< Back to Main Blog Posted: Oct 2022

Chicken, Ham & Leek Pie Recipe

COOK meals are perfect for when you fancy a night off cooking … something even the most passionate home cook needs now and again. But if you'd prefer to make it yourself, our recipe for a 2 portion is below. As freezer connoisseurs we'd always recommend batch cooking for the absolute best value recipe - scroll to the end for some tips.

Our shopping list for the recipe below included: Free range chicken breasts - diced - skins removed, Small leek - trimmed and sliced, Onion - finely diced, Double cream, Chopped parsley, Ham hock - shredded , Shortcrust pastry, Chopped fresh thyme. Everything else we had already.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Rapeseed or olive oil
200g Free range chicken breasts, diced, skins removed
20g Butter
1 Small leek, trimmed and sliced
1/3 Onion, finely diced
½ tbsp Plain flour, plus extra for dusting
65 ml White wine
135 ml Chicken stock
85 ml Double cream
85 ml Semi skimmed milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ Lemon, juiced
½ tbsp Chopped parsley
100g Ham hock, shredded
170g Shortcrust pastry
1 Egg, beaten
1/3 tsp Chopped fresh thyme

Method:

STEP 1. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken for about 5 mins. Tip into an ovenproof pie dish, then evenly scatter over the ham. Heat the remaining oil and butter, add the onions and soften for 2-3 mins. Add the leeks and cook for a further 2 minutes, then stir in the flour.

STEP 2. Pour in the white wine and chicken stock. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until reduced by half. Take off the heat, then stir in the lemon juice, cream, milk and season to taste. Pour over the pie filling and leave to cool slightly before covering with pastry.

STEP 3. Unroll the pastry and cut off a small strip to make decorations (if you like). Roll the remainder to fit the dish and place on top of the pie. Use a fork to crimp the edges and press the pastry to the edge of the dish. Make a small hole in the centre.

STEP 4. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Combine beaten egg with chopped thyme and Brush pie to glaze (making sure the steam hole hasn’t sealed up). Cook for 20-25 mins, until golden and hot through.

Batch it up!

To save money, batch cooking is the way forward – it’s essentially why we can make recipes cheaper than you can at home.

With a bit of forethought, the right kit, space in the freezer and a few hours set aside, you can batch cook yourself by scaling up the quantities above.

A few tips:

Clean COOK trays can be really useful. Make your portion, freeze in the tray, then, once frozen, pop out and wrap in cling film to store (or, if you have lots of trays, just store in the tray).

To reheat from frozen, pop the frozen block into one of our ceramic dishes and cook at about 170C until piping hot.

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