Chicken Leek and Bacon Pie

I love pies!  I love the fact that they are a meal in a dish so I don’t have as much washing up to do in the evening.  Like my shepherd’s pie, they can be made in two stages to split up the work.

The recipe I used to feed two is :

1 leek (the white part for the filling and the green part for the mashed potato topping)

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

3 rashers of bacon, cooked and roughly chopped

leftover chicken torn roughly

1tb flour

12 fl oz chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Generous knob of butter to cook the green part of the leek

2 medium/large potatoes (depending on the size of your dish)

Begin by chopping the stick of celery fairly finely, then dice the carrot and dice the white part of the leek, setting aside the green part for later.

Melt a little butter in a pan and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes.

Add the tablespoon of flour and mix well in to absorb all the liquid.

Gradually add the stock, stirring it all in before adding more to eliminate any lumps.  Season the sauce and cook for 10 minutes to thicken and cook the flour.  Allow to cool and then add the leftover chicken and cooked chopped bacon (or ham).

Decant into your pie dish and set aside.

For the mashed potato topping, peel, dice and boil the potatoes, then mash. 

Dice the green part of the leek and soften in a generous knob of butter while the potatoes are boiling.

Once the potatoes are mashed, tip the whole buttery lot into the pan and stir in to combine.

Allow the potato and leek to get cold, and then dollop spoonfuls onto the pie filling and fork through.  The ridges will brown beautifully in the oven.

You can, if you wish, top the pie with some grated cheese, as I do for my shepherd’s pie.

When you are ready to eat, the pie will need around 35 to 40 minutes at 180^oC from cold.  Or 25 to 30 minutes if you’re making it to eat straight away.