Ingredients
Stock:
750ml water
1 carrot
1 onion
2 bay leaves
2 sticks celery
parsley stalks
1 small chicken
Pie:
125ml cream
1 onion, chopped
100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped
50g butter
75g flour
1 packet of puff pastry
1 egg beaten
Salt & pepper
Method
Put the chicken breast down in a saucepan. Cover it with 750 ml cold water with the carrot, onion, bay leaves, celery and parsley stalks and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and with the lid on poach for 45 minutes, until cooked. (After bringing it to the boil, you can place the saucepan in a pre-heated oven at 150C for 45 minutes rather than using the hob.)
When the chicken is cooked remove from the pan. Maintain the stock and sieve out the vegetables. Allow the chicken to cool slightly and then remove the from the bone, breaking it up into pieces and ensuring there is no skin or gristly bits.
Sweat the onion and bacon in the butter until soft, add the flour and cook for a further 2 minutes. Gradually stir in most of the poaching liquid and simmer for a couple of minutes. Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the chicken pieces and pour into a pie dish.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
When cool, cover with the rolled out puff pastry and glaze with egg. Cook for 30-40 minutes in the pre-heated oven.
You can freeze this before cooking. If freezing glaze the pastry before cooking once the pie has thawed.