Chicken and Leek pie…God’s own lunch!

I love the word…Pie….it just feels dam good falling out of my face! Pie also evokes thoughts of warm, crispy, creamy lovely Sunday afternoons, post long cold beach walks. Pie has the ability to solve the worlds problems and if you meet someone who does not dig Pie….give them a wide birth, people who do not like pie are not to be trusted 🙂

There are rampant culinary debates around what exactly constitutes a pie, is it pastry, is it potato, is it all encased in pastry, is it baked, is it steamed……bottom line, I don’t care and neither should you. If it looks like what you consider to be a pie then it is a pie.

Chicken, beef, fish, vegetable, apple, pork….these are all pie fillers and for the  the first of my ‘Pie series’ I’m starting with the simplest..chicken.

Serves 4 (big portions)

1 whole roast chicken

1 litre of good white sauce

2 medium leeks, lightly sauted

1 roll of puff pastry

eggwash

This is the simplest pie you will ever make and in truth is more an arrangement and heat through than a complex cook up.

Start by stripping down the whole roasted chicken and tearing it into bite sized chunks, if it needs it then give it a season. I like to keep the skin but I shred it and scatter it in amongst the chicken and leek.

Scatter the chicken into a square pie/casserole dish then top it with the sauted leeks next ‘smother’ it with the white sauce and finish it with the puff pastry.

This pie will take 25-30 minutes in a 160 oven – before slinging into the oven brush the pastry with the egg wash which will ensure you get a well browned finish.

Serve with a buttery mash and something green and fresh..pies n peas works really well!