Chicken Rough Puff Pie

Ooooh, I love a good savoury pie.

The nights are getting longer and colder, and for me that means one thing: comfort food. There is nothing more comforting than a big old pie, fresh from the oven, chock full of meats and veggies.  For me, making and then eating this is my perfect way to spend an autumnal weekend evening.

And I might just be a total weirdo, but I find making pastry comforting too. And I’ve never made rough puff before, but I have been inspired by the Great British Bakeoff where it seemed to make a lot of appearances! And I can see why – it is quick, light, flavourful and crispy, and slightly less labour intensive than it’s “non rough” counterpart. This is nicer than the M&S equivalent, a fact which makes me stupidly happy.

Ingredients for the rough puff pastry

• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 250g room temperature (BUT NOT SOFT) butter
• 120ml cold water
• 1 egg beaten, as an egg wash

Ingredients for the Pie

• 25g butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 chicken breasts, diced
• 4 rashers of bacon, chopped small
• 1 leek, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1.5 tbsp plain flour
• 300ml chicken stock
• 1.5 tbsp mustard
• 2 tbsp cream
• 2 tbsp parsley
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• A handful of frozen peas

Method

Begin by making your puff pastry, as it’ll need a bit of time in the fridge. It’s pretty simple, even though I kind of messed mine up by using the wrong butter. You really need the butter in the foil packets for this, as the smoother butter just disintegrates too much.

So, unsurprisingly let’s start with some flour and salt in a bowl. Chop the butter into the bowl in chunks.

Mix through with your hands, roughly working the butter into the flour. You want to still be able to see chunks of butter (CRUCIAL!).

Make a well in the middle and mix in 90ml of water, and add a little more water as needed to make a rough dough.

Cover in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Now, make a start on the pie filling. Melt the butter and oil, and fry the chicken until cooked and golden. Throw in the bacon and cook until crispy.

Now, turn the leeks and garlic into the pot and cook for another few minutes.

Stir in the flour, and coat everything well. Cook for 1 minute. Add the stock slowly, 1/3 at a time, ensuring that all is mixed well through before adding the next batch of stock.

Now, add the mustard, cream and parsley. Stir well to combine.

Throw in the peas and lemon juice and stir. Season to taste and take off the heat. It should be slightly cooler before cooking, which means you have tons of time to continue the pastry.

Now, back to the puff pastry! I don't have any photos because my hands got too messy!

Remove dough from fridge, form into a rectangle and roll out into a floured surface. You want it to be about 3 times as long as it is wide (15 by 50 cm or so). Make sure to only roll in one direction.

Visually divide into thirds, lengthwise. Fold the top third into the middle, and the bottom third over the top of that.

Turn 90 degrees and roll out again, only in one direction (CRUCIAL!). Fold into the centre again.

Wrap in clingfilm again and put back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

At this point I did all my dishes!

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Pour your pie filling into a suitable dish.

Now, take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out a bit bigger than the dish you’re using.

Drape over the top and seal down the edges. Make a hole in the centre. I had a lot of excess pastry so I made some little patterns on the top with long strips of pastry and some stars I cut out.

Brush with beaten egg and place in the oven to cook for 30 minutes, until the top is all golden and crispy and gorgeous.

Leave in the dish for a few minutes after you remove from the oven.

Then slice up and serve!