You want a small pie that fits in the hand: short pastry, shredded chicken in a lemon-scented gravy, the lid sealed and gold. They travel. They are the picnic, the café counter, the thing under glass in a pastelaria that you eat standing up.
The empada is Portugal's portable lunch — rich enough, small enough. Lemon in the gravy is the Portuguese note; without it the filling is only chicken, and that will not do.
The pastry should be short, with a few pea-sized bits of butter left in. Bake until the glaze takes colour. They are good warm and better at room temperature, which is why they exist.
Method
- 01
Cut the cold butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs, with a few pea-sized bits remaining — those bits make the pastry short. Bind it with the egg and just enough cold water to bring it together. Don't knead; press. Wrap the dough and rest it in the refrigerator while you make the filling, at least 30 minutes.
- 02
Soften the onion in a pan until it is sweet and translucent. Stir in the tablespoon of flour, then the chicken stock, and let it bubble into a lemon-scented gravy. Fold in the shredded chicken, the lemon zest, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cool the filling completely — a hot filling will melt the pastry before it ever sees the oven.
- 03
Roll the pastry and line small tins or muffin cups, leaving a little overhang. Spoon in the cooled filling — not to the brim, or it will bubble out. Cut lids, settle them on, and pinch or crimp to seal. Brush with beaten egg so they bake gold, and prick a tiny steam hole in each lid.
- 04
Bake at 375°F until the pastry is gold and the glaze has taken color, about 25 minutes. They should smell of lemon and chicken and butter. Rest them a few minutes in the tins, then turn out. They are good warm and better at room temperature, which is why they travel so well to picnics and café counters.
