A recipe for truly delightful chicken pies that are bound to become everyone’s favourite.

The shortcrust base can be substituted with a puff pastry base for a lighter and more crispy pie.

Makes 4 individual pies or 2 medium sized family pies. Non-stick pie tins can be found at homeware stores and are inexpensive to buy.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized cubes
3 bacon rashers, diced
1 medium glove of garlic, crushed or chopped
1 medium leek, finely sliced
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup thickened cream
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup grated tasty cheese, loosely packed
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt, pepper & nutmeg, to taste
2 puff pastry sheets, thawed
2 shortcrust pastry sheets, thawed

Method:
Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease pie tins with some non-stick cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or frypan over high heat. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned. Set aside.

On medium heat, add to the pan the garlic, bacon and leek. Stir continuously until the bacon has cooked & the leek has softened & gone translucent. Set aside.

In the pan melt the butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add stock, cream and wine to the butter and flour mix, stirring until the mixture has slightly thickened. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add back to the pan the chicken, bacon and leek and stir until the sauce has mixed through completely. Add cheese and stir through until melted. Take the pan off the heat to cool.

Using an inverted pie tin as your guide, cut bases out of the shortcrust pastry and lids out of puff pastry. Once the pie mixture has cooled to room temperature, spoon the mixture into the pie tins, wet the shortcrust pastry edges with a little bit of water and pop the pastry lid on. Seal the edges with a fork, trim the edges if required and brush each top with some beaten egg or full cream milk.

Place the pies on an oven tray and cook for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Rest the pies for a few minutes before serving as the filling will be very hot.