Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere
This Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere is a shockingly accurate version of the traditional pie. You’d never know there’s no beef, pork, or gluten!
Note: This recipe was first posted on my original blog, Celebration Generation, on October 10, 2016. It was transferred over to this blog - existing comments and all - on 3/4/2021
I created this Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere for Canadian Thanksgiving 2016, and now I’m updating this post right in time for Canadian Thanksgiving 2020!
I specify Canadian, because - as a Canadian married to an American - we celebrate both Thanksgivings - mine in October, his in November.
My husband is always happy to celebrate both - twice the turkey! Twice the pumpkin pie! Canadian goodies for the October Thanksgiving! - but that year, he presented me with a challenge:
He couldn’t handle eating pork or beef anymore. You know, the two main ingredients of my traditional tourtière!
What is Tourtiere?
Proper Tourtière (“Tortière”, for some) is a wonderful thing - a French Canadian meat pie, and it’s SO good when made properly.
There are probably as many ways to make it, as there are people in Quebec. Some people use mashed potatoes, some use cubed potatoes... some will skip the carrots, others may skip the celery. I’m sure the seasoning vary as well, though the ones I use tend to be pretty ubiquitous.
The Altered Tourtiere
There was NO way I was going to forgo a tourtière, so I decided to try for a workaround: I would develop a tourtière recipe that didn’t have the pork or beef, but still tasted proper. (Half my family is from Quebec, so I do get to claim “legit”, LOL!)
Starting with the meat, I went with ground chicken: he prefers it to turkey. I decided to add a TON of mushrooms to it, both for taste and texture.
I was originally going to get really weird with it and add a sweet potato, but decided against that at the last minute - the umami taste from the mushrooms was going to be filling in for the taste of pork / beef - as weird as that may sound - and I didn’t want the sweetness of sweet potatoes competing with that.
The Finished Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere
... it turned out amazing! I was actually a bit disappointed that it didn’t actually taste like mushrooms. I figured the mushrooms would be my consolation for not having beef or pork, and was actually looking forward to a mushroomy pie.
In the end, though, it just tasted like my normal tourtière!
The mushrooms provided the right texture and umami that I would normally be getting from the pork and beef, while the use of the vegetables and seasonings worked together to camouflage what was actually in it.
It’s hard to be too disappointed in the lack of mushroom flavour, when confronted with that kind of ... sorcery ... in accuracy.
Not only was this Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere great fresh out of the oven (and, let’s get real here, with all of the filling that disappeared to “quality control” before making it into the pie), it reheats very well as leftovers.
So, yeah. Not going to stress out about dietary issues getting in the way of tradition again - super happy with how it turned out.
Don’t Need it Gluten-Free?
If you don’t need it to be gluten-free, swapping the pie crust out is easy!
Simply use your favourite pie crust recipe, or even use pre-made pastry crusts - just be sure to buy enough for a double-crust pie!
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @BeyondFlourBlog - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
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Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Now, on to that Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere recipe!
Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere
Ingredients
Crust:
- ¾ cup White Rice Flour
- ¾ cup Light Buckwheat Flour
- ½ cup Millet Flour
- ¼ cup Sweet Rice Flour
- ¼ cup Corn Starch
- 2 tsp Xanthan Gum
- ½ cup Butter softened
- 8 oz Brick Cream Cheese softened
- ¼ cup Cold Water
- 1 Large Egg
Filling:
- 1 ½ lbs Crimini / Baby Bella Mushrooms Sliced
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 lb Ground Chicken
- 1 Small Onion finely chopped
- 4 Celery Ribs finely chopped
- 2 Carrots grated or finely chopped
- 2 Large Potatoes peeled and cut into ~ ⅓″ cubes
- 1 ½ Tbsp Dried Summer Savoury
- 2-3 tsp Ground Pepper
- 1 tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 cup Chicken Broth
Assembly:
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Tbsp Cold Water
Instructions
Crust:
- Measure flours, starches, and xanthan gum into the bowl of your food processor, blitz to combine.
- Add cream cheese, butter, and egg, blitz a few times until mixture resembles gravel.
- Stream in cold water as you run the food processor, just long enough to start to bring it together as a dough – you may need to use a little more or less water. Do NOT over-process it!
- Remove dough from processor, knead lightly to bring it together as a ball. Wrap in plastic film, chill for 1 hour.
Filling:
- Finely chop mushrooms – I like to use a food processor, in batches. Combine mushrooms, olive oil, chicken, vegetables, and seasonings together in a large pan or pot. Break up ground chicken into, stir until everything is relatively uniform. Add the milk and the broth, stirring once again.
- Bring mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium and simmer – stirring often – until the liquid has cooked off, and the meat has broken down almost to a paste. This should take about an hour, give or take. Once it’s ready, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 425 F
Assembly:
- Divide dough into 2 parts – one slightly bigger than the other. Roll the bigger section out, use it to line a large and/or deep-dish pie pan – carefully working it into the corners. Fill pie pan with meat filling, spreading it into the corners and mounding it in the center, packing it down as you go.
- Roll out the second part of dough, cover the pie filling. Crimp the edges as desired, poke a couple of slits in it. If desired, roll any extra dough very thin, cut into shapes, and apply to the crust for decoration.
- Whisk the remaining egg together with water, use a pastry brush to coat the entire crust with a thin wash of this glaze.
- Bake at 20 minutes, turn heat down to 375 and continue to bake for another 15 minutes, until crust is golden brown.
- Serve warm or cold.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. It looks lovely. I hope I'll be able to give it justice when I make it because I've always had problems with pastry and dough.