This Hairy Bikers chicken and leek pie recipe fills a shortcrust case with poached chicken, ham and leeks in a creamy white wine sauce. And it comes from Chicken and Egg, serving six at around 770 calories in about an hour and forty minutes.
Si and Dave call this their “last supper pie” in the headnote, and BBC Food published the same recipe from Best of British. Because the chicken is poached in stock rather than fried, and that poaching liquid goes straight into the sauce to build the flavour from scratch.
Every recipe blog online fries the chicken for this pie, and every one of them is wrong. The book poaches the breasts for exactly ten minutes, since that keeps them tender and creates the stock that becomes half the sauce.
Hairy Bikers Chicken and Leek Pie Recipe
Description
A proper old-fashioned chicken ham and leek pie where the breasts are simmered gently in stock, and that cooking liquid builds the creamy sauce underneath the pastry. And you need to let the sauce cool completely before assembling, since hot filling softens the pastry and gives you a soggy base.
Ingredients
For the Filling:
For the Pastry:
Instructions
- Poach the chicken: Heat the stock in a saucepan, then add the chicken breasts and bring to a low simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes, then lift the breasts out and pour the stock into a jug for later.
- Saute the leeks: Melt 25g of the butter in a large saucepan, then stir in the leeks and fry gently for 2 minutes until just softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then tip the leeks into a bowl.
- Make the roux: Add the remaining butter to the same pan, then stir in the flour once it melts and cook for 30 seconds while stirring constantly.
- Build the sauce: Pour in the milk a little at a time, stirring smooth between each pour, then gradually add 250ml of the reserved stock and the wine if using. Simmer gently for 3 minutes until thick, then season well and stir in the cream before pouring into a bowl and covering with cling film to cool.
- Assemble the pie: Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 and put a baking tray in to heat. Roll out two thirds of the pastry and line the pie dish, then cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and stir it with the ham and leeks into the cooled sauce before pouring the filling in.
- Bake until golden: Brush the pastry rim with beaten egg, then roll out the remaining pastry for the lid and press the edges firmly to seal before trimming and crimping. Make a small hole in the centre and glaze with beaten egg, then bake on the hot tray for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown and piping hot.
FAQs
Why does the recipe poach the chicken instead of frying it?
Poaching the breasts in stock for ten minutes does two things at once: it keeps the meat tender, and it creates the flavoured liquid that becomes half the sauce. If you fry the chicken first you lose both of those, since fried breasts tighten and you have no cooking liquor to build from.
This old-fashioned poach-and-build method is what makes the pie taste like proper home cooking. Perfect Pies prints the same recipe with a useful tip, which is to simmer the breasts in water with a stock cube for ten minutes. This is not a James Martin recipe, by the way, since people sometimes confuse the two, but it is purely Si and Dave’s creation.
How do I stop the pie having a soggy bottom?
The hot baking tray is the single most important step, since it hits the pastry base with direct heat from underneath. The book says to preheat it in the oven before the pie goes in, and I never skip this.
Cool the sauce completely before pouring it into the pastry case, since hot filling steams the pastry and makes it wet. And if you want extra insurance, brush the inside of the pastry base with beaten egg and bake it blind for ten minutes before filling, because that thin layer of cooked egg seals the pastry against the sauce.
Can I use puff pastry, filo, or suet instead of shortcrust?
Puff pastry works well as a lid on its own, since you just roll it out, lay it over the filled dish and crimp the edges. Bake at the same temperature for the same time, because puff needs similar heat to rise and brown.
For filo, Perfect Pies has Justine’s chicken and tarragon pie as Recipe 28, which scrunches sheets of buttered filo on top instead of rolling pastry. The filling swaps the cream roux for crème fraîche with fresh tarragon, so it is lighter and faster. And for a proper suet crust, use 300g self-raising flour with 150g shredded suet and enough cold water to form a stiff dough.
Can I add mushrooms, or swap the ham for bacon?
For an easy chicken leek and mushroom pie, sauté 250g of sliced chestnut mushrooms with the leeks before building the sauce, since they cook at the same speed. Perfect Pies also has a full chicken and mushroom pie as Recipe 2 which uses thigh meat, button mushrooms and a puff pastry top.
None of the cookbook versions include bacon, so this is my own tested swap. I fry 150g of smoked streaky lardons until crisp and fold them into the sauce instead of the ham, since the salty crunch works well against the creamy filling. And if you have leeks left over from making the pie, their leek and potato soup uses the same butter sauté and turns two leeks into lunch for four.
Can I make this pie ahead, and does it freeze well?
The filling keeps in the fridge for a full day before you assemble and bake, so I often poach and make the sauce the night before. That overnight rest improves the flavour, since the ham and leeks settle into the sauce. For a slow cooker, make the filling on the hob as normal, then hold it on low for 3 to 4 hours before assembling fresh.
The assembled pie freezes well for up to three months in cling film and foil, and you bake it from frozen for about 50 minutes. Their cauliflower cheese from the same book bakes well as a side alongside, and their beef lasagne uses the same roux technique. And the official hairybikers.com has a lighter Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie at just 429 calories with filo and no cream.
