Creamy Chicken and Leek Pie
Introduction
This can really be put together in a ridiculously short amount of time. A roast chicken – shredded, saute the leeks and really any other vegetable you might fancy, allowing the leeks to soften and enhance the sauce with their incredible sweet silkiness.
This is a basic recipe to which I wholeheartedly encourage you to play with…add some boiled baby carrots/peas/baby spinach/boiled eggs….whatever you might enjoy….but my only suggestion would be to have the additional ingredients, cooked and seasoned so they don’t dilute the flavour of the pie. I usually say 1 chicken between four hungry individuals, however, I usually buy 2/3 chickens to have this on standby ….either for you to order through our
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“>catering option or for my constantly STAaaaRVING children.
Yes, they need to wait for it to bake, which from frozen takes around 1 hour, but hey, every so often, I astound myself and think ahead, take it out the freezer in the morning and then bake it (around 30mins) while I make the salad.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbls butter
- 1 Tbls olive oil
- 200 g leeks, sliced into rounds
- 125 ml dry white wine (optional) you could use vegetable or chicken stock
- 250 ml cream
- 1 large free-range rotisserie chicken
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- dill/parsley/basil ….any soft herbs if you have
- 500 g good-quality puff pastry – they are now sold in sheets, making them even easier
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
Cooking Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Heat half the canola oil in a pan over a high heat and sauté the mushrooms in two batches, using the remaining canola oil for the second batch. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan. Sauté the leeks until soft, return the mushrooms to the pan and add the white wine. Reduce the wine by half, then add the cream and stir to combine.
Tear large pieces of the rotisserie chicken into the cream sauce. Season to taste and stir gently, taking care not to break the chicken into smaller pieces.
Transfer the filling to a large pie or ovenproof dish and cover with the puff pastry. You can freeze it at this stage….or brush with the beaten egg and to bake for 30 minutes, or until the pastry has risen and is golden.
Cook’s note:
Store bought puff is perfectly fabulous if it’s all butter, it will certainly make a difference.
Also, don’t roll it too thin…try and keep it the thickness it is…this way you should get a lovely puff!