After buying a small version of this pie at Northwich Artisan Market I’ve had a go at recreating it. This is a very indulgent pie. This should serve 3 people, but it’s hard to leave any when there’s only two of you!

Ingredients

• Short Crust Pastry (I’ve used the gf recipe from Becky Excell, this uses about half the amount in her recipe)
• 200 grams left over roast chicken breast, diced into bite sized chunks
• 1 Gammon Steak, cooked then cut into bite sized chunks. You can use some chunks of ham instead if you have any.
• 1 Leek, sliced into 1cm rounds
• 25 grams maybe a little more of butter and enough to grease the pie tin
• 25 grams plain flour
• 1/2 glass of white wine
• milk (of your choice) to get a good thick sauce
• 2 medium sized floury potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 250ml of double cream, soya if you want to try to be good
• Grating of cheese, parmesan or cheddar to top
• Salt and Pepper

Method

• Roll out the pastry and line a buttered pie tin, (I used my 20cm by 15cm enamel tin). Pop in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the pie.
• Melt a knob of the butter in a pan and then saute the leek until cooked through, then set the leek aside.
• Melt the rest of the butter and add the flour. Let it cook for a couple of minutes.
• Gradually add the wine to the sauce stirring until it thickly coats the back of a spoon. If you need more liquid add a dash of milk until it is the right consistency.
• Season, but be light on the salt as the gammon maybe quite salty. Set aside to cool down.

• Peel and thinly slice the potatoes.
• Pop them in a sauce pan with the garlic, some black pepper and just enough cream to coat and nearly cover them. Slowly bring to a simmer, making sure to gently stir them to stop them from catching on the bottom of the pan. Put a lid on the pan and keep an eye on them until a knife will go into the potato easily. Then set aside to cool.
• Heat oven to Gas 6, 200C, 180C Fan.
• Mix the chicken, leeks and gammon into the sauce. Then pop it into the pastry case.
• Now lay the potatoes on top of the filling. They may need separating a little as they may have stuck together with the cream. If you can manage a nice arrangement overlapping the slices the pie will look extra good. You want to cover the edge of the pastry and all it’s contents, I managed a couple of layers. This is quite a sticky job, but you get to lick your fingers once finished!
• Grate some cheese over the top.
• Place on an oven tray and put in the oven for about 40 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t brown too much.

Serve with a crispy salad or some greens, just to help you feel like you’ve not over indulged too much!

Enjoy.