Chicken pie with bacon, leeks & mushrooms
Chicken pie is a classic South African heritage recipe and with this rendition, I have added Eskort Lean Diced Bacon because as they say, ‘bacon makes everything better’. I cook the leeks, bacon, and mushrooms until meltingly tender in butter, white wine, and stock. A bay leaf and thyme add an herbaceous note before the cream gets poured into this delicious mix. This is now my best ever and go-to chicken pie with bacon, leeks, and mushrooms.
You could poach a chicken in celery, carrots onion, and bouquet garni to make your own stock, but I love to buy my favourite store-bought rotisserie chicken to make it easier. Simply shred all the meat off the carcass and add it to the pie at the end.
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*Cooks note – ensure you clean the leeks thoroughly before slicing and only use the white and light green part of the stem. Discard the thicker and inedible dark green part. It is not necessary to brush the all-butter puff pastry with egg wash. I find it leaves dark streaks if you do.
Recipe – makes 1 chicken pie – serves 4-6
Chicken pie with bacon, leeks & mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 Store-bought rotisserie chicken – all meat pulled off the carcass and roughly chopped
- 50 gms butter just shy of 1/2 a stick
- 2 cups of sliced leeks approx. 3 – 4 – white and pale green part
- 1 bay leaf
- 100 gms Eskort lean diced bacon
- 250 gm Portobello or button mushrooms sliced
- Leaves stripped from 3 – 4 thyme stalks
- 3 Tbps flour
- 125 ml / ½ cup dry white wine
- 250 ml / 1 cup good quality chicken stock concentrated
- 250 ml / 1 cup cream
- 1 ½ Tbs of finely chopped parsley
- Salt & pepper
- 1 x 250gm sheet of butter puff pastry plus extra to make decorations optional
Instructions
- Shred all the meat off the chicken carcass removing all bones and gristle. You can include some of the crispy parts of the skin if you prefer. Preheat the oven to 180C /350F.
- Heat a frying pan to medium and melt the butter. Add the leeks and bay leaf and sauté for about 3 minutes until starting to soften. Add the bacon and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until softened.
- Sprinkle over the flour and cook for a minute. Or 2 and the mixture thickens. Add the wine and allow this to bubble until the liquid has cooked over stirring constantly. Then add the stock and cook over a gentle heat for another 2 – 3 minutes. Add the cream and cook for a minute or two. Add the parsley and check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Depending on how strong the stock is you may not need to add much salt as the bacon adds salt too.
- Fold the shredded chicken through the mix and stir to thoroughly coat then remove from the heat. Decant the mixture into an appropriately sized pie dish and place the sheet of puff pastry over the pie. Add decorations as you like. It is not necessary to brush the all-butter puff pastry with an egg wash.
- Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
*This post is proudly sponsored by Eskort bacon
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