{ Chicken Pie Time }

A recent UK survey found that 70% of modern women have FIVE staple meals they rotate to serve to their families. I don't think this finding was shocking - you hear that and nod and agree. One of my new years resolutions was to cook different things, I thought about having a bit of a menu plan but let's face it I don't have five children to feed, it's just me and Mr M, but I still wanted to have a bit of a game plan when I headed to the supermarket and back to the kitchen. My current obsession with Masterchef is not helping the situation of feeling inadequate! 

Reading my favourite magazine, Notebook, in bed the other night I was flicking through the recipes, saw a chicken and corn pie, read the ingredients and thought "I have all of those things in the house at the moment!" i.e. I don't have to drive the 15km into town to the over priced little supermarket to get supplies for tomorrow nights dinner. 

So I set about creating my beautiful pie: I had chicken, creamed corn, no leek though...so I substituted with frozen peas and some onion and threw in some fresh field mushrooms we picked last week as well. Actually it was a lot of mushrooms I 'threw in' - we are mushroom nuts in this house but the fresh ones pack quite a mushroom taste so the pie turned VERY mushroom flavoured and VERY grey in colour (hence no photo of the pie mixture, not very aesthetically appealing sorry). 

It was very quick and easy to make and a great meal for a cold night in front of the fire - here's the recipe for you:

Need this...

1 tbs olive oil

600g of chicken thigh fillets (I used breast because that's what I had), cut into 3cm pieces

20g butter

1 leek, white part only, thickly sliced (I used 1 cup of frozen peas + 1 small brown onion finely chopped)

Mushrooms! As many as you like :)

1/4 cup plain flour

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

400g can of creamed corn

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry

1 egg, lightly whisked

Do this...

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until brown all over. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add butter to the pan over medium-high heat. Add leek/peas/onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until flour becomes slightly grainy. Add stock and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from the heat. Add creamed corn and cooked chicken, stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Spoon the mixture into a pie dish. Top with the pastry sheet and use a small, sharp knife to trim edges. Lightly brush with egg. Back for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden and filling is heated through. Serve immediately.

Voila! Mine was still quite a liquid so either don't use as much stock, or add more flour or perhaps I should have let it come together some more whilst cooking the filling. More of a chicken mushroom soup topped with pastry! But it definitely was delicious and I think I will be making more pies this winter, terrible oven and all...

Bon appetit!