Chicken Pie with Mushrooms, Sweetcorn and Herbs

There’s not a huge amount to say about this. It’s a chicken pie, made from leftovers from the preceding roast chicken. 

It is very good, excellent comfort food. I think though that next time I will use the Jamie Oliver trick of putting little balls of sausage meat on top of the sausage mixture before topping wiith the pastry - then it really will be something special.


Chicken, Mushroom, Sweetcorn & Herb Pie
serves 4

Stripped meat from the roast chicken carcass (I had about 300g)
1 leek, trimmed and washed
30g butter + a further knob
olive oil
1 tbsp lemon thyme leaves
1 tbsp tarragon, coarsely chopped
100g mushrooms, sliced
35g pancetta cubes
any leftover creamed corn from the roast
2 tbsp plain flour
small glass white wine
75ml cream
sea salt + freshly ground black pepper
shop bought ready made puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with a little milk

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Shred the meat from the chicken carcass, discarding the skin (or, as I do, give to the cats). Put the carcass to one side to use for stock for a soup.

Slice the leek in half lengthwise, turn then cut again so the leek is in quarters. Hold these together then slice thinly.

Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large pot over a low heat and add the leek. Cook this slowly, and be sure not to let it colour, for about 15 minutes. About halfway through add the stripped lemon thyme leaves and chopped tarragon.

Add the mushrooms & pancetta cubes and continue to fry for about 5 minutes. Tip in any creamed corn that you may have leftover from the chicken roast.

Push the mixture to the side of the pan, add the knob of butter and let it melt, sprinkling the flour over. Blend the flour into the melted butter with a wooden spoon then mix the leek, mushrooms etc back in with the shredded chicken, a splash of wine and 300-400ml of chicken gravy.

Season generously with freshly ground pepper and a little salt, pour in the cream and stir through. Remove from the heat and set aside.

While the chicken mixture is cooling, roll out the pastry on a floured surface so that is slightly bigger than whatever pie dish you are using. It should be about 5mm thick.

When the chicken has cooled somewhat, pour it into the pie dish then brush the lip of the dish with a little beaten egg. Carefully lay the pastry top over the filling, crimping the edges and trimming off any excess. Brush the top with the beaten egg.

Pop the pie in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes. It should be done when the pastry is golden brown.

Serve with sauté potatoes - if you’re lucky you should also have some of the parsley potatoes left over from the roast, so slice those up and sauté in a little oil.