Nothing feels quite as wholesome as baking a pie and sitting down at the family table to share your rustic creation. This crowd-pleasing chicken and leek pie brings together tender bites of chicken and soft, creamy leeks in a white wine sauce, topped with a golden and flaky crust.
Once you know just how easy pre-rolled puff pastry is to work with, you’ll be looking for any opportunity to use it again. So, let me help by highlighting these patisserie-style salted caramel pear tarts.
Chicken and leek pie
Pies have been gracing tables since ancient Greek times, but dare I say it, there is nothing like a solid British pie. They just seem to do them right.
You can expect chunky meat, or vegetables, or both, filled to the pastry roof, and insulated by a thick, oozy gravy. Pastry could be a delicate puff that drifts like falling snow when forked, or a crumbly, buttery shortcrust.
This chicken and leek pie is meat and vegetable in equal measure. I’ve used puff pastry; I prefer it as it is lighter and think it goes best with this mildly sweet and tender filling. I believe in puff for all chicken-filled pies, including chicken and mushroom.
However, I am partial to a classic steak and ale pie. Robust and masculine, it is full of boisterous meaty beef flavour and bitter ale. And better suited to a sturdy shortcrust top.
Although I’ve been UK-based for more than a decade, I am yet to try a steak and Stilton pie, which is another high-ranking pie recipe here. And as for steak and kidney, I might need another decade for that one.
And if you really want to go full flat-cap-and-whippet, take a trip to your local farmer’s market or butcher’s and shop for ingredients for wild rabbit and pheasant pie.
What’s your favourite?
Leek recipes
Leeks are a hardy vegetable and in season during cool to cold months in the UK. Desperately underrated, this long, pale green, multi-layered allium has a multitude of uses:
– soups, either as a base vegetable like in this nutritious chicken vegetable soup or co-starring in the famously British leek and potato soup.
– as a side dish; sautéed creamy leeks, oven-roasted, gratinated.
– with fish like salmon, or cod, for example baked cod with mustard sauce, or crab leek and mushroom lasagna.
– in a creamy pasta like carmelised leek and pancetta linguine.
But what does leek actually taste like? It’s kind of like a mellow onion. When cooked they turn divinely soft and silky and are delicious buttered, with cream or with cheese.
Finally, a tip: If you’re ever short of an onion, you can use a leek instead.
Recipe tips and notes
- I’ve used skinless and boneless chicken thighs as they are more tender and succulent than breasts. But feel free to swap them for breast if that’s what you prefer.
- Leeks are as important as the chicken in this recipe. Treat them with care. The layers are traps for dirt and grit, so they need a good wash. I tend to trim, wash, slice, wash.
- One of my top 3 things to have with chicken is wine! Joking aside, I love to use it in cooking to enhance flavours, like chicken, and for its acidity to balance out richness. It is easily substitutable for chicken stock (in equal measure) if not to your taste.
- Allow the pie filling to cool to room temperature before placing the pastry lid on top. The steam from the hot filling will make the lid soggy and flat, allowing it to cool should result in a high a flaky roof.
- Also when it is cool, mix in the crème fraiche. Be sure to use full fat. Sour cream of heavy (double UK) cream will work too, I just prefer crème fraiche.
- Pre-rolled puff pastry is too convenient to ignore! As well as all the hard baker’s work being done for you, it is even cut to size in the UK! It fits right in to a rectangular 9”x13” pan. Dear North American readers, you might have to trim yours yourselves.
- Finally, let your pie rest for 20-30 minutes before serving. This is for two crucial reasons, first, the gravy will thicken on standing meaning when you place a slice of pie on the plate the filling won’t flood to edges like surging lava leaving the crust floating like an abandoned raft on top. And second, the molten filling won’t take the roof of your diners’ mouths off. You were warned!
Serving suggestions
A good pie deserves a good mash. Mashed potato is the ideal accompaniment to soak up the oozy gravy from the pie. I have 5 recipes on the blog, including a sweet potato and swede mash! To compliment a chicken pie though, I would go for Irish mashed potatoes (champ recipe), it’s smooth, buttery and comforting, with a bright pop of green onion slices.
While the leeks in the pie count as a vegetable portion, I’m a two veg kind of girl. Miso roasted carrots are dazzlingly sweet and savoury and bring a firmer texture to the meal. Using rainbow carrots makes for a colourful addition too.
Storage and leftovers
Pies are easy freezers and a godsend when you’ve run out of inspiration. Once assembled and cooled, wrap with foil and it will keep in the freezer for 2-3 months. This means skipping the oven part until the pie is needed. So handy!
Any leftovers from dinner will keep in the fridge, covered, for 2 -3 days. To reheat, microwave for 2-2 ½ minutes, or put in a pre-heated oven at 180C/350F for 10.
More pie recipes to try:
- Easy Fish Pie
- Turkey Marsala Pot Pie
- Classic Steak and Ale Pie
- Chicken Pot Pie with Roasted Vegetables
- Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Chicken and Leek Pie
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1kg/2 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs
- 2-3 rosemary sprigs stems removed and chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 3 leeks sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tbsp flour
- 80ml/1/3 cup white wine
- 500ml/2 cups chicken stock
- 100g/½ cup creme fraiche or sour cream full fat
- 320g/12oz puff pastry pre-rolled
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Cut the boneless chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Slice the while and pale part of the leeks and run them under water to remove grit. Dry and set aside.
- Heat a large pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil and cook the chicken sprinkled with chopped rosemary for about 7-10 minutes over medium heat, remove to a plate until later.
- To the same pan add the sliced leeks and cook them over low heat for 5 minutes, then add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds longer. Bring the chicken back to the pan and stir with the leeks, then sprinkle the flour all over and stir to combine, deglaze the pan with the white wine while scraping down the bottom of the pan and allow the wine to reduce, which will take no longer than a minute, then add in the chicken stock, bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Taste and add salt if needed. Take of the heat and cool until room temperature. Then mix in the creme fraiche.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.
- Tip the chicken and leek filling into a rectangular 9X13 inch oven proof dish. If you are not using a pre-rolled puff pastry, roll it out on a flour dusted surface to fit the shape of the pie dish you are using. Otherwise, use a pre-rolled puff pastry sheet, which fits perfectly on a 9X13 inch casserole dish.
- Brush the top of all four sides of the dish with a beaten egg and lay the puff pastry sheet directly on top. Either tuck the edges of the pastry in or press against the brushed with egg casserole dish sides. Finally, brush the top of the puff pastry with the beaten egg and cut slits in.
- If you have any leftover pastry, you can cut decorative leaves out of the pastry scraps and place on top of the pie, then brush them with the egg wash again.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Let it sit for 20 minutes before serving.
