Chicken and leek pie

Name: Chicken and leek pie
Prep time: 30 h
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 31 h
Cuisine: European, British
Ingredients: 1 quantity of half-wholemeal rough puff pastry; Flour (to dust); A little beaten egg or milk; 3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil, or 30g butter; 3 medium leeks (about 500g), trimmed and sliced; 1 large celery stick, finely sliced; 1 bay leaf; 500g skinless, boneless chicken thighs, large chunks; 2 tbsp plain wholemeal flour; 1 tsp roughly chopped thyme; 100ml dry white wine; 300 ml chicken stock; 1 tsp english mustard; A small bunch of flat leaf parsley, stalks removed, finely chopped; small bunch of chives, chopped; salt; pepper

7 steps

Prep:30hCook:1h

This warming pie is generous with the herbs as well as the veg, and still comes up trumps for sheer chickeny-ness too (I've specified chicken thighs, both for their flavour and their dependable juiciness). A single layer of my buttery half-wholemeal rough puff pastry tops it off beautifully. You'll probably have more pastry than you nee; you can use the excess to make some Cheesy peasy swirls.

Updated at: Wed, 23 Oct 2024 18:09:34 GMT

Ingredients

4 servings

Pastry

1 quantityhalf-wholemeal puff pastry

rough

Filling

3 Tbspolive oil

or vegetable

500gleeks

medium, trimmed and sliced

1celery stick

large, finely sliced

1bay leaf

500gskinless boneless chicken thighs

large chunks

2 Tbspplain wholemeal flour

1 tspthyme

roughly chopped

100mldry white wine

300mlchicken stock

1 tspenglish mustard

flat leaf parsley

stalks removed, finely chopped

Instructions

Step 1

Make the pastry and have it chilling in the fridge.

Step 2

For the filling, heat 2 tbsp olive oil or a big knob of butter in a large frying pan over a mediym heat. Add the leeks, celery, bay leaf and some salt and pepper and stir to break up the leeks a little. reduce the heat and sweat the veg gently for 10 minutes until the leeks are soft and silky. Transfer to a bowl.

Step 3

Put the chicken into another bowl, add the flour, chopped thyme and some salt and pepper and toss the chicken pieces to coat. Trickle a little more oil into the pan and place over a medium heat. Add the chicken and fry, turning, for about 5 minutes, until browning nicely.

Step 4

Reduce the heat under the frying pan. Add the wine and let it bubble for a few minutes to reduce and thicken, stirring and scraping to release any tasty bits from the base of the pan. Return the leeks to the pan, pour in the stock and let it come to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the mustard, parsley and chives.

Step 5

Tip the filling into a pie dish, around 1.5 litre capacity, and leave to cool completely. If you're making it ahead, cover and refrigerate.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/Gas mark 5. Roll out the pastry to about a 4mm thickness. Brush the rim of the pie dish with egg or milk. Lay the pastry over the dish and push firmly onto the rim. Trim off the excess pastry (use some to make decorations if you like, sticking them on the pie with a little egg or milk).

OvenPreheat

Step 7

Go round the rim of the pie one more time pressing with your thumb to get a good seal (you can also nick the pastry between each thumb print with the tip of a knife if you like). Brush the pie crust all over with egg or milk and make a couple of slits for steam to escape. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with peas or buttered greens.

Notes

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