Recipe: Chicken Pot Pie

My grandmother's recipe book described how to prepare a farmyard chicken before making the pie. I have seen it done but I chose to start with a pack of lean chicken breasts from the supermarket instead.

Chicken pot pie is baked inside an ovenproof procelain dish. The dish is filled with a cooked, moist chicken stew topped with a layer of puff pastry. This recipe provides a complete meal; you won't be feeling hungry if this is all that appears on your plate - I promise you. Nonetheless, as often happens on this blog, we have included a bonus recipe for using up the remainder of your puff pastry. Whether you prepare it from scratch, or use ready made frozen puff pastry, there is always some left over. So, in the unlikely event that the chicken pot pie doesn't leave you feeling completely full, the bonus recipe of Spiced Apple Pastry will certainly finish the job.

Ingredients

• Half a kilo of lean chicken breasts
• 2 large carrots
• 1 small onion
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 small egg
• 1/2 cup of milk
• Seasoning
• Puff pastry

Preparation

• Dice the chicken and gently fry until the outside surfaces are cooked
• Finely chop and fry a small onion
• Chop and boil the carrots until just tender
• Stir the flour into the onions and gently add the milk, stirring to keep smooth and free of lumps
• Stir the onion sauce and carrots into the chicken and simmer for half an hour, adding more milk if needed to keep the mixture moist but not runny
• Pour the stewed chicken into an oven-proof porcelain dish
• Roll out the puff pastry and cut enough to cover the dish
• Whisk the egg and brush it over the surface of the pastry
  
• Bake at 350degF until the pastry rises and turns golden
• Serve immediately

John's Notes The quantities given in this recipe will actually make two generous individual pot pies. It is best to serve the pie in the dish in which it is baked. That is the way it would be served in an English pub at lunchtime.

Bonus: There will inevitably be some leftover pastry so try this dessert. Finely chop one Granny Smith apple, mix with some raisins, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Roll out the scraps of puff pastry into a circle. Wrap the pastry around the apple mixture and squeeze tightly into a baseball shape. Splash a little egg wash over it and put it in the oven with the chicken pot pie and bake until it turns golden. Serve with a dollop of cream. Then lay down and complain about feeling bloated!