I made this chicken pie the other night and it is becoming a favourite. It really is very simple, takes about 20-30 mins of preperation and 30 mins in the oven.
Don’t be tempted to leave out the cream or ask what to substitute it with, it makes a huge difference and well, some things are just better with cream and of course butter, real full fat butter.
I learned a little trick when using chicken breast from a chinese recipe some time ago, on how to tenderize chicken breast meat. Once you have cubed the chicken breast, add 3/4 teaspoon of bicarb per 250g of chicken, mix it around and let it stand for 10 minutes. Then rinse under cold water and pat dry. Believe me this makes a huge difference to the tenderness.
What you need
500g chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs flour
1 leeks thinly sliced or 1 whole punnet woolies baby leeks
1 medium onion chopped into small pieces
2 celery stalks sliced
150g butter
1 punnet button mushrooms roughly chopped (similar size pieces to chicken)
2/3 cup milk
1 cup cream
1 beaten egg for pastry
1 sheet puff pastry
The process
Heat your oven to 200 Celsius
If you chose to tenderize the chicken as recommended above, dry it off, add the flour and season with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a pot and add the leeks, onion and celery and cook for about 2 minutes.
Now add the mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes or so.
Now add the chicken and cook until the chicken is white or cooked through.
Add the milk and cream, stir well and then turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Keep stirring until the sauce has thickened and then turn off the heat.
Pour the mixture into an ovenm proof dish.
Cover with the puff pastry.
Brush with beaten egg.
Poke 2 or 3 times with a knife and into the oven for 30 mins or until crisp and golden brown on top.
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