This is fast becoming a favourite in our household. Mainly because its super tasty, but also because it’s another great dish to use up left overs.
I don’t know about you, but we love roast chicken dinners and will try to have one at least a couple of times a month. We used to buy a chicken from the supermarket but following some documentaries (could have been Food Unwrapped, BBC) showing how water can be added to increase the weight and some of the conditions the cheapest end of the market are kept in, we made a conscious decision to always by our chicken from the local butchers. I maybe costs us £1 extra but the quality far exceeds what you can pick up in Tesco’s and the meat seems to go a lot further. So for £5 we normally get a chicken that will feed us for 2 meals. The question then is what meal to make from the leftovers, and I have Jamie Oliver to thank for the answer…
Chicken Pie
This is based on a recipe from a Jamie Oliver book I was given for Christmas, but I have changed a few things:
Ingredients
Pastry
200g Plain Flour – 10p
125g Butter – 44p
Water – Free
Filling
Chicken – left over from Roast – £2.00
1 Onion, chopped – 16p
1 Large Leek, chopped – 44p
250g Mushrooms, cut in half – 60p (Jamie says use wild mushrooms, but they are expensive so don’t bother!)
1/2 Glass of Chardonnay – 50p
600ml water – Free
1 tsp English Mustard – 10p
Dried Thyme – 5p
Method
Firstly you need to make the dough for the pie crust and put it in the fridge whilst you prepare the other stuff. Cube up the butter and rub it into the flour until the lumps are gone. Add a splash of water to bring it together, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge.
For the filling, put the chicken, veg and thyme in a pan with a splash of oil and fry for about 15 mins. Add the wine and cook it away then add 1 tablespoon of plain flour. Add the mustard and pour in the water. Simmer for about an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and roll out your pastry. Take 2 thirds of the pastry and roll out to about 3mm thick and place in the bottom of your oiled pie dish. Fill up the pie with your filling, if you have too much, keep it for another day in the freezer or fridge. Roll out the rest of your pastry and place on top of the pie. Pinch the edges together and brush either egg-wash or melted butter on top for a nice golden finish. Throw it in the bottom of the oven for about 45 mins.
This easily feeds the three of us, and you can always add some peas if you don’t think its quite enough.
Total meal cost – £4.39
Enjoy
R
