Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies

Serves: 4

Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies
Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies

I have stuck this recipe in the Leftovers section because I think its deliciousness rests wholly on the leftover roast chicken. I would even go so far as to say that you could roast a whole chicken just to make these pies. The other important ingredient is the jellied meat juices that you will have in the bottom of the roasting pan. When the chicken is cold-ideally the next day-scrape off any surface fat and spoon the jellied juices into a bowl to add to the pie filling later. I have made individual pies but if you haven’t got little pie dishes you could make one big one.

Ingredients

  • 15g butter
  • 130g streaky bacon, cut into 1cm thick pieces
  • 2 leeks, about 400g, trimmed, washed and cut into 5mm thick rounds
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 300ml chicken stock
  • 450g cooked roast chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 2 tablespoons nonpareil capers, drained
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 320g sheet ready-made puff pastry (preferably all-butter)
  • Beaten egg to glaze
Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies

Method

  1. Melt the butter in saucepan and add the bacon. Sauté over a moderate heat for about 5 minutes. Lift the bacon out of the pan with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl, leaving as much fat in the pan as possible. Add the leeks to the pan and cook gently for about 8-10 minutes until soft but not coloured.
  2. Tip the bacon back into the pan and stir in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the chicken stock and stir over a low heat until the sauce has thickened. Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the cooked chicken, any jellied meat juices, the capers and parsley. Season with a little black pepper-you shouldn’t need any salt. Spoon into individual pie dishes and leave to cool.
  3. Heat oven to 200˚c, fan oven 180˚c, mark 6. Unroll the pastry and cut out four pieces of pastry that will be large enough to cover the pie dishes. Drape the pastry over the filling-I don’t do anything fancy with the edges for these pies- and brush with a little beaten egg. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
Chicken, bacon and leek pot pies