My Chicken Pot Pie

I make my pie in a cast iron flat pan kind of like a paella pan but deeper but you can make the filling in a sauce pan and transfer it to a pie dish. Im just lazy about washing up and like to make as little as possible (although after a baking spree my husband would be inclined to disagree with that claim)

 

This is a really simple dish which is why my kids love it, its not complicated or full of a thousand ingredients.

 

The quantities you use for this pie depend greatly on the size of the pie you want to make. My pie dish (paella pan) is about 16 inches in diameter, and about 4 inches deep so the quantities below are designed for that pan. to make a smaller pie simply reduce the quantities across all of the ingredients.

 

I used:

2 large packs of chicken thighs approx 1.1kg each bone in skin on.

4-5 thick rashers of bacon

approx 1 tbsp plain flour

3 chicken stock cubes

boiling water

1 pack pre made puff pastry (i never make my own puff pastry its just too damned time consuming!)

salt

pepper

chopped sage or other herb of your choice.

 

Yes that really is all you need!

• Put the chicken thighs in a large pot.
• Crumble over stock cubes, cover to 1cm above meat with boiling water.
• Bring to the boil.
• Turn the heat down slightly and simmer for around 45 mins or until the chicken thighs are cooked through.
• Remove the chicken thighs from the stock and retain the liquid.
• Allow to cool and remove the skin and bones from the meat, set the chicken meat aside.
• Cut up the bacon into strips, In a frying pan, or in my case in the Paella dish saute the bacon in a little olive oil until browned slightly.
• add the flour and cook on a medium heat, stirring all the time for approx 2 mins til the flour absorbs the fat in the pan.
• Using a ladle add a little of the retained stock at a time to the flour mixture until a thick-ish sauce has been created. Stir continuously to avoid lumps.
• Add the chicken to the sauce.
• Roll out the pastry on a floured board
• Put the chicken and bacon mixture into your pie dish
• Put the rolled out pastry over the top, crimp, stab a hole in the centre to allow steam out during cooking.
• Cook on gas mark 6 until the pastry is brown and risen (approx 20 mins)
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