I have been doing a number of meat pies in small hand held versions to use as lunch or snacks.  These make a handy meal to prepare at home and have ready to pull out to eat while traveling,  for a first night at the campsite dinner, or lunch on a daytrip.  This one comes from an Early North European cookbook Libellus de arte coquinaria. Also from this source is the Icelandic chicken recipe popular at SCA functions.

The instructions here are tailored to a hand pie version but it could easily be made up as a full size pie or with finer chopping into smaller pies for appetizers.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chopped bacon

• 1-1/2 cup chopped raw chicken* (about one breast)

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 3/4 tsp ground pepper

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 egg yolks (use the white to seal up the edges of the pie if you like)

• pinch of saffron threads

• Pastry dough for nine inch pie (one package commercial) (See Pastry Dough for other options)

Beat egg yolks with saffron and set aside.

Chop your bacon and chicken into pieces a bit bigger than a quarter inch but no bigger than half inch cubes. Bacon and chicken bits should be about the same size.

Combine chopped chicken, bacon and remaining spices, mix well.

Stir in the saffron/egg yolks mixture.

For hand pies cut out five inch rounds (or as you will as they say)

Brush edges with egg white, spoon filling onto rounds and fold in half, pinching the edges closed. Or if you have clever hands do a fancy edging on the pies. If you like you can brush any remaining egg hite over the top of the pastry and garnish with onion seed, sesame seed, coarse salt or other seeds although that is not in the original.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Makes eight to ten  hand pies with 5 inch circles of dough. (Had a bit of leftover filling)

* I have tried this with commercially ground chicken, but found that option allowed the filling to shrink away from the pastry leaving large pockets of air inside. Chunks of chicken and bacon keep the pastry filled after cooking.

The longer you wait between baking the pies and eating them the stronger the cumin taste will become. If you prefer less spicy flavor, you can reduce the amount of cumin.

Make a pastry shell of dough; into it put a hen cut up in pieces, with bacon diced the size of peas, pepper, cumin, and egg yolks well-beaten with saffron. Cover the top with dough, Then take the [filled] shell and bake in an oven this is called "hen pie" (Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book)

Other Savory Pies

• Chard Pie
• Cheese and Bacon Pastries
• Doucettes
• Figgy Piggy Pie
• Genovese Tart
• Ofella
• Simple Salmon Pie
• French Lamb Pies

Other protein dishes

• Ahrash of Lamb
• Green Meatballs
• Catalan Stew
• Ravioli
• Roman Sausages with spelt and pine nuts.

Fresh Free Range eggs give this pie a great color.