Dry cider does the poaching in Delia Smith’s chicken and leek pie, gently cooking two chicken breasts with leeks and carrots before a cheese sauce and a puff pastry lid go on. It’s a pot pie for 2, with pastry on top only, and it bakes in just 20 minutes.
Comfort food for a cold, grey winter’s day is how she describes it, and it sits in the winter chapter of The Delia Collection: Chicken (2003).
None of the poaching liquid goes to waste. The cider is boiled down to a couple of spoonfuls, then the cheese sauce is stirred into it, so its sharpness carries right through the filling.
The vegetables can change, she says, and she quite likes mushrooms in place of half the leeks. That version comes close to her chicken and mushroom parcels, the feuilletés made with bacon and chestnut mushrooms.
Delia Smith’s Chicken and Leek Pot Pie
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
servings20
minutes50
minutes1100
kcalChicken, leeks and carrots in a Cheddar and Parmesan sauce sharpened with reduced cider, under a domed puff pastry lid with pastry leaves.
Ingredients
- For the pie:
2 boneless chicken breasts, skin on
2 medium leeks
275ml (10fl oz) dry cider
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3mm (⅛in) slices
1 bay leaf
1 small sprig of fresh thyme
225g (8oz) block of puff pastry, chilled or frozen and defrosted
a little flour for dusting
1 small egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon finely grated Parmesan, for sprinkling
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- For the cheese sauce:
275ml (10fl oz) milk
20g (¾oz) plain flour
20g (¾oz) butter
a pinch of cayenne pepper
25g (1oz) mature Cheddar, grated
10g (½oz) Parmesan, finely grated
a little freshly grated nutmeg
Directions
- Poach: Pour the cider into a medium saucepan with the carrots, bay leaf, thyme and some salt and pepper. Bring it to simmering point, cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
- Leeks: Cut off the tough green ends, make a split halfway down the centre of each leek and rinse them under the cold tap to wash out any grit. Halve them lengthways and cut them into 1cm (½in) slices.
- Chicken: Add the chicken and leeks to the pan and simmer, covered, for a further 10 minutes.
- Sauce: Put the milk, flour, butter and cayenne in a medium saucepan over a gentle heat and whisk with a balloon whisk as it comes to a gentle simmer, until smooth and glossy. Simmer very gently for 5 minutes, then whisk in both cheeses until they melt and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Reduce: Drain the chicken and vegetables, keeping the liquid but throwing away the bay leaf and thyme. Boil the liquid until it’s reduced to about 2 tablespoons, and meanwhile skin the chicken and cut it into bite-sized strips.
- Fill: Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 6. Stir the cheese sauce into the reduced cider, bring it to a simmer, then stir in the chicken, carrots and leeks and tip it all into an 850ml (1½ pint) round dish, about 18cm (7in) across.
- Lid: Roll the pastry out thinly on a lightly floured surface and cut a 23cm (9in) round, then cut a 1cm (½in) strip from the re-rolled trimmings. Dampen the rim of the dish, press the strip round it, dampen the strip and lift the lid on top, pressing firmly to seal before trimming.
- Bake: Cut leaf shapes from the last of the trimmings. Brush the pie with egg, arrange the leaves, brush them too and sprinkle with Parmesan, then bake on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.
Notes
- The recipe asks for dry cider, and I'd stick to that, as a sweet one would make the sauce taste sugary to my mind.
- The pie has no pastry base, so there's no soggy bottom to worry about, which is my own reason for liking the pot pie style.
FAQs
Is there a quicker chicken pot pie?
Yes, in her How to Cheat at Cooking (2008). That one starts from a 400g tin of chicken in white sauce, with a sliced leek and carrot softened in butter, a splash of dry vermouth, half-fat crème fraîche and chopped tarragon.
Two ready-made frozen puff pastry rounds are halved and overlapped on top. It bakes for 20 minutes at 200°C, then 10 more at 180°C, until crisp and golden-brown.
How do I make it for 4?
Double everything and use a dish of about 1.7 litres, which is my own maths from her 850ml dish for 2. A wider dish needs a bigger lid, so you’ll want two 225g blocks of puff pastry.
I’d bake it for the same 20 minutes, then give it a few minutes more if the pastry still looks pale, my own suggestion.
Can I use shortcrust instead of puff pastry?
You can, though the recipe was written for puff. Her Cold Chicken Pie in the Complete Cookery Course shows her shortcrust for a chicken pie, made with lard and butter rubbed into plain flour.
A shortcrust lid is denser and won’t rise into that domed top, which is my own note, so roll it fairly thin.
What goes well with it?
Something green. Her quick version suggests a leafy green vegetable such as spinach, and to my mind that suits this pie just as well.
