Chicken and Leek Pie
Poached chicken and slow-cooked leeks under a proper pastry lid, in a sauce made from the poaching liquid. A pie whose filling was designed rather than assembled.
Photograph credit: Chicken & leek pie with mushroom - The Kew Greenhouse Cafe 2025-05-14 by Andy Li · CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia
Poach the chicken rather than roasting it, and make the sauce with the poaching liquid. Roast chicken in a pie is dry by the time the pastry is done, because it cooks twice; poached and cut into large pieces, it stays succulent through the bake. Cool the filling completely before the pastry goes on — a hot filling melts the butter in the pastry before it reaches the oven, and you get a greasy, sunken lid instead of a crisp one.
Quick Answers
How long does Chicken and Leek Pie take to make?
35 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour 40 minutes of chilling the pastry and cooling the filling, so allow 3 hours 40 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
The Method for Chicken and Leek Pie
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Rub the 175 g butter into the 350 g flour and salt, add the cold water and bring to a dough. Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
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Poach the chicken in the stock with the onion, bay and peppercorns at a bare simmer 30 minutes. Lift it out and let it cool.
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Strip the meat into large pieces, discarding skin and bone. Strain the stock and keep 500 ml.
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Sweat the leeks in the 50 g butter with a pinch of salt, covered, 12 minutes, until soft and sweet.
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Stir in the 50 g flour and cook 2 minutes, then whisk in the reserved stock and simmer 5 minutes.
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Take off the heat and stir in the cream, tarragon, mustard, salt and white pepper, then fold in the chicken.
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Tip the filling into a pie dish and cool it completely, 40 minutes.
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Roll the pastry, lay it over the cold filling, seal and crimp the edge and cut a steam hole.
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Glaze with beaten egg and bake at 190°C / 375°F fan / 210°C / 410°F / gas 6 for 40 minutes, until deep gold.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Poach the chicken. Roast chicken in a pie comes out dry.
- Make the sauce with the poaching stock.
- The filling must be cold before the pastry goes on.
If You're Missing Something
- In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
Serve It With
Buttered greens · Mashed potato · A dry cider
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Braised Red Cabbage, Duck Fat Roast Potatoes, Fried Bread.
Keeping and Reheating
Refrigerated for 3 days. Freezes 2 months assembled but unbaked.
What's in a Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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