Roast chicken and mushroom pie (Deli chicken part 1)

Over the weekend, we visited Costco and as usual, we came home with a ram packed car and a much reduced bank balance. Among the loo rolls and huge bag of chia seeds, I had secreted a rotisserie chicken. The boys told me it smelt delicious (my sense of smell went as a result of my stroke) and it was so cheap I thought we could have it for a few meals and I could whip up some stock from it too. Getting it home I quickly stripped it and chucked the skin/fat/bones into the slow cooker along with carrots and onion and bagged up the meat and popped it into the fridge.

Yesterday, we had a small gammon for lunch and I thought I could whip up a chicken and gammon pie but hubby but, come the evening the rest of the gammon disappeared into sandwiches so bang goes that plan....

I do have leftover veg from yesterday's lunch  in the fridge and some puff pastry - chicken and vegtable pasties it is! Even better my veggie hating husband is in Gothenburg ("I am batman! Grrr" - my husband) so I can load it up with veg without having to cook something different too.

This couldn't be more simple, first I chopped up some chicken and the leftover veg and left it in a bowl, and covered it in a quick bechemel sauce (which went a bit lumpy because the postman rung the bell but a few lumps never hurt anyone ...)

I then filled a shallow pie plate with just over 1/2 of the mixture, topped it with puff pastry and glazed it with egg. This one will go in the freezer for another day.

To use up the remaining mix I used my biggest circle cutter to make individual pies which the boys can have for tea tonight and in their lunch boxes tomorrow

They came out beautifully and my boys wolfed through theirs at tea time, along with veg and mashed potato and were cuffed to find they'd have more tomorrow.

Of course, the only difficulty now is concealing the mini nutella filled pie that I made with the last few scraps of dough so I can have to as a treat - shhhhhhhh...

print recipe

Chicken and Leftover Pie

by Lydia Juerss September-11-2017

Use up bits and bobs in your fridge to make this quick and adaptable pie

Ingredients

• 1 ( approx 150g) Chicken breast, chopped into small pieces
• Approx 250g Leftover vegetables, chopped into small pieces
• 25g Butter
• 4tblsp Plain flour
• 250ml Milk
• 1 packet Puff Pastry
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 egg, beaten

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 200 CFirstly make a bechemel sauce. Melt the butter over a low heat.Stir in the four to make a thick paste. Add the milk a little at a time stirring vigorously until you have a thick sauceCombine the sauce with the chicken and vegetables Roll out the puff pastry to approx 5 mm thickIf making one large pie, transfer the mix to a pie plate and paint the rim of the plate with egg. Drape the pastry over the top, trim the excess, crimp the edges and make a sall hole in the top to let the steam out before painting the pastry with egg. Any leftover mixture and pastry can then be made into individual pies. Cut an even number of circles from your pastry. Put a half tablespoon of the mixture onto one circle, paint egg around the edges and place a second circle on top. Seal the edges and make a hole in the top to release the steam then pain with egg and place on a baking sheet.Bake the large pie for 35-40 minutes, the small pies 20-30 minutes until golden brown

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 1 shallow plate pie and 6 individual pasties or one deep pie

Recipe Notes:

This is a really forgiving recipe - want a heavier chicken content? Throw it in! Add more veg? Great! Left over gravy? Stir it into the sauce. With the veg if it isn't cooked already either precook it or cut it up really small - I grated half a courgette into mine to really load up the veg content. 

Got a picky eater? This is also an easy one to adapt, make up the mixture without the bits your picky one doesn't like and make them an individual pie and then chuck the objectionable stuff in for the rest of you

Made to many pies? They freeze just fine. Defrost for 24 hours before cooking or cook straight from the freezer (just make sure the contents are properly heated through.

Used all your mix and have pastry left over? Try making jam or nutella pasties and you've got pudding sorted too.

Redemption...

After last weeks appalling attempt, today I realised I had nothing sweet to put in the boys lunchboxes in the morning (they have nagged me to let them have packed lunch for the term -ugh- and I have reluctantly agreed).

I had a trawl through the kitchen and found a butternut squash that was starting to look worse the wear so quickly found a pumpkin blondie recipe on the net that seemed fairly easy and, more importantly, I had enough ingredients for.

It came together quickly, the longest step being to prepare the butternut squash and boil it. I did substitute raisins for the pecans as they boys aren't allowed to take nut's etc into their school. Popped them in the oven while I packed the dishwasher and cleared up from the boys painting session this morning.

Leaving the to cool, I was a little nervous but I needn't have been as they turned out beautifully!

I let both children try them and they promptly spend the rest of the evening nagging "can we have another". I feel my soul is cleansed of my previous disaster so maybe I should actually tackle the sourdough brownies again. Another day, for today I shall revel in my triumph...

The return of the school run...

Yesterday, my two boys went back to school. We'd had a good summer so I was worried I was going to miss them dreadfully...

However, my children are SO CONSIDERATE that they decided to act like ferral animals before almost from the moment of waking,  purely so I'd be glad they are gone.

First crisis? The eldest wants to do the youngest's hair but the youngest has a clear idea of how he wants his hair done. He draws a picture on the black board of what he wants. I didn't get a photo but it was effectively a picture of the side of Homer Simpson's hair and he is ADAMANT he want's zigzag hair.

So, I brushed my teeth to a chorus of "I WANT THIS!", "YOU CAN'T HAVE ARROW HAIR, I'LL DO IT HOW IIIIIIIII WANT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

BUT I have been reading/listening to "How to talk so little kids will listen" so I took a deep breath, girded my lions and calmly walked onto the landings and called them to me and proceeded to completely loose my shit knowing full well that I had failed at the first hurdle (both boys in tears, one barricaded in his room, the other shoulder barging the door.)

The book does advise that "you almost always get s second chance" to set things on the right path.  Eventually, I  regained my temper, got the youngest to accept that zigzag hair wasn't going to happen but he'd look AWESOME if Daddy styled his hair like daddies. Deliver still slightly sniffly child to Daddy who promptly announces "I won't be able to do it like mine" while I frantically making shushing gestures behind his head.

Finally peace is restored, children are dressed and clean... So it's time for the obligatory first day back photos... We hunt down the school shoes and head for the front door... 37 photos later, I gave up trying to get them both to smile and look in the same direction at the same time.

We are now late leaving, so Daddy kisses them goodbye and off we go...

Despite the fraught morning, I am still a little sniffly when I drop them off at their new classes but that soon passes when I realise I am going home to PEACE AND QUIET!