Savoury Pies are the best winter comfort food, topped with potatoes or pastry I am not fussy but there is something about pulling a bubbling golden pie out of the oven that makes me glad that the evenings are drawing in and the weather getting colder.

Although we haven’t hit proper late autumn / winter weather quite yet I had a hankering for a chicken pie and when I saw that both leeks and mushrooms were on special offer I decided that this was a sign to go for it.

This is a very basic pie, the filling goes straight in to the dish and is topped with a pastry lid, rather than being completely enclosed in pastry.

I made this in a 10” casserole dish

Pastry

1 & ¼ cups of Doves Farm GF plain flour

1 tsp of xanthan gum

¼ tsp of salt

4 ounces of chilled butter, diced or grated

2 tsp of lemon juice

¼ cup of sour cream

Enough ice water to mix.

 

1. Stir together the flour, xanthan gum and salt in a bowl
2. Add in the grated or diced butter and rub together until you get the consistency of breadcrumbs
3. Stir together to sour cream and the lemon juice and mix in with the dry ingredients
4. Add enough of the ice water to get a smooth pastry
5. Wrap in cling film and place I the fridge to chill while you are making the filling.
6. When your pie filling is ready take the pastry from the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of baking parchment to a size that fits the top of your casserole. Don’t make the pastry too thin, you want a good bit of pastry on your pie.

 

Chicken Filling

2 chicken breast diced

65 grams of diced bacon. I hate cutting up bacon so I just used one of the small packets of diced pancetta that can be found in Aldi or Tesco

Sour cream. I used a 200ml b but took out ¼ of a cup if that for the pastry.

1 leek, cleaned sliced in a half and cut in to half moons

1 medium onion, diced

6 – 7 good sized mushroom, cleaned and sliced

1 sprig of fresh thyme

200 ml of GF chicken stock

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preheat the oven to Gas 5

 

1. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the onion, leek and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until softened but not browned.
2. Add in the bacon and chicken and cook until the bacon has rendered out all the lovely bacon fat and the chicken is cooked through.
3. Stir in the chicken stock and add the sprig of thyme. Bring it to a bubbling simmer and then reduce the heat and leave to cook for fifteen minutes until the stock reduces a bit, you don’t want the pie filling to be too liquid
4. Stir in the sour cream and remove from the heat. Take out the thyme and pour the filing in to your casserole/ pie dish. You can butter the edge of the dish where the pastry will rest.
5. Take the rolled out pastry lid and place it carefully over the casserole.
6. Crimp the edges of the pastry and then make a little slit in the centre of the pie to allow the steam to escape.
7. Brush with some milk or a beaten egg and pop in the oven for twenty five minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp.

Serve this with some sweet petite pois and if it is a really wintery day go for some extra carbs and serve with buttery mashed potatoes.