Chicken, mushroom and leek pot pies

By: Louise Fulton Keats
From: Something for Everyone
Makes: 4
Photographer: Ben Dearnley

This is a dish that tends to be loved by people of every age, from the baby of the family right through to great grandma. I prefer to use chicken thigh fillets over breast fillets, because they don’t dry out and contain twice as much iron and zinc as the white meat – something many of us need more of.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1 tablespoon	olive oil
700g	chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and diced
200g	button mushrooms, quartered
1	leek, trimmed and sliced, white part only
2	garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons	plain flour
375ml	reduced-salt chicken stock, (see note)
150g	fresh or frozen peas
2 teaspoons	tarragon, chopped
or 2 teaspoons	flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1-2 tablespoons	lemon juice
1 sheet	frozen puff pastry, partially thawed
	milk, for brushing

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Heat half of the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned. Set aside. Add the remaining oil and the mushroom, leek and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, or until the leek has softened. Return the chicken to the pan. Stir through the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Stir in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low–medium, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Stir through the peas, tarragon or parsley and lemon juice, then spoon the chicken mixture into four 375 ml capacity ramekins or individual baking dishes.
Cut the pastry sheet into quarters and top each dish with a pastry square, pinching around the edges to seal, and trimming any excess pastry. Brush the tops with a little milk and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Serve immediately.

Baby’s serve

For a younger baby, reserve some of the chicken pie filling and blend until smooth, adding as much liquid (water or your baby’s milk) as needed to achieve the desired consistency. For an older baby, keep the puréed consistency more textured or simply chop up the chicken pieces and serve as is.

Toddler’s serve

Serve as is, ensuring the pie is cool enough to eat, and chopping up the chicken a little if needed.

Note

When making soups for your children, always use a reduced-salt, preferably home-made, stock. Babies’ developing kidneys, in particular, can’t handle much salt and it can cause them to become dehydrated.