Pie No 2: Chicken & Leek (with some cheeky mushrooms)

After the success of the chicken and mushroom pie from the Canteen cookbook a few weeks ago and the fact the clocks went back making the evenings darker earlier I was craving pie again. I went for one in Jamie Oliver Dinners recipe book as it was in his top ten and sold in as 'the best chicken and sweet leek pie with flaky pastry' pie. Plus it seemed like it would be quicker that the one in Canteen cook book.

I ended up modifying it slightly by adding mushrooms and a base to the pie, it feels like a cop out when their is only a lid, I love the soggy pastry underneath but I think the mushrooms may have overpowered the delicate leek flavour but I really liked adding chunky carrots to the dish as it gave it texture and felt like it had more body.

I think both the pie recipes - Jamie's and Canteen are really tasty and both had different merits, the chunkiness and burst of colour from the carrot of Jamie's made it feel really hearty but the flavour in the Canteen one was a lot richer. In the end I don't think there was much difference in the amount of effort either so still definitely a dish for the weekend when you have more time.

Jamie's recipe also includes sausage balls which even though they add another flavour I would probably leave them out next time, but the boyfriend would disagree.

The best chicken and sweet leek pie with flaky pastry

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 2 knobs of butter
• 2lbs free-range boneless & skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
• 2 leeks, trimmed, washed and cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise and chopped (1/4″) (organic preferably)
• 3 sticks of celery, finely sliced
• Handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked

• Large handful of button mushrooms

• Half a packet of porcini mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 wineglass white wine

• 1/2 pint milk• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 225g pork sausages
• 1-1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 x 500g pack of all-butter puff pastry
• 1 egg

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

2. Heat the oil in a large casserole pot over medium heat along with the butter.

3. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery and thyme and cook until the veggies are soft and the chicken is mostly cooked (about 30 minutes).

4. Add the flour (2 tbsp to start) and turn the heat to high and cook for a couple of minutes.

5. Add the wine, milk and a wineglass of water and season with salt and pepper. also add the button and porcini mushrooms.

6. Cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so it does not stick.

7. Remove the lid and continue to cook at medium heat until the liquid is thick.

8. Squeeze the meat out of the sausages and roll into small balls.

9. Brown the sausage balls in 1-1/2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, put to one side.

10. I deviated from the recipe here - let the mixture cool and roll out the puff pastry to create enough to line the bottom and sides of the pie dish, and another piece to form the lid. Grease the pie dish and lay the larger piece of puff pastry in the dish to create the base.

11. Pour the chicken mixture into the pie dish and place the sausage balls around the mixture.

12. Break the egg in a small bowl and beat. Egg wash the edge of the pastry.

13. Drape the pastry over the baking dish, crimp the edges of the base and top pastry together then using a knife cut off the extra. Egg wash the top of the pastry.

14. I also made some leaves out of the pastry to decorate and placed near the centre of the pie , egg wash. I also made two slits to let the steam escape.

15. Place in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

16. It was then served with green veg (french beans, tenderstem and asparagus) and mash potatoes.