Chicken Pot Pies with Leeks & Pancetta

A late afternoon movie with friends, then home for a fireside dinner and a few glasses of red - a great way to end a winter weekend. Make dinner super easy by having everything ready to go. Pot pies that just need to be heated, the salad dressed, and later on, dessert popped into the oven.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breast fillets, skin off, about 230-240g each
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 200g diced pancetta (available in pkts. at the supermarket)
• 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
• 2 leeks (white part only), halved lengthways, chopped
• 300g potatoes, peeled, cut into small cubes
• small bunch thyme
• Sea salt, white pepper
• 4 sheets of filo pastry
• 50g butter, melted

Cream sauce

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 500ml chicken stock
• 200ml cream

Method

1. Poach the chicken - this is a great method to use, as it produces a nice moist meat.
2. Put the chicken breasts in a single layer in a saucepan, add the stock to cover and bring to the boil over medium heat. Turn the breasts over, and cover with a piece of baking paper. Turn off the heat, and pull the pan completely off the cooktop (important if you’re using an electric cooktop), cover with a tight-fitting lid, and let it rest, off the heat, for 10-15 minutes depending on how big the chicken breasts are. Mine took about 12 minutes.
3. Shred the chicken breasts when they are cool enough to handle. I find two forks work really well. Cook the diced potatoes in the stock, for about 8 minutes or until just tender. Strain the stock and set aside.

Chicken mix

4. Melt 50g butter in a pan over medium-low heat, add the diced pancetta and cook for 5 minutes. Now add the leeks and celery, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just soft.

The sauce

5. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. whisk in the flour, cook stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Whisk in about 500ml of the reserved stock, and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened and smooth. Add the cream.

The pastry tops

6. Brush 2 sheets of filo with melted butter and stack on top of one another. repeat with the remaining 2 sheets. Cut each one in 4 and scrunch each piece.
7. Preheat the oven to 190C
8. Assemble the the pot pies by combining the shredded chicken, cooked vegetables and sauce. Add thyme leaves to taste, about 8 sprigs, and season with salt and pepper. Top each pot with 2 scrunched pieces of filo and brush again with the remaining melted butter.
9. The mix can be refrigerated at this stage for later use. Just bring back to room temperature before baking with the pastry tops.

Notes

If you are short of time, you can use the shredded meat of a store-bought chicken. Then throw all the skin and bones into a saucepan, cover with water, add some aromatics, and simmer for about an hour and a half. Cool. Strain and freeze for the next time you need stock.