A quick post today to bring to your attention the addition of a recipe I really like: the chicken and leek pie. The title may seem a lot of work but in the end, can be done quite rapidly as different preparation steps can be done at the same time.
This recipe was an “on the spot” inspiration. I had not researched anything. It started with a friend mentioning she had a chicken and leek pie in the oven. I was intrigued and gave it a go!
Other pies I have done (no photos were taken, unfortunately) this year are two of the Bourke Street Bakery pies. I have done them a few times and very successfully. The only differences there were that I made a family version of them (instead of the individual pies) and blind-baked the pie casing a little (as for a quiche). The pies were the humble beef pie and the spinach ricotta pie.
This leek and chicken pie recipe is born from what was in my kitchen one evening after a friend mentioned doing a leek and chicken pie. Interesting I thought! And shortly afterwards I had to try something on that line. I am very happy with this leek and chicken pie recipe. Bechamel, ricotta and parmesan link the flavour, additional vegetable fill in the volume and add texture. The only difficulty is around the cooking and the unmoulding. I will give a few tips below, up to you to chose what to adopt.
You can adapt some of the ingredients according to taste or what you have in the fridge. For example, I have swapped the broccoli for mushrooms more recently.
Ingredients:
- 1 quantity of shortcrust pastry (200 g plain flour, 100 g soft butter, about 1/2 cup of water). Follow the link HERE for the method. (PS- if you are not too used to pastry making, make a little more so not to stress out. Leftovers can always be used for other dishes). You should have enough to make the lid of the pie as well. You can choose to use puff pastry for the lid.
- 1 large leek
- 3 garlic gloves
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 double breast of chicken (or use chicken thigh fillets)
- 1 small bechamel (based on 1/4 L of milk) (recipe on this page)
- 1 cup of ricotta
- 1 cup of broccoli heads
- 1/2 cup of parmesan
- 1 egg (alternative 2 eggwhites if you need to use some)
- salt & pepper
Method:
- To make the pie, use a 22 cm diameter springform cake tin. This will allow you to make the pie high and also help with removing the pie from the tin. Grease the tin and line the bottom, then the sides with baking paper.
Tip: the removal of the pie needs to be planned here. The pie tin will be lined with baking paper. The difficulty is to transfer it once cooked without keeping the baking paper which is at the bottom. If you have an extra-large thin metal spatula, this may work. You can also use the bottom of the removable tart tin to that effect. The other way is to use two lengths of baking paper (40 cm or so), folded to make two long 5 cm wide strips which we will place diagonally (not at a right angle, more like 45 degrees) at the bottom of the pie dish just below the pastry. We can use them once cooked and cooled a little to lift the pie gently, then pull them out of the way. This sounds tricky however it works.
- Use 2/3 of the pastry and roll the pastry until there is enough to extend to the bottom and sides of the pie. Place it at the bottom of the tin. Place a tea towel roughly inside and put in the fridge (this will firm up the dough)
- Cut the chicken in pieces about 1 cm long. Crush the garlic, and cut the onion finely. Cook in a frying pan in a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper but not as much as to reach your taste (the cheese is salty as well). let the juices evaporate and set aside.
- Cut the leek in 2 cm sections, clean as required. In another frypan, place a little olive oil and reduce the leek in slow heat. Towards the end add the broccoli heads to cook them just to a crunch.
- In a large bowl, mix in a few movements only the chicken, leek, parmesan, bechamel, ricotta and egg. Check the seasoning and adjust. Pour in the pie. Roll the remaining pastry and make a lid. Brush with an egg yolk or a little milk to allow a nice colouring during baking.
- Bake on pizza setting (the heat needs to come from the bottom to cook the pastry) at 170°C for 45-60 minutes.
