For no real reason, I was inspired to make a pie one weekend, and thought I would try my little princess on it… she loved it!!! She ate way more than I expected her to which is great because I didn’t think she’d eat a lot of the leeks! By the way, the method looks complex, but it really isn’t, This didn’t take long at all, especially because I prepared and chopped all of my ingredients before hand. And as you may have seen on other pages, I have little patience for long and complex recipes. But sometimes, a Sunday lunch style dinner takes a little more work than usual. You could serve this with roasted salt and pepper butternut squash, or mashed potato and Sunday veg. This recipe serves 4 adults.

Ingredients:

3 skinless chicken breasts
450ml chicken stock
75g (25g and 50g) butter
2 trimmed and thinly sliced leeks
75g sliced mushrooms
2 crushed garlic cloves (I used 1 tsp garlic paste)
50g plain flour
300ml (200ml and 100ml) whole milk
50ml full fat plain Greek yogurt
150g thick ham chunks
Salt and pepper to season chicken
1 sheet Jus Rol ready rolled shortcrust pastry
1 beaten egg (or milk) for glazing pie

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6, and put a baking tray in the oven to heat.
• Heat the chicken stock in a large saucepan, or make up your stock from a stock cube and boiling water and then transfer to a large pan
• Slice your chicken breast into chunks, add to the stock and bring to a low simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes.
• Remove the chicken from the water place to one side. 
• Pour the cooking liquor into a large jug.
• Melt 25g of the butter in your already used saucepan over a low heat.
• Stir in the leeks and mushrooms, and fry gently for two minutes, stirring occasionally until softened.
• Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, then add the remaining butter and stir in the flour as soon as the butter has melted. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
• Slowly pour 200ml of milk into the pan, just a little at a time, stirring well between each adding.
• Gradually add 250ml of the cooking liquor, stirring until the sauce is smooth and thickened slightly.
• Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
• Season your mixture to taste with salt pepper.
• Mix the yogurt and 100ml milk in a separate jug
• Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the yogurt and milk mixture.
• Stir the chicken and ham to the mixture.
• Pour the finished pie filling into your chosen pie dish and cover with cling film, setting it to one side.
• Follow the instructions on the pastry heating in the microwave for a few seconds, and then cover the pie with the pastry lid and press the edges together firmly to seal. Trim any excess pastry.
• Make a small hole in the centre of the pie with the tip of a knife. Glaze the top of the pie with beaten egg or milk.
• Bake on the preheated tray in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the pie is golden-brown all over and the filling is piping hot.

Variations:

I added mushrooms to this version of the recipe, but you don’t need to. You could also sneak in a few more veggies if you choose to.

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