of holiday flavor. Skilled bakers can make a pie much prettier than I and there is room for experimentation with ingredients. Some versions of Yorkshire Christmas Pie are solidly dense with ground pork and would make serving very convenient. I don’t mind a bit of crumble because of the jumble of flavors.

It’s a pie that would warm old Scrooge’s soul.

Ingredients:

Double Crust Pie Dough

Use ⅔ of a double-sized shortcrust pastry dough for the shell of the pie and ⅓ for the cover.

Filling:

• 1 lb. Chicken Breast, cooked and cubed
• 1 Medium Onion, finely chopped and sautéed
• 1 ½ lbs. Ground Pork
• ¼ lb. Bacon, finely chopped
• 1 cup Dried Bread Crumbs
• 1 cup Cranberries, chopped
• ⅔ cup Dried Apricots, course chop
• ⅔ cup Chestnuts, roasted, peeled, and chopped
• 3 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tsp. Ground White Pepper
• 1 tsp. Mace Threads, freshly ground
• ½ tsp. Nutmeg, freshly ground
• ½ tsp. Ground Ginger
• 1 tsp. Dried Sage
• 1 tsp. Dried Thyme
• Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon
• 1 Large Egg, whisked for the filling
• 1 Large Egg and a dash of milk for egg wash

Directions:

Step 1: Cook chicken, allow to cool and cut up into bite-sized pieces. Sauté onion and set aside.

Step 2: Coat a 10-inch diameter x 2.27-inch springform pan with oil or non-stick spray. Roll out ⅔ of a double crust pie dough and line the pan with the dough. Put the pan into a freezer for at least 15 minutes.

Step 3: Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, combine cooked chicken, ground pork, bacon, sautéed onions, chestnuts, dried apricots, cranberries, dried bread crumbs, spices, lemon zest, lemon juice and whisked egg.

Roll out the remaining pie dough for the pie’s lid.

Step 4: Fill the pie shell with the mixture. Press the contents down in order to get the mixture to hold together when baked. Place the pie dough lid on top of the pie shell and mixture. Seal the edges around the rim of the pie. Cut an “X” shape in the middle of the pie to act as a vent. Brush generously with egg wash.

Step 5: Place the pie tin on a baking sheet and bake for 60-65 minutes.

***Do yourself a favor and make this one or two days before serving. The flavors are much more pronounced and full when they have a chance to meld. Traditionally, this is meant to be served cold, but I like to reheat slices of the pie in an oven before serving.***

Merry Christmas