Hello everyone! Zak Ludick here from Cape Town, South Africa and I have been cooking this little dish in my head for the last couple of days now.
Unfortunately a certain child in the house ate all the cheese in the container I had in the fridge without permission otherwise this would have been even better!
So... a Cottage Pie is usually made with Mince and Veg in a pan and covered with Mashed potatoes and baked till it is a pie.
This version would have Chicken Schnitzel as the meaty layer and I would add the Veg to the Mash because the Schnitzel cannot be mixed in.
Servings
This recipe can plate 8 servings. We are a family of 5 and we ate 5 portions last night and still have 3 portions left over. Depending on your family size and the size of pans and ovens available to you, you may need to adjust the ingredients.
Ingredients
- 21 Potatoes (depends on the size and how much mash you need
- Butter or Margarine (For the Mash)
- Milk (For the Mash)
- Bag of Chicken Schnitzel. It turns out that this was exactly enough in this case. If there was too much, I would have overlapped them. If there was too few, I would have used Chicken slider patties to fill in the gaps.
- Can of Peas
- Can of Sweet Corn
- Oil
- Salt
Step 1 - Make some Mash!
Easy enough, peel and chop and boil till soft. Add your milk and butter and mash until a smooth paste is formed. Do not be shy with the butter/marg and milk, it will come out smoother and creamier.
I do not have exactl measurements. Let the consistency of the mash guide you!
Step 2 - Prepare the Pan
I selected the largest pan I had.
As mentioned, the vision was that I use the Schnitzels, but I had a backup in place. First I did a dry-fit to see what I needed to fry up.
Turns out that this bag and this pan are perfect for each other! 8 Pieces in a bag and there it makes a whole layer at the bottom of the pan.
Step 3 - Fry up the Scnitzel
Using the Oil, I fried up the schnitzel. Look, you could probably come right with burger patties, chicken bites, strips or even something like fishfingers for this step.
For the Vegetarian, you could still make this dish with your favourite filling: Perhaps fried veggie bake, or large brown mushroom would be my favourite pick for this sort of thing. What I would not put in here is something that doesn't cut easy or that has a hard or stringy part to it.
Step 4 - Build the Pie!
I could not envision the Cottage Pie being the base of this pie. So I first put a layer of mash at the bottom of the pan. I used one of those cake spatulas to spread it all out.
Look at that! Nice and smooth!
I scooped out a portion of mash to be kept to the side for the topping. At this point I had placed the first four Schnitzels down and I got ready to make the filling.
The centre filling would contain the vegetables. Honestly, I would have like to see a bit more colour in the dish so chopped and soft boiled carrot would have been nice.
Or perhaps next time I shall try this step with a bag of fine mixed frozen vegetables and see how it looks.
Drain the brine from the peas and then the two cans go in the rest of the mash and stir and fully combine.
Now l layered in the rest of the chicken.
I had 
Aha, look at me, le chef! 😂😂😂😂😜.
Let's get the rest of the mash in there!
So the second layer is done here.
The Veggie-Mash mix now goes in. As I said, next time, more Veggies, less Mash... But it was an experiment.
Spread all the mash out.
Right, there we have all the veggie-mash in the pan and spread out. Finally topped with the pure mash. The idea would be to add seasoning and cheese to this layer.
But the cheese was eaten, so all I could do is sprinkle some salt and spice on the top like so...
This is "Nyama-Choma" spice, a brand of Braai Spice in South Africa. It is a spices and salt mix. You could really do whatever you want to your taste on this layer. There are many versions that I would like to try out!
Ta-da! Ready to bake!
Step 5 - Bake for 5-10mins
Please check your oven regularly at this point! I nearly burnt my pie as I set to high heat and grille and then went to set the table.
Crispy on top. I saved it just before a proper burn but the idea is to make it golden-brown.
I made cuts along the lines where I remember where all the Schnitzels were and then lifted them up with an egglifter. Here is
I think these potions are large enough for an adult and thus, 8 potions. If You were dishing for an 8 year old or something then maybe a part of one piece would be the idea.
It was delcious! Add salt to taste and use condiments if you really want.
Next time.
Like I mentioned. I would like to increase the Vegetable ration next time as well as add a cheesy topping! That would make this absolutely amazing!
Thank you for reading!
