Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Chicken & Leek Pie

One of the highlights of our trip to England last week was a visit to Hampton Court, which is probably best known as a royal residence of King Henry VIII. One of the tours was of the Tudor kitchens which illustrated how the palace worked to feed 600+ people everyday. It was really fascinating.
Tudor Kitchens
One of the things we learned about was the invention of savory pies. Apparently the crust, which was just flour & water, was never meant to be eaten, it was just a serving container. You peeled the top off, ate the filling & threw away the pastry bowl. Boy, am I ever glad that's changed! As far as I'm concerned that flaky crust is as important the tasty filling.
#80 - Chicken & Leek Pie
This is another recipe from the Jamie Magazine. It was so good. The leeks just have a wonderful sweet flavor from the 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe calls for creme fraiche & we actually bought some for it but I think you could easily use sour cream or yogurt instead. Also it had you drain the gravy from the filling & serve it separately but we found that a totally unnecessary step. Matt thing this would be a great filling for homemade hot pockets.
Chicken & Leek Pie

Chicken & Leek Pie
(adapted from Jamie Magazine)

1 slice bacon, chopped
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 T olive oil
1/2 T unsalted butter
2 large leeks, washed & trimmed. Chop the white end & finely slice the green
salt & pepper
14 oz cooked chicken, cut into chunks
1 heaping T flour
2 c chicken broth
1 T creme fraiche or sour cream or plain yogurt
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Over medium-high heat add the bacon & thyme to a large saucepan. Add the olive oil and butter & cook for a few minutes. Add in the leeks & stir for about 3 minutes to coat everything. Season with salt & pepper. Cover & reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook for 30 minutes stirring from time to time.

Stir the chicken into the leeks. Add the flour & stir again. Pour in the broth & the creme fraiche. Turn the heat up & bring to a boil. Season again if needed. Pour the filling into a large pie pan.

On a floured surface roll the puff pastry out until it is at least 1-inch bigger around on all sides than your pie pan. Trim to it fits over your pan with a 1-inch overhang. Carefully place over the top of the pie & press down the sides. Brush with the beaten egg. With a sharp knife add a few slits in the top of the crust (I forgot to do this & it really puffed up).

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

4 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

20 comments:

Maria said...

I can't imagine throwing away the crust, it looks too good! Nice job on this one! Love the photos too!

Anonymous said...

This looks scrumptious. I cannot believe they would throw away the crust. Think of all those crust just tossed to the side back then, crazy!

Stacey Snacks said...

I am loving this recipe.
I am on a leek kick these days, so will try this!

Dewi said...

Well if they only knew how good the crust is this day, they probably eat it too back then. Such a hearty meal, I can never get enough of it.
Cheers,
elra

Deborah said...

I'm glad we eat the crust, too - it's usually my favorite part!

vanillasugarblog said...

throw away the crust? be still my heart!
I love a good savory pie. Looks fabulous. Never heard of Jamie Magazine (a london thing I bet)

Sam said...

I've made this recipe a quite a few times and it's great, yours looks really good!

Anonymous said...

Mmm, I'll take everyone's crusts and leave all of you the filling :-) Great photos!

vandana rajesh said...

The pie looks so good. the chicken with the leeks a yummy filling. First time here, you have a very nice space here.

Lori said...

That does sound amazing. ANd I am so with you about the crust!

Anonymous said...

I am DROOLING! how can anyone discard that glorious crust? it's the best part!

Maris said...

The crust is the best part! What were they thinking!?

I love a quote that Grace on Will & Grace once said. "Why is flaky such a bad quality in a date, yet such an excellent quality in a crust?" Hehe.

grace said...

although the innards look creamy and commpletely satisfying, i'm partial to the crust myself. i shudder to think of wasted puff pastry. :)

Jen said...

This looks like the perfect spring savory pie... I've been in the mood for leeks lately.

Anonymous said...

I actually made an out-loud noise when I saw the picture of the filling! Gotta make this!

Alicia Foodycat said...

That looks amazing! I love the layer next to the filling that goes a bit soggy.

PG said...

Oh no - they were missing one of the best parts! The pie looks delicious!

I went to Hampton Court Palace in 2001 and loved the kitchen area.

Peter M said...

Kat, leeks make everything better...a wonderful & rustic idea for dinner.

Anna said...

A delicious recipe!! We used a pie crust recipe from Mark Bittman for ours, rather than run to the store for puff pastry. But this was exactly what I hoped it would be.

This is my first visit to your blog and your recipes look great. And it's nice to imagine you at the Kingfield Farmer's Market since that's the neighborhood where I grew up!

Anonymous said...

I LOVED THIS RECIPE! It seems so basic. . . and that makes it even better. THANK YOU for sharing. It is one I will make often!
Sincerely,
Kate

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