A great family chicken pie, serve this with anything green. If your children are fussy about mushrooms, try chopping them very small in a food processor. Use any chicken but thigh fillets are usually the cheapest. A standard sized pie dish is about 23cm in diameter and 3cm deep and is good for serving 4 people.
350gchicken thigh filletsskinless and boneless, cut into 3cm pieces
1teaspoondried thymeorganic
14gplain flourorganic 7g = 1 tbsp
225mlchicken stockorganic
200mlmilkorganic
500glight puff pastryorganic
1eggorganic, beaten, for glazing, or use milk
150gpurple sprouting broccoliorganic or other green vegetable
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/390°F/gas mark 7
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the bacon mushrooms and onions for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan.
Coat the chicken pieces in the thyme and flour. Try putting it all in a large freezer bag and give it a good shake.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan, add the chicken with the flour and fry until it browns.
Add the bacon, mushroom and onions back to the pan. Turn the heat down and gradually add the hot stock, stirring all the time, then add the milk. Leave this to simmer whilst you prepare the pastry.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to a thickness of about ½cm. Cut a long strip as wide as the rim of the pie dish and use some of the beaten egg or milk to attach this to the dish.
Tip the pie mixture into the dish.
Lift the rest of the pastry over the pie, pressing the edges down firmly with your fingers to seal it. Trim off any overhang with a sharp knife.
Brush the pastry lightly with the egg or milk and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and puffed up.
Steam the purple sprouting broccoli until tender or other green vegetable to accompany this.
Notes
Not all eating together or in a hurry?This dish can be prepared in advance and cooked when ready or you can simply re-heat one portion. Always try and cook the accompanying vegetables as you need them, it only takes minutes.This pie can be frozen for 1 - 2 months[nutrition-label]