Chicken Pie

It has well and truly felt like winter the last couple of weeks (finally!) meaning I’ve been turning to more homely, hearty dishes -such as this classic chicken dish- to warm me up. The beauty of this is in its simplicity and that it can be adapted to make into a pie, or just to eat with rice or mash. Either way – add some seasonal veg, keep the carbs wholegrain, and you have yourself a healthy meal (fairly healthy if you make it into pie…). This is a great one to make for your housemates – this was very popular with mine – or scale it down to use 2 chicken breasts and eat it over two days – making sure you heat the chicken up carefully so it’s piping hot all the way through.

Ingredients – serves 4:

3-4 chicken breasts

Juice of half a lemon

30g butter

Approx. 200g of mushrooms (2/3rds of an average supermarket pack) - sliced

1 leek – finely sliced

30g flour

300ml chicken stock (use a whole chicken stock cube dissolved in 600ml of boiling water)

*Optional bacon if you have it

Parsley if you have it

If you’re making it into a pie – half a block of ready-made puff pastry.

Put the chicken breasts in a dish, drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them and season with salt and pepper. Cook them in the oven at 190 degrees, gas mark 5 for 35-40 minutes – or until the juices run clear**.

With 10-15 minutes left to go on the timer, put the kettle on and make your stock. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan on a medium-low heat and fry the leek until it’s starting to go soft (*add bacon cut into pieces at this point too if you’re using it). Add the mushrooms and continue to fry until they’re soft too. Don’t worry if there’s excess butter – this is what makes the sauce.

Once the leek and mushrooms are soft, add the flour and stir until it’s soaked up the butter. Then start adding the stock – stirring continuously. It may go lumpy at first but persevere and it should come together and start to thicken. Keep adding the stock until it’s the right consistency. At this point if you’re feeling clever – get the chicken out and tip the juices from the dish into the sauce, then put the chicken back in the oven to carry on cooking.

Taste your sauce and season it. At this point I add parsley if I have it, salt, pepper, maybe some mixed herbs, a little more lemon juice if it needs it – whatever floats your boat! Once the chicken is done, cut it up into chunks and mix it in with the sauce.

You can serve it with wholegrain rice and vegetables and you’re away! 
OR
Make it into pie…

Transfer the chicken and sauce into a fairly deep dish, roll out the pastry to roughly 3mm thick and place it over the chicken. Make sure to make a small hole in the top of the pastry, and then cook for a further 20 minutes until the pastry is brown.

ALL THE YUMMY PIE

**(to test this, poke the chicken breast with a knife and then press down on it with the flat side of the knife. There should be no pink colouration in the juice that comes out. Alternatively chop the breast in half and check it’s not pink – you’re going to cut it all up anyway).

Tune of the day: Don't Give Up (On Love)- Blinkie - It's cold, it's wet, it's miserable, so listen to the electronic charms of Blinkie, and reach for a saucepan rather than those Dominoes 2-for-1 offers.

Tip of the day: there are so many really good videos on YouTube showing you how to make many amazing, healthy recipes. I personally love Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube - he invites lots of other chefs as guests to his channel and has so much variation. Also Donal Skehan.