Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

In honor of my first week in the UK I felt that it was appropriate to blog about a very English dish.  When I got married it was a fun challenge to begin to learn a whole new style of cooking.  Up until then my dishes had been heavily influenced by Asian cuisine.  But wanting to impress me English husband I found I wanted to try my hand at adding more English dishes to my repertoire. So there was lots of roasting of vegetables and of course pie making.  Now generally if you say to an American that you are going to be having pie they would think that you are referring to a sweet pie.  But to a Brit pie can mean so much more.  As I am just a beginner I have relied heavily on my meat pie recipes from other sources, for this particular one I used About.com.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

Pastry:

7 oz/200g all purpose/plain flour

Pinch of salt

4 oz/ 110g butter, cubed or an equal mix of butter and lard

2-3 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten for glaze 

Filling:

3 tbsp olive oil

12 oz/ 350g skinless, boneless chicken meat from legs and thighs

2 medium leeks, finely sliced

4 oz/ 110g baby button mushrooms

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

18 fl oz/ 500ml chicken stock

1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

½ tsp fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

1 beaten egg for glazing

Makes 2 large 6"/15cm individual pies or combine into one pie using a 1 pint pie dish.

Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl.
Crumble the butter into the flour using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. The key with making pastry is to keep the pastry dough as cool as possible, so avoiding a lot of hand contact is important. 

Add the water to the mixture and stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.



Heat the oil in a large skillet or deep frying pan. Add the chicken meat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken is browned all over. Using a slotted spoon remove the chicken and set the chicken to the side.




Add the finely sliced leek to the pan and cook for about three minutes stirring occasionally until the leeks are softened. Remove the leeks and set aside. Heat the mushrooms in a clean hot pan with 2 tsps of HOT oil, and saute until mushrooms are browned and then set aside with the leeks.

Add the butter to the pan and melt over a medium heat, add the flour and stir well to incorporate all the flour into the butter. You should have a really thick paste.

Using a hand whisk, slowly add the chicken stock, whisking all the time until a smooth gravy is created, cook for 3 minutes, again stirring from time to time, add the parsley and thyme and season generously with sea salt and black pepper. Simmer for 3-5 minutes to make sure gravy is nice and thick.

Add the chicken and vegetables and cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Allow the filling to cool completely.

Generously grease 2 6"/15cm ovenproof pie dishes or 1 x 1 pint dish. Roll the pastry to 1/8"/3 mm thick and line your dish/es. Re-roll the remaining pastry to make lids to fit the size of dish you are using. Place the dishes and pastry into the refrigerator to rest for at least 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6. Place a heavy cookie or baking sheet on the middle shelf. Divide the filling between the two dishes (or pint dish if making just one pie) making sure both have equal amounts of chicken and gravy. Using a pastry brush, dampen the edges of the pastry lining with beaten egg, then cover with the pastry lid and crimp the edges to seal. Brush generously with beaten egg. Using a sharp knife cut a small hole into the centre of the lid to allow the steam to escape during cooking and to prevent pastry from becoming soggy.

Sit the pie dishes onto the heated baking sheet in the oven and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling bubbling. Serve hot or leave to cool completely if serving cold.