Dinner · British

Chicken, leek & mushroom pie

Name: Chicken, leek & mushroom pie
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 500g Chicken thigh fillets; 25g Butter; 2 Leeks; 250g Chestnut mushrooms, quartered; 1 cube Chicken stock cube, made up to 200ml; 1 tsp Dried thyme; 1 tbsp Plain flour; 200ml Half-fat crème fraîche; 1 tbsp Dijon mustard; 1 sheet Ready-rolled puff pastry; 1 Egg, beaten

A proper pie on a weeknight. The pastry comes ready-rolled and nobody has to know.

Start to finish: 45 min
Hands-on: 25 min
In the fridge: 2 days
Freezes: Yes

Contains gluten, dairy, eggs, celery, mustard

Ingredients

4 portions

500gChicken thigh fillets
25gButter
2Leeks
250gChestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 cubeChicken stock cube, made up to 200ml
1 tspDried thyme
1 tbspPlain flour
200mlHalf-fat crème fraîche
1 tbspDijon mustard
1 sheetReady-rolled puff pastry
1Egg, beaten

Plus salt, pepper and water.

Method

1
Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan) and boil the kettle. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and season.
2
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Brown the chicken for 5 minutes, turning now and then.
3
Meanwhile, halve the leeks lengthways, rinse out any grit and slice. Quarter the mushrooms. Crumble the stock cube into 200ml boiling water.
4
Add the leeks, mushrooms and thyme to the chicken and cook for 6 minutes, until the leeks are soft and the mushroom juices have cooked away.
5
Stir in the flour for a minute, then add the stock a splash at a time. Let it bubble for 2 minutes until thick, then stir in the crème fraîche and mustard and season well. Tip into a pie dish roughly the size of the pastry sheet.
6
Unroll the pastry over the dish. Trim the overhang, press the edges onto the rim with a fork and brush all over with the beaten egg. Cut a small slit in the middle to let the steam out.
7
Bake for 20 minutes, until puffed and deep golden.
21 min, mostly hands-off

On the day

Leave it to settle for 5 minutes, then cut into portions and serve with buttered greens or peas, and mash if everyone is hungry. Leftovers keep for 2 days; reheat in the oven until piping hot so the pastry crisps up again.

Cook’s tip

To freeze, stop before the pastry. Cool the filling and freeze it in the pie dish or a tub. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then top with pastry and bake for 30 minutes, until piping hot in the middle.