Free Form Chicken Pies

Having picked a huge bounty of carrots and celery from our garden something had to be done to enjoy it.

This is a really basic mixture for quite literally free form pies. Quick and easy with the produce at hand.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
5 Chicken thigh fillets diced
2 medium carrots diced (ours are the heirloom tri-colour so they add great colour to the filling)
1 large stick of celery diced
2 medium leeks finely sliced
Splash of white wine (optional)
1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs (or a handful of mixed fresh herbs from garden)
500ml good quality hot chicken stock (or a Massel Chicken Stock cube in 500ml hot water)
1 tbsp potato flour
Pre-packaged quality puff pastry sheets

Method:

Add olive oil to pot and heat. Add chicken pieces and brown. Remove from pot.

If little or no olive oil left in pot add a splash more, heat and add carrots, celery and leeks. Stir until leeks have started to soften. Add mixed herbs.

Add the splash of white wine if using and scrape any remaining pieces of the chicken from the bottom of the pot. Simmer for a 1 minute.

Add chicken back to the pot and stir in well. Add 2/4 of the chicken stock. Cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile add potato flour to a little of the chicken stock and mix well.

After 30 minutes add the pototo flour mixture to the chicken and stir in well. As it thickens add a little more chicken stock. Simmer for another 5 minutes. You want the mixture to be very very thick but you should be still able to stir it.

Take off the heat and leave to cool for 15 minutes at least.

Meanwhile take 5 sheets of puff pastry and leave to defrost ensuring they are covered to stop drying out.

When pastry is defrosted cut each sheet in half or quarters depending on the size of pie you would like.

Place filling on one half and place the other half on top sealing the edges. Don't overfill. Stab a few holes in the top. Brush lightly with milk.

Place on a baking sheet and pop into an oven at 200 c until the pastry is brown and flaky - about 20 minutes.

Any leftovers can be frozen uncooked for later. They can be then cooked from frozen allowing extra time to finish.

Recipe by Katherine Quirke