Sunday Lunch - Chicken and Leek Pie

May not win any beauty contests but was absolutely delicious!

This weeks Sunday lunch is a bit of a cheat as we didn't actually eat it on Sunday, but why mess with a nice little blog routine eh? This Sunday we had some friends over to watch a sporting event so opted for Fish and Chips from the shop around the corner. Lazy but delicious!

I seem to be on a bit of a pie kick right now, I think it is the wintery weather that has sent me spiraling into a warm blanket of pastry. It really is the ultimate comfort food. Although for the sake of my waistline I shall have to stop making it so often!

I seem to be posting my shortcrust pastry recipe a lot on the blog so I won't post it again, simply head over to last weeks pie recipe to check it out...

I think the prep time for this meal was a bit much for a midweek dinner but you can totally use ready-made pastry or make a big batch of pastry at the weekend and freeze it, ready for midweek use.

The filling of this pie is not something I have ever attempted to make, I have always said on this blog that savoury cooking is not my strong suit so I was a little nervous about trying something new, especially as I had no back up plan for this dinner and a hungry boyfriend to feed.

I loosely followed this and this recipe for guidance but just sort of winged it really.

Chicken and Leek Pie Filling
Click here for printer friendly recipe

1 leek (chopped as chunky or finely as you like)

Left over roast chicken (You can use any chicken, just cook it beforehand)

1.5 pints of chicken stock

2 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon of double cream

Oil or frylight for cooking

Salt and Pepper to taste

I started off by gently frying the chopped leek until softened and then added a tablespoon of flour and stirred to combine.

I then added 1 cup full of stock and stirred, the stock should immediately thicken.

Once fully combined add the remaining stock and cooked chicken.

The few recipes I had seen for similar fillings didn't say to add any further flour but my filling was very liquidy so I added another generous spoonful of flour and it thicken up lovely. I added salt and pepper to season.

I then added a tablespoon of double cream to finish it off and add a lovely richness, although it still tasted nice without.

I probably made a million culinary mistakes in this recipe but it tasted amazing and was a huge hit! I think next time I will try to thicken it up a little more as it was very runny when I served it.

You could also make it less calorific by perhaps using creme fraiche or Philadelphia rather than the double cream, also serving in mini pie dishes with just a pastry lid would be lovely too. Also if you don't live with a complete vegetable-a-phobe than you could add other veggies to beef it up a bit, I think mushrooms would work a treat!

What are your favourite pie fillings, I really want to broaden my savoury repertoire.