Chicken and Leek Pie
If you like bubbling pies baked under deeply golden flaky, buttery puff pastry, then this is a recipe for you. It’s cosy and comforting, and everything you dream a pie to be. The filling is smothered in a creamy sauce infused with thyme and subtle white wine flavour that’s rich but not overly so, and the leeks is what sets this pie apart from “just another chicken pie”. Not that I’m dissing other chicken pies – there is room for many in this world. But Chicken and Leek Pie is special because of the leeks and the flavour it brings to the pie. What flavour, you ask? Think – sweeter, milder version of onion. And because it’s a gentle flavour, we can use a good amount of leeks in this recipe. Two whole leeks, in actual fact. Because if we’re going to put Leek in the recipe name, let’s make sure we can actually taste the leek!
Hard to stuff up!
When you scroll through the step photos and even the ingredients section, it might seem a little involved and fussy because of the amount of information I’ve included. But I promise it’s not. I’m just being extra generous on the instructional visuals front to make sure that leek-first-timers and pie-first-timers can approach this recipe with confidence! And actually, it’s hard to stuff up this recipe. The worst that might happen is that the sauce is a little on the thin side because you didn’t simmer it long enough or you mis-measured the flour. Hardly a disaster because the flavour is still in there!
Ingredients in Chicken and Leek Pie
Here’s what you need to make this recipe.
pie filling
No surprises here. Though bacon is probably something you don’t see in typical recipes. We only use 3 little strips but it goes a long way to make the filling extra scrumptious. 🙂
creamy sauce for the pie
Here’s what you need to make the creamy sauce for the pie. Having said that though, when leeks are out of season / extortionately expensive, you can make this pie with 2 big regular onions. We might have to drop the word “Leek” out of the name, but it’s still a darn delicious pie!
Butter – The fat of choice for this dish! Unsalted butter is preferred. If using salted butter, start with less salt than per the recipe ingredients, then adjust at the end. Chicken stock/broth and cream – These are the liquids that we use to make this sauce. Chicken stock has more flavour than using just water. And cream is richer and has a more luscious mouth feel than using milk, though you could substitute with milk if you don’t have cream (I’d add a dab of extra butter), or if you really want to reduce the calories in this recipe. Flour – This is what thickens the sauce. Just use plain / all-purpose flour. Though actually, self raising and wholemeal flour will work fine too. White wine – I almost always deglaze my pan using wine for sauces. Deglazing simply means using a liquid to a dissolve gold bits stuck on the base of the pan from sautéing things (chicken, leek etc, in this case) into the liquid because it’s free flavour. You could use water or stock, but wine adds more flavour because it has more complexity and depth. We cook out the alcohol so it doesn’t taste winey at all.Type of wine – Chardonnay is my default white wine these days, for the best flavour and best all-rounder for cooking. But any dry white wine will work fine here. Just avoid anything too sweet or too woody.Substitute with non alcoholic white wine or more chicken stock/broth. Don’t worry, the sauce will still be delicious! Dijon mustard – This adds flavour into the sauce but is not a dominant flavour so you can skip it if you have an aversion to mustard. You could also substitute with wholegrain mustard (also lovely!).
puff pastry
Puff pastry – Here in Australia, standard grocery-store puff pastry comes in 20cm/8″ sheets which are just a touch too small for most baking dishes and large pie dishes. So I just connect two sheets using egg whites (the yolks is used to brush the pastry to make it golden in the oven).If you get a large sheet of puff pastry (eg Careme which is a premium brand), you won’t need to do the sealing.Butter puff recommended! Butter puff pastry is made with butter whereas just regular puff pastry is made with oil. Butter puff is tastier! It also puffs up better and bakes more golden. The packet will be labelled as “Butter Puff Pastry” and costs a little more than non-butter puff pastry. Worth it, in my opinion. Egg – As noted above, we use the egg white to connect the puff pastry sheets, and the egg yolk to brush the lid of the pie so it bakes a beautiful golden brown. You will have a little egg white left over – toss it into your morning scrambled eggs or omelette!
How to make Chicken and Leek Pie
I’m providing a fair few step photos to make this a straightforward recipe even for people new to cooking with leek and making creamy pie fillings. But I promise it’s quite straightforward! Type of wine – Chardonnay is my default white wine these days, for the best flavour and best all-rounder for cooking. But any dry white wine will work fine here. Just avoid anything too sweet or too woody. Substitute with non alcoholic white wine or more chicken stock/broth. Don’t worry, the sauce will still be delicious! If you get a large sheet of puff pastry (eg Careme which is a premium brand), you won’t need to do the sealing. Butter puff recommended! Butter puff pastry is made with butter whereas just regular puff pastry is made with oil. Butter puff is tastier! It also puffs up better and bakes more golden. The packet will be labelled as “Butter Puff Pastry” and costs a little more than non-butter puff pastry. Worth it, in my opinion.
1. How I cut the leek
I prefer cutting the leek into small bit size squares rather than slicing rings which I find feels a little too stringy “spaghetti-like” for the amount of leek used in this pie. Larger pieces also means you bite into more leek flavour which seems appropriate for a Chicken and Leek Pie! 😇 Leek, cut! Cooking time.
2. How to make the filling
The filling for the pie is a roux-based creamy filling (ie a flour-thickened filling). I’ve used cream to make it extra luxurious and pie-worthy but you can substitute with milk to cut down on the calories. Then remove the chicken using a slotted spoon into a bowl. Leave the juices and residual butter in the pan, we will use it to cook the filling. Filling done. Let’s assemble! Goal sauce thickness – The sauce thickness at this stage is pretty much what it it will be when the pie comes out of the oven, so make it the thickness you want. Cool – Remove the pan from the stove and let the filling cool for an hour. It needs to be cool else the heat will melt the butter in the puff pastry on contact and won’t puff up as much in the oven. Shortcut: spread the filling on a tray (30 minutes should do it). You can also keep the filling for 3 – 4 days in the fridge and finish the pie on another day.
3. Assembling the pie
You can bake this pie in one large dish (any shape – rectangle, round, oval) or ramekins. I use a 1.5 litre / 1.5 quart baking dish which is the right size for the amount of filling this recipe makes. If making individual pies, use 4 to 5 x ~350ml / 12 oz ramekins. TIP: Use semi-thawed rather than fully-thawed puff pastry. It is much easier to handle. Fully thawed puff can get sloppy and sticky!
To connect the sheets, brush the edge of a semi-thawed sheet with egg white, connect the two sheets then use the back of a spoon to “smear” the sheets together so there is no visible seam. Note: If you are not using pastry strips along the rim, don’t brush the rim with egg whites as the lid will adhere too strongly to the baking dish.
Good one to make ahead
Pies like this are excellent for making ahead. You can make the filling and refrigerate it for 3 – 4 days, then assemble the pie when you’re ready. Or you can assemble the pie with the puff pastry then refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months, though be mindful that it will take up to 48 hours to fully thaw in the fridge (it’s a formidable block of ice!). The puff pastry will puff a little less than assembling and baking it straight away, but it’s a very small compromise for the convenience (puff pastry puffs the best with minimal handling, when thawed once, assembled then baked straight away. The more times you thaw > freeze > thaw etc, or refrigerate, the less it puffs). Put it this way. If I were to make this pie for company, I’d make the filling the day before and assemble and bake on the day of. For any other purpose, I wouldn’t hesitate to assemble ahead, puff pastry and all, then bake on demand. Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
I love a good pie.
Here are some of my favourites! To make shredded chicken breast, split it in half horizontally to form 2 thin steaks. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, pan sear to cook in the butter (be really careful not to overcook it, if anything, undercook it). Cool a bit, shred, then mix it through the filling right at the end (ie don’t simmer in the sauce). So instead, I hold back half the butter (we have enough fat for sautéing because of the bacon) then melt it in the pan just before adding the flour, which provides enough fat to make a good pasty roux. Works a treat! I don’t always use this method because it’s an extra step. I use it only when I’m trying to manage the fat in a recipe. For this recipe, you need 50% more butter if you add it all at the start to sauté the leek etc. PS I use this method for pan sautéing mushrooms too, and eggplant cubes. Anything that is a sponge for oil! To make this as a pie with a pastry base, assemble the pie using my Family Meat Pie but just switch the meat pie filling with this Chicken and Leek filling. The meat pie recipe also includes the recipe for shortcrust pastry for the base (which is blind baked so it doesn’t go soggy once filled). You could also make individual pies using my individual size Meat Pie recipe! Thanks to readers, I’ve been made aware there is gluten free puff pastry these days – hurrah! However, I can’t comment on the quality as I’ve never tried it. You could also top with mashed potato instead, like Cottage Pie. I’ve done it and it’s absolutely delicious! To make the filling gluten free, skip the flour in the recipe. Mix 1/4 cup cornflour (cornstarch) with 1/4 cup of the chicken stock until lump free. Proceed with the recipe as written (using the remaining chicken stock). Simmer the sauce for 3 minutes then, while stirring, slowly pour in the cornflour mixture. The sauce will thicken very quickly. If it’s not thick enough for your taste, add extra cornflour slurry (equal parts cornflour mixed with water or chicken stock). Remove from the stove and cool, then proceed with the recipe as written. Then when I committed to publishing it, I made it a few times just to refine the recipe and “finalise it”. The main things were getting the sauce thickness right and getting the salt levels right.
Life of Dozer
Remember that photo of Dozer on toy washing day, staring at the washing machine as his toys tumbled around and around? Here’s the video!
