Cliodhna Prendergast
Chicken breasts: 6, diced into thick chunks
Onion: 1, roughly diced
Leeks: 3, cleaned and sliced about 1cm thick
Butter: 100g (3.5 oz)
Garlic: 3 cloves, thinly sliced
Plain flour: 5 tbsp
Chicken stock: 1l (40 fl oz)
Single cream: 150ml (2/3 cup)
Tarragon: 1 handful of leaves
Thyme: 1 handful of leaves
Wholegrain mustard: 1 tbsp
Lemon: 1, zest and juice
Puff pastry: 1 sheet, readymade
Egg yolks: 1
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A classic winter warmer, try this chicken and leek pie recipe from chef Mark Moriarty from his cookbook, Flavour.
Ready-made puff pastry can usually be found somewhere in my freezer. Here it’s put to good use to create a pub classic. And who doesn’t love when that golden-brown, savoury, crispy pastry dives deep into a creamy sauce to soak it all up?
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
Heat a heavy-based pan over a high heat and fry the chicken chunks for about 3 minutes to caramelise on all sides. Remove from the pan to rest on a plate. Warm up the chicken stock.
Add the onions and leek to the pan and begin to sweat over a medium heat, add a pinch of salt.
Next, add the butter and sliced garlic before adding the flour. Cook the flour for 1 minute over a high heat, stirring well.
Stir in the warm chicken stock and allow the mix to come to the boil and thicken into a paste. Stir in the cream and remove from the heat.
Return the chicken to the mix with the tarragon and thyme leaves, mustard, lemon zest and juice, and season with salt and pepper.
Transfer the finished mix to a baking tray and allow to cool slightly.
Roll out the puff pastry sheet and gently place this across the top of the mix. Pinch the edges so the pastry is secured to the tray. Brush with an egg yolk before adding a criss-cross design using a small, sharp knife.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the pastry is dark golden brown and crispy, with the chicken cooked through.
Excerpt taken from Flavour: Everyday Food Made Exceptional by Mark Moriarty, published by Gill Books.
