Chicken and Leek Pie

This is a recipe I saw on the television the other night. On Nigel Slaters Dish of the Day he made this pie as a  way to use a small piece of good but inexpensive chicken, we had some chicken in the freezer, so I thought I would give it a go and boy was I glad I did! This was a hit with the whole family and was really easy to do!
This is definitely going to to be a family staple from now on..... thanks Nigel!

Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs
• 2 chicken legs
• 8 peppercorns
• ½ onion
• 1 bay leaf
• milk (enough to cover chicken pieces)
• 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into postage stamp-size pieces
• 30g/1oz butter
• 2 leeks, sliced into ½ inch discs
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 3 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 x 375g/13oz packs of puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten, for glazing
• parmesan, grated, for topping

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. In a saucepan add the chicken, peppercorns, onion and bay leaf. Cover with milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
3. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in the butter. Add the sliced leeks and allow to soften.
4. When the chicken is cooked remove from the milk and flake the chicken meat into the pan with the leaks, discarding the bones.
5. Add the flour and cook through for two minutes before adding the milk through a sieve to remove peppercorns and bay leaf. Add the Dijon mustard. Stir constantly to make a thick sauce.
6. Roll out the sheets of puff pastry to a rectangular shape at a pound coin thickness. Lay the filling on one sheet and then cover with the second sheet and crimp the edges.
7. Brush the pie with a beaten egg and sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the top. Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes

I made a few changes to the recipe.... I knew that I wanted this to do the 4 of us for 2 nights so I bulked out the filling a little by adding mushrooms to the frying pan once I had fried off the bacon.  I also used chicken drumsticks instead of thighs as that was what I had in the freezer. I didn't add the mustard or sprinkle with parmesan as my husband and son are not keen, although I would have loved it!!