Individual Chicken and Chestnut Pies

The best thing about winter for me is Sunday lunch. On the whole, I without a doubt prefer Summertime, but the food that winter brings will always be my favourite. Yesterday it was time to make Pie.

I chose a classic chicken and mushroom filling, with the addition of some seasonal chestnuts as I love their sweet nuttiness. We made these in little individual pots and topped them off with puff pastry lids, but they can of course be made as one big pie.

I even had a special helper for the day, Jobeth, probably the biggest fan of pie I have ever met.

Ingredients:
650g chicken breast, sliced 
1 small onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
200g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
300g chestnuts, chopped
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
2 tsp English mustard powder
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
300ml chicken stock
fresh thyme
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
salt and pepper, to taste
1 block of puff pastry, or 1 pre-rolled sheet
1 egg
(make about 4 individual pies or 1 large pie)

To Make:

• First of all make the filling, heat some olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the onion and leek and sweat until they are soft.
• Add the chicken and cook for about 3 minutes.
• Stir in the mushrooms and chestnuts and the tablespoon of flour.
• Add the mustard, creme fraiche and chicken stock and stir well.
• Finally, stir in the thyme, grated nutmeg and season to taste.
• Leave to simmer.

• Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
• Roll out your pastry and cut of lids for the pies, tracing around the circumference of the pot you will be using, leaving an extra 1cm border.

• Ladle the filling into your pots.
• Cover with pastry lids and crimp around the edges, tucking the pastry in to avoid the filling spilling out during cooking. (we over filled our pots just a little bit and had a few spills anyway).
• Snip air holes in the top of your lids and decorate as desired with left over pastry.

• Place all pies on a large baking try and cook in the preheated oven for about 20minutes.

We enjoyed ours with lots of greens and the best mash for a beautiful Sunday lunch.

To Make perfect mash - I recommend using a ricer to make it extra smooth and stir in a tablespoon of creme fraiche!

Jobeth's masterpiece