Chicken Pot Pie

After traveling to the UK and the US I developed a new love for the traditional pie.

I ate a divine Shepard's Pie in a small cafe in Tenterden, Kent, England and an enormous chicken pot pie in the Brooklyn Diner in New York.

For a closer to home experience, I was a huge fan of the chicken pot pie at Capital Kitchen in Chadstone Shopping Centre but for some horrible reason it is no longer on their menu!!!

My new love for the pie followed me home and I decided to attempt my own. As luck would have it I had a recipe in the archives so I gave it a whirl.

First step was to actually buy something to bake it in, so I dropped in to a cooking store on the outskirts of the Prahan Market on High St, Prahran and picked up a cute little terracotta dish and headed home.

I had the feeling the heat needed turning up on the pot full of my filling... I ignored that inner voice ... I am usually wrong.

The beautiful finished pie was placed in the oven (after I'd decorated with a few pastry hearts).

When the pie came out it looked lovely... As you can see. The filling was a little liquid-y so I'm not sure if that was whether because the heat was a bit low it didn't reduce enough or whether I need to alter the recipe a little but I can tell you... It tasted fantastic.

Chicken, Pumpkin and Leek Pot Pie.

500g chicken breast chopped into small pieces
2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
1 Leek sliced into small pieces
2 cloves garlic
1 1/4 cups dry white wine
1 cube chicken stock
400g jap pumpkin cut into small pieces
300ml light thickened cream
Handful green beans cut into small pieces
1 sheet of puff pastry thawed
1 egg

1. Preheat over to 220 C
2. Lightly coat chicken with flour then cook in frying pan (in oil) until golden brown. Remove chicken from pan.
3. Cook leek until a little softened. Add the garlic then wine and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, crumble in stock cube and add the pumpkin. Simmer for 7 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
4. Stir the cream, beans and chicken into the mixture and return to simmer, leave uncovered and simmer until pumpkin is soft and cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Spoon mixture into a terracotta baking dish.
6. Cut pastry to the size of your chosen dish and place on top of the mixture, just overlapping the sides. Using the remaining pastry cut out little decorative shapes to place on top (I chose hearts). Brush the top of the pastry with egg and place in the oven for 15 mins until pastry is light brown and crispy.
7. Serve with a small salad and some wine, of course.

Happy Baking!!!