Weekend cooking: Roast chicken pie

Let me first explain the origin of this recipe: most times, I tend to pay the utmost attention to the quality of the food I eat and cook... Most times. There are times when I am just so famished/dead tired/with no time to waste/unwilling to cook that I ... hmm, will get the less than good quality, readily-available cooked meal in front me, just to satisfy my primal instinct of survival. That's how this recipe happened. I looked at the roasted chicken in front of me at the supermarket, bought it and went home. I had my portion which, of couse, I drowned in all sorts of condiments and I was satisfied. 

Just at this moment, I realised that I could not eat the rest of the chicken like that - it had absolutely no taste. What could I do? Enter Tarts with tops on, Tamasin Day Lewis' book on baked goodies that saved the day. I like baking savoury pies in general, because they tend to be rather quick and easy to prepare and they provide last-minute solutions to situations like the one I just described above (unfortunately, I didn't have anything available at that time). The end result was simply delicious, which means that using an organic / free range chicken would make it divine... The best part was that it lost none of its goodness when cold. So, either at home or on the way, this chicken pie will now become a staple in my culinary adventures!

Roast chicken pie

1.5Kg roast chicken, shredded

2 medium carrots, in cubes

2 sticks of celery, chopped

2 wands of leek, sliced

1 small shallot, thinly sliced

300ml single cream

salt/pepper, parsley

2x230g all butter shortcrust pastry

two roast chicken pie - to go, please!

Preheat oven at 180C. Begin by shredding the chicken. I ended up with about 1cm cubes, but I think next time I'll shred it even finer. Leave in bowl. Prepare the sauce: either steam or boil in water just covering the carrots, celery, leek and shallot. Once tender, mash in blender. Heat the cream, stir in the vegetable mash. Take off the heat, salt/pepper according to taste and add a generous heap of parstley. Toss over chicken, stir and leave to cool. In a baking tin, line the bottom with one sheet of pasty (I keep the parchment paper as I don't need to butter the dish that way), pour the filling, cover with the second sheet. I do like to make several little decorative thingies on the top sheet, but this is purely optional. Bake for about 50' or until the pastry is beautifully bronze.

This post is my entry into Weekend Cooking, a weekly event hosted by Beth Fish Reads.