Chicken Pie

Ahhh, the humble chicken pie!  I have an undying love for this dish and the ingredients it contains!

I had a good look at a number of different chefs versions of this classic and most looked mouth-watering, but only very few combined all the ingredients that I would deem MUST go into a chicken pie – double cream, white wine, rich stock, bacon, leek and mushrooms!  So I’ve come up with my own version and combined them all!  Warning, your kitchen will never smell as good when cooking this dish!  ENJOY!

Ingredients:

• 400g of chicken
• 100g of leek, trimmed and sliced
• 2 rashers of smoked bacon
• 120g of mushrooms
• 25g of butter
• 250ml of chicken stock
• 125ml of white wine
• 300ml of double cream
• 1 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to season
• black pepper to season
• sheet of puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

• Pre-heat an oven to 200c/Gas mark 6.
• Add 1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil to a frying pan and set to a high heat.  Cover the diced chicken in flour, season with salt and black pepper.  Dust of the excess flour and add to the hot pan.  Brown the chicken all over but be careful not to over cook.  Set aside.

• In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil and bring to a medium heat.  Add the leeks and bacon and cook for one minute.  Add the mushrooms and the butter and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
• Add the stock, wine, double cream, thyme & bay leaves and bring to the boil.

• Once reduced by around a third, reduce the heat and add the chicken and keep cooking.  Once the sauce has thickened slightly, remove the bay leaves and thyme (be careful not to reduce too much or the sauce will become too thick as it still has a further 20mins cooking in the oven).

• Add the contents to a pie dish.  Cut a piece of puff pastry so it covers the pie dish and trim the edges for a neat finish.

• Cook for around 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown in colour.
• Serve on it’s own or with green beans and new potatoes.