Make this pleasing pie everytime you're serving a crowd. Topped with puff pastry, it's full of hen, ham and leeks in a silky easy sauce

• Preparation and cooking time
  • Prep:20 minutes
  • Prepare dinner:1 hr and 5 minutes
• Simple
• Serves 6 – 8

• Freezable

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Substances

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 600g hen thigh fillets, roughly chopped
• 60g butter
• 2 leeks (about 400g), trimmed and sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
• 125ml white wine
• 60g plain flour, plus further for dusting
• 400ml hen inventory
• 250ml milk
• 2 bay leaves
• few thyme sprigs
• 180g ham (both thick sliced or leftover cooked ham), roughly chopped
• 500g pack puff pastry
• 1 egg, crushed

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Methodology

• STEP 1

  Warmth the oil in a big frying pan or saucepan over a medium warmth and fry the hen till browned throughout (it doesn’t must be cooked by means of at this level), about 6-8 minutes. Take away to a plate, leaving the oil within the pan.

• STEP 2

  Tip the butter into the pan and fry the leeks for 8-10 minutes on a medium-low warmth till softened however not golden. Stir within the garlic and cook dinner for 1 min extra. Pour within the white wine and cook dinner for a couple of minutes so the alcohol evaporates and the liquid reduces somewhat.

• STEP 3

  Sprinkle over the flour and stir till a thick paste has shaped and no dry flour stays. Regularly pour within the inventory, stirring effectively between every addition till mixed, about 5 minutes. Pour within the milk, then carry to a simmer and cook dinner for 1 min, stirring on a regular basis to forestall lumps forming. Stir within the bay leaves, thyme, browned hen and ham. Season with numerous freshly floor black pepper and a pinch of salt (the inventory and ham will add salt, so season to style). Pour into a big pie dish (ours was 30 x 20cm). Will preserve for 2 days within the fridge, or within the freezer for 3 months. Depart to chill utterly first, then defrost totally in a fridge in a single day earlier than persevering with with step 4.

• STEP 4

  Warmth the oven to 200C/180C fan/gasoline 6. Frivolously mud the worktop with flour, then roll out the puff pastry to 1/2cm thick. Minimize a disc of pastry large enough to cowl the pie dish with somewhat overhang. Frivolously brush the rim of the pie dish with a number of the egg, then lay the pastry over the filling and the rim of the dish. Crimp the perimeters and use any pastry offcuts to embellish the pie, in the event you like, utilizing the egg to assist them stick. Glaze the entire pastry high with extra egg, then bake for 45 mins-1 hr till golden and the filling is piping scorching. The pie will be chilled earlier than glazing for as much as two days, or freeze, lined, for as much as three months (you have to to freeze in a freezable ovenproof dish). Could be cooked from frozen, for 1 hr- 1 hr 30 minutes till piping scorching all over.