Stovetop Chicken Pastel

I have always thought of Chicken Pastel as a party dish.  Something that's served only on special occasions.  After cooking this twice in my lifetime, I realized that a budget conscious family may find this a bit pricey for an ordinary meal.  This won't be in our weekly menu but we could splurge every couple months or so.  Who knows, I may even try to make the pie crust someday.

What I used

• 800 grams skinless boneless chicken breast
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce
• juice from 2 lemons
• 2 cups cold water
• salt 
• pepper
• 75 grams butter
• 1 can chorizo bilbao, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 can vienna sausage, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 can whole button mushrooms, cut in half, reserve liquid
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut in cubes
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cut in cubes
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 chicken cube dissolved in 1 cup water

What I did

• marinated the chicken in soy sauce and lemon juice for around 30 minutes
• transferred the chicken to a deep saucepan and added cold water, salt and pepper.  let it simmer
• removed the chicken and cut them into serving pieces then returned them to the broth
• once soft and tender, removed the chicken.  poured the broth into a heat resistant measuring cup.  
• in the same pan, melted the butter and added about a teaspoon of the lard from the chorizo
• browned the chicken pieces then stirred in the chorizo and vienna sausage
• returned the broth which was a little over a cup and added the remaining marinade and the liquid from the mushrooms
• seasoned with salt and pepper
• mixed in the potatoes and carrots
• since the liquid was not enough, i added a chicken cube dissolved in 1 cup of water
• added the mushrooms when the carrots and potatoes were fork tender
• in a cup, I got some of the broth and thickened it with some flour then returned it to the pan

The sauce came out too dark and the sour taste from the lemons were overpowering.  I place in too much flour and made the sauce too thick and gooey.  The chicken was a bit dry and the vienna sausages were too small that they may have disintegrated and blended into the sauce.  Although a lot of things went wrong, the dish was pretty edible and tasty.

My other attempt was more successful.  Too bad I can't remember exactly what I did.  

The next time I try to cook this, I will cut the boneless chicken before marinating them or better yet, I would use bone in chickens.  I would cut the soy sauce, lemon juice, flour and marinating time in half.  And maybe I'll even add some milk or cream and olives.    

-----------------------------------
By the way, this was adapted from a Nora Daza recipe.