Chicken and leek pie

After watching Nigel Slater's dish of the day,where this pie was featured I had to make it, it looked so delicious.

It uses very few ingredients and and is very cheap  to make and feeds a lot of  people.

If you are veggie, then some good root veg made with a good white sauce, or quorn substitute would be equally good.

I tweaked it a bit as didn't feel that bacon was needed.

I used 8 chicken legs added a few mushrooms, because they needed using up, and added in some grated nutmeg, and a little cream because I like it.

I cooked the chicken pieces in the  milk the night before and left in fridge overnight. You are left with very moist chicken which comes off the bone easily,and a a gelatinous  milky stock, which make the base sauce for the pie, but you wont need it all, or will be to runny.
Freeze what you have left to use another time for base in white, sauce, soup,and would be ideal as a base for bread sauce.

When you have softened the leeks and mushrooms,add the stock, cream, and mustard, until bubbling, then add the  flour until quite thick, then add flaked chicken at last minute, or the chicken will all break up and be a stringy mess.
Make sure  you season well with salt and pepper to taste.

Take off the heat cool and allow to cool completely, I transferred into a large shallow dish so the filling cooled quicker.

You will need a baking sheet that is at least 15 by 11 inches in size as is a big pie.

I just used the ready rolled puff pastry and placed first sheet onto a lined greased baking sheet.

NB. Don't attempt to assemble this pie on the work top then transfer onto a baking sheet, I made this mistake last week, and needed 3 of us with metal slices to try to get onto the baking sheet, it very nearly ended up on the floor!

Now spoon the filling on the pastry don't over fill, then cover with the remaining sheet, and crimp the edges to seal. Slit 3 times across the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape.

Brush with beaten egg, pop in oven for 30-40 mins.

Voila!!

We had ours with new potatoes,  marrowfat peas, carrots and gravy.

Nigels recipe here

If your lucky enough to have any leftover, it is yummy cold for packed lunch, or take a sneaky visit to the fridge during the night!