Chicken Pot Pie

"Hey woman, get in the kitchen and make me a chicken pot pie!" are the words of Cartman from South Park that go around in my head when I make this. I improvised this as I figured that I could approximate a chicken pot pie without having a recipe. I used a BBQ chicken as I can't stand the smell of raw chicken and fried onions, a clove of garlic, some carrots, peas and sweetcorn. I then added some cream of chicken soup (reconstituted) and let it cool. There's shortcrust pastry on the bottom and puff pastry on top (both bought Pampas pastry, I am not mentally ready to tackle home made pastry) with some leaves. if I could make one of those little magpies singing out of the top I would but that seems a little extreme. Its actually better cold the next day in a way although the buttery pastry suffers as its always better out of the oven.

Chicken Pot Pie

An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella

(sorry they are approximations as I just grab handfuls of stuff)

1 onion diced

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

BBQ chicken breast or dark meat (whichever you prefer or a mix of both) diced

2 small Carrots diced

Handful of frozen peas

Handful of sweetcorn

1/2 can of cream of chicken soup (reconstituted as per directions)

1 sheet shortcrust pastry

1 sheet puff pastry

egg wash (egg yolk and a little milk)

I prefer to make the filling ahead of time so that it isn't too hot when it goes onto the pastry but you can make it then and there and it won't kill it if its hot, the pastry just turns out better if the filling isn't so hot going onto it.

Cook onions and garlic and soft and add everything else except for the soup and cook for 5-10 minutes. Then add soup and let thicken. Cool.

Preheat oven to 220C. Butter base of pie dish or pyrex and place sheet of shortcrust pastry on base pressing down so that it fits against the dish. Fill with baking weights,dried beans or rice and bake for 10 minutes. Once removed, place chicken filling in pie and working quickly, place puff pastry sheet on top of pie using a knife to cut off excess pastry (or you can fold this in and tuck it). I use the extra pastry to make leaves which fan out in the middle. Brush with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes!