Dairy Free Chicken & Mushroom Puff Pie
Ingredients: 4 Chicken Breasts chopped into bitesize pieces Pack of Smoked Back Bacon (7 slices) 1tbsp vegetable oil 1 leak trimmed and sliced in rings (could use an onion if preferred) 8 mushrooms sliced (add more or less depending on taste) thyme 2 tbsp plain flour 400ml chicken stock (I use 2 oxo cubes to make up my stock) 200ml soya milk (or non-dairy milk of choice) 500g puff pastry (I used a ready rolled sheet) 1 egg, beaten
Method: 1. Heat oil in frying pan and add chicken. Cook until golden and then remove from pan and set aside. 2. Cut up bacon slices into bitesize pieces and fry up in pan until crisp. Add the mushrooms, leeks and thyme and fry on a high heat for 3-5 minutes until the leek starts to soften and color. 3. Tip the flour into the pan and stir for a minute coating the bacon and veg. Remove from heat, gradually stir or whisk in the stock followed by the milk and then add the chicken back in. 4. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for 30 mins. 5. Transfer into a pie dish and allow to cool. You can also make the pie contents up in advance and store in a bowl or container covered with cling film in the fridge until ready to assemble your pie. 6. Preheat the oven at 220C / 200C fan or gas mark 7. Roll out your pastry on a floured surface. Cut strips the width of your pie rim. Using a pastry brush, brush some of the beaten egg around the rim of the pie to fix the pastry and then place the pastry strips around the rim. Brush this pastry with egg before carefully laying the rest of the pastry over the top of the pie. Top tip is to roll the pastry around a rolling pin and then unrolling it over the top of your pie. Cut off the excess pastry and then make indents the whole way around the edge of the pie with your thumb while scoring with a knife between each indent. You can use the excess pastry to decorate your pie or let the kids get creative and have some fun personalising it. Brush with the beaten egg and with a sharp knife cut a criss-cross vent in the center of the pie. 7. Bake in the oven for 30mins or until the pastry has turned a dark golden brown and has risen. 8. Serve with mashed potatoes and vegetable side, we opted for green beans with some extra chicken gravy. Yummy Scrummy!
