CHICKEN & LEEK ‘PIE’
Lyndon Gee transforms traditional winter comfort food into an easy, satisfying, yet lighter dish
THIS IS CLASSIC winter comfort food, but is often made with lots of cream, bacon and high-fat puff pastry. However, making these few tweaks will give you a delicious, simple, lower-fat meal.
You can easily switch the puff pastry for filo, which contains far less fat. Rather than double cream as a base for the sauce, we’ve used stock, adding just a little half-fat crème fraîche at the last minute for a really creamy texture. This pie has more leeks than the traditional recipes and we’ve left out bacon altogether – although you can, of course, add it back in if you like!
▪ Serves 4
▪ Preparation time 10 minutes
▪ Cooking time 15 minutes
▪ Per portion 319 calories,
9g fat (of which, 2g saturated fat),
25g carbohydrate (of which, 2g sugar), 34g protein, 1g fibre, 0.6g salt
Ingredients
• Half a 270g pack of filo pastry
• 3 free-range, skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 large leeks, cleaned and chopped
• 300ml chicken stock
• 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 50ml milk • 1 heaped tbsp half-fat crème fraîche • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• Good pinch fresh thyme, plus a good pinch to serve
• Good pinches of salt and white pepper
Method
For the pastry case
1 Lightly oil a large baking sheet. Place four small ramekins upside down on this and brush the bottoms with a little oil.
2 Cut the filo pastry into 10cm squares and brush a little oil on one side. Arrange three filo squares, oiled side down, over each of the ramekins, to create a flower shape.
3 Bake the pastry cup in a preheated oven (gas mark 6/200°C) for five minutes, then gently remove from the ramekin and place the pastry on a plate.
For the filling
1 Add 1 tbsp of oil to a pan, then add the chicken and stir until lightly browned.
2 Add stock, leek, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to the boil, put a lid on the pan, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3 Mix the milk and cornflour, then bring the chicken and leek back to the boil and slowly stir in the cornflour mixture until the sauce thickens. Stir for another two minutes. 4 Finally, stir in the crème fraîche, and carefully add the filling to the four pastry cases. Sprinkle each with a little fresh thyme and serve immediately.