Mexican Chicken Pie - Budget Dinner

Mexican Chicken Pie 

This budget dinner it’s a cracker: a Mexican chicken pie with creamy mash, spiced tomato-bean filling, and crispy chorizo on top.

Serves: 2–3
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Special Equipment: One oven-safe dish and a grill or oven for finishing

Let’s learn how to make it.

This budget-friendly Mexican chicken pie is filling, warming, and packed with bold flavours — and every ingredient came from what I already had in the fridge or pantry. It’s a brilliant way to use up a third of your cooked chicken, and you don’t need anything fancy to make it taste amazing.

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes (for mash)

• Salt and pepper

• Butter or milk (whatever you have, for mashing)

For the filling:

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 carrot, diced

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 chorizo sticks, diced

• 1 can chopped tomatoes

• 1 can mixed beans, drained

• 1 can sweetcorn, drained

• 250–300ml chicken stock (homemade or a stock cube)

• ⅓ of a cooked chicken, shredded

• Spices: cumin, cinnamon, paprika, chipotle or whatever you have

Method

1. Make the mash:
Peel and chop your potatoes. Add them to salted cold water and bring to the boil. Cook until tender, then mash with butter, milk, or a splash of cooking water. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Crisp up the chorizo:
Place diced chorizo in a cold pan and cook on very low heat for around 15 minutes until golden and crispy. Set aside for later.

3. Start the filling:
In a large pan, sauté the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt until soft. Add your diced carrot and spices, and cook for a few minutes until fragrant.

4. Build the stew:
Add the canned tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the beans, sweetcorn, and stock. Cover and let it all simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste and season as needed.

5. Assemble the pie:
Stir in your shredded chicken and pour the stew into an oven-safe dish. Spoon over the mash and spread evenly. Grill or bake for 5–10 minutes until golden and crisp on top.

6. Finish with chorizo:
Sprinkle over the crispy chorizo just before serving.

Chef’s Tip:
This filling is so flexible. No beans? Use lentils. No sweetcorn? Leave it out. You can adjust this to whatever’s already in your pantry and still get a delicious result.

Enjoy – Del x

Here are the other 2 recipes for using up another 1/3 of this cooked chicken.

Chicken Stew and Chicken Noodles