Black Pepper Chicken Shepherd's Pie.

What do you need for a chicken shepherd's pie?

For the black pepper chicken filling

• 700 g boneless, skinless chicken thigh, cut into 3 cm chunks
• 3 g (½ tsp) fine salt
• 5 g (2 tsp) black pepper, coarsely cracked, divided
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) neutral cooking oil
• 20 g butter
• 150 g onion (1 large), diced
• 10 g garlic (3 cloves), finely chopped
• 120 g carrot (1 medium), cut into 1 cm dice
• 25 g plain flour
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) oyster sauce
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) light soy sauce
• 5 ml (1 tsp) dark soy sauce
• 5 ml (1 tsp) Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 2 g (½ tsp) sugar
• 100 g frozen peas

For the mashed potato top

• 1 kg floury potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cut into 5 cm pieces
• 10 g salt, for the cooking water
• 60 g butter
• 120 ml whole milk, warmed
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 g (¼ tsp) ground white pepper
• 30 g mature cheddar, grated (optional)

Equipment: a large pot, a wide frying pan or sauté pan, a potato masher, a baking dish of about 20 x 30 cm, and ideally a probe thermometer.

How do you make it, step by step?

1. Put the potatoes in a large pot of cold water with the 10 g salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until a knife slides in easily. Drain well and leave in the colander for 2 minutes to steam dry.
2. While the potatoes cook, season the chicken with the 3 g salt and half the black pepper. Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken in two batches, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. It does not need to be cooked through. Lift it out onto a plate.
3. Lower the heat to medium. Add the butter, onion and carrot to the same pan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until the onion is soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
4. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute. Pour in the stock a little at a time, stirring so no lumps form. Add the oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce if using, sugar and the rest of the black pepper.
5. Return the chicken and its juices to the pan. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 12 to 15 minutes until the gravy coats the back of a spoon and the thickest piece of chicken reaches 75°C. Stir in the peas for the last 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Spoon the filling into a baking dish of about 20 x 30 cm (2 litres) and leave it to cool for 10 minutes, so the mash sits on top instead of sinking.
7. Mash the hot potatoes with the butter until smooth. Beat in the warm milk, then the egg yolk and white pepper. Season with salt to taste.
8. Spoon the mash around the edges of the dish first to seal in the filling, then fill the middle and spread it level. Rake the surface with a fork to make ridges, and scatter over the cheddar if using.
9. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the top is golden and the gravy bubbles at the edges. If the filling went in cold from the fridge, bake for longer and check that the centre reaches 75°C.
10. Rest for 10 minutes before serving so the gravy thickens and the portions hold together.

Why chicken thigh and not breast?

Chicken thigh stays juicy through a long simmer and a second cook in the oven, while breast meat tends to dry out and turn stringy. Thigh also has more flavour, which matters when the filling sits under a rich mash. Cut it into generous 3 cm chunks: they keep their bite and make the filling feel substantial, the way a good Singapore chicken pie does. donchickenpie.com's Don-style chicken pie home recreation takes the same chunky approach inside pastry, if you want a weekend project afterwards.

How much black pepper is right?

Five grams of coarsely cracked black pepper gives a clear, warm heat without burning. Crack it fresh, not from a jar of fine powder: coarse pepper releases its flavour slowly as the gravy simmers. Add half to the chicken before browning, which toasts it slightly, and half to the gravy. If your family likes it fiery, add another gram at the end. For a deeper look at why pepper sits at the heart of old-school Singapore pies, originaldon.com has some notes on pepper and seasoning from a professional pie kitchen.

What makes the mash crisp and golden?

• Floury potatoes. Russet-type potatoes mash light and brown well. Waxy potatoes turn gluey.
• Dry potatoes. Steam-drying them in the colander for two minutes stops a watery mash.
• Egg yolk. It enriches the mash and helps the surface colour in the oven.
• Fork ridges. The peaks brown and crisp while the valleys stay soft.
• A cooled filling. A few minutes of cooling stops the mash sinking into hot gravy.

Can you make it ahead or freeze it?

Yes. Assemble the pie, let it cool, cover and refrigerate it for up to a day before baking. Bake straight from the fridge at 190°C for 40 to 45 minutes, and check that the centre reaches 75°C. A baked pie keeps for up to three days in the fridge once cooled; get it into the fridge within an hour of baking, because Singapore's heat is hard on cooked food left on the counter.

To freeze, cool the baked pie completely, wrap it well and freeze for up to three months at -18°C. Thaw it overnight in the fridge, then follow our guide on how to reheat shepherd's pie.

What can you change?

• Vegetables: swap the peas for sweet corn, or add 100 g of diced button mushrooms with the onion.
• Potato: replace up to a third of the potatoes with sweet potato for a sweeter top.
• Meat: make it with minced lamb for a classic shepherd's pie, or minced beef for a cottage pie. Our explainer on shepherd's pie vs cottage pie covers the difference.
• Children: halve the black pepper and skip the dark soy sauce for a milder, paler gravy.

Chicken shepherd's pie is one small branch of a much bigger Singapore story of chicken and pastry. For that context, chickenpie.net's guide to chicken pie in Singapore traces the Hainanese-style pies that shaped how this city seasons its chicken.