Chicken Mini Pot Pies
These are perfect little pies: Chicken Mini Pot Pies, inspired by my mum's recipe. It makes 4 pies in these ramekins for reference but any should work of that size - around 12cm.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 70 g approx pancetta lardons, or bacon (I like unsmoked)
- 50 g butter
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 2 leeks washed and finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 60 g flour
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- salt and pepper
- 450 ml chicken stock
- 130 ml milk
- 450 g cooked chicken preferably leftover roast chicken, or shredded rotisserie chicken
- 1 x 160g drained tin of sweetcorn
- 500 g ready-made puff pastry or you can use the ready-rolled kind but you might need two packets depending on the size of your ramekins. You will have leftover pastry but they are delicious turned into cheese twists.
- 1 beaten egg to egg wash
- 20 g grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp dried tarragon
- sprinkling of sea salt flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170c fan.
- Add the pancetta and oil to a cold pan and turn to medium heat. Fry the pancetta until crispy, around 10-15 minutes. Once golden, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add the butter to the pan with the leftover pancetta oil. Add the onions and leek. Season and fry gently for 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another 30 seconds.
- Stir in the flour and give it a good stir. Fry for a few minutes to cook out the raw taste of the flour. Then add the hot stock and the milk. Whisk well to get rid of lumps. Allow to simmer gently for 5 minutes to thicken. Stir in the dried tarragon, the chicken, sweetcorn and the pancetta. Taste and adjust the seasoning. The pancetta is salty so see how much salt you need, it will definitely want black pepper.
- Once you're happy, scoop into the ramekins. Cut 4 long strips of the pastry, about 2 cm wide and 4 circles which are about 2 cm bigger than the ramekins. Press the strips onto the lip of each ramekin, wrapping it around like a loop. Then lay the lid on top of this, using a fork to seal it on and crimp it down. Use a knife to poke two holes in each pastry lid and decorate with extra pastry if you want. Brush each pie with egg wash, sprinkle with parmesan, dried tarragon and a little flakey sea salt.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
Notes
Chicken: if you don’t have leftover roast chicken and can’t get hold of rotisserie chicken, just roast a few chicken thighs in the oven at 200c for 30-40 mins (or until cooked through) with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. Then shred up once cooked.