so how do you make a chicken pie from leftover roast chicken?

[SpookedMackerel]

I need help using the leftovers of my roast chicken - or should that be my Mumsnet Roast Chicken that lasts a week™ . I want to get another proper meal from the leftovers tomorrow, not just cold chicken sandwiches.

So... I have leftover chicken (no bones or skin), puff pastry, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, stock. I just don't know exactly how to combine them to make a nice chicken pie .

Soften celery, carrots, onions in a little butter. Add mushrooms and maybe garlic, tarragon or other herbs. When mushrooms are cooked down, add stock. Thicken with cornflour, but not too thick as it will cook out a bit more, than add chicken pieces.

Put in pie dish, top with pastry and bake about 30 mins at 200c. Don't forget to put a slit in the pastry to let the steam out.

I'm sure someone will improve on this - I don't eat meat! But it's a start and will work.

You're doing better than me. I use a chicken casserole mix!

Generally, fry onions until translucent add the chicken and veg and fry gently until you're bored. Maybe stir in a tablespoon of flour to act as a thickener, stir until coated. Then add stock and cook for a few minutes. Place in pie dish and top with pastry and shove in the oven until you're hungry (probably 40 mins or so)

Can't tell you weights and measures cos I do it by eye but: sauté the veg and chicken in oil (or oil/butter combination for delicious flavour) till warmed through, add enough plain flour to make a roux, cook that out and slowly add milk, mixing all the while. Chuck in a bay leaf and any other herbs you fancy, tarragon tastes fab with chicken, simmer and stir the white sauce for few minutes then add some lovely chicken stock until it's the consistency you prefer. Add seasoning if need be, being careful with salt as some ready made stocks already contain a lot of it. Line your pie dish with pastry after rubbing some butter round it to prevent sticking, pour the mixture in and place the rest of the pastry on top, trimming round edges. Little hole in pastry to let steam escape. Cook till golden at medium temp. That's how I do it anyway, method given to me by my kids' favourite cook at their primary school many years ago whose pie always had them going back for seconds.

Thanks! That all sounds fairly straightforward. And thank you for the tip of letting steam escape, would never have known that!
I only have plain white flour - is cornflour the same as polenta? Like the idea of making a white sauce with milk.

Plain white flour will be fine. Cornflour is the same but corn instead of wheat. It mixes more easily and doesn't need as much cooking, also it cooks to almost clear whereas flour will make the stock go cloudy. That's not a problem if you're adding milk anyway.

Petitgrain Won't your pie have a soggy bottom? I always find I have to blind bake mine first, and so tend just to put a top on instead.

A dollop of wholegrain mustard would be nice in the sauce too. or wine

Ooh Baronness do you know, it does! But wierdly we all love it like that! You're right of course though, it should be blind baked. I've been meaning to buy some of those ceramic beans for about 20 years, is that what you use? And yy to mustard actually, I'm going to try that next time. Although I'm loathe to stray to far from the school dinner path simply because everyone seems to love that recipe and it just couldn't be simpler, and yet makes you look like an accomplished cook. Which I'm not, everything I know I have learnt from Saint Delia. That wonderful woman.

I boil the leftover bones for about 30-40 mins and use this to make the stock. I make a sort of white sauce with butter, flour and the chicken stock and some milk. You can poach the veg in the boiling stock as well. Then assemble. I never bother with a base to the pie, just a top.

Saute your preference of veg. Add either a tin of condensed chicken/mushroom soup or a knorr chicken stock pot and thicken it. Add the chicken and top with pastry. Egg wash and bake til cooked.

Petigrain you can blind bake with rice, you don't need the ceramic beans

Rice?? No-one told me, I've got loads of rice! Going to make this tomorrow I've decided and my bottom will not be soggy, hurrah!

I blind bake with peas as they were the cheapest pulse in the shop. (70 cents) Just remember to keep them in a jar labelled "DO NOT EAT!". I have never forgotten the stew DF made accidentally with DM's baking beans. Despite soaking and cooking all day, they were pretty tough.

Line the pastry with greaseproof paper or tin foil before you put the beans/ rice in or you'll be picking them out one by one with tweezers. Apart from the ones that the puff pastry completely engulfs. You'll have to dig those out with a knife. Not that I've ever forgotten of course. Oh no. I've just heard about these things........

There's a really lovely recipe in Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries 2 for a chicken and leek pie. I made a version of it today: fry 2 leeks in butter and add 50ml water, add in a tablespoon or so of flour, cook it out, add chicken stock to top it up and then add the chicken, a bayleaf, a small handful of parsley, salt & pepper & cook for five minutes or so. (I also added some mushrooms and bacon that needed using up) I then whacked a puff pastry top on it & that was it.

It's the best chicken pie recipe I've found. Minutes to make. Nanoseconds to demolish

Just wanted to come back and say thank you for all your recipe advice. I added mustard, white wine and parsley and put ready rolled puff pastry just on the top (not sure I am advanced enough for blind baking!)

Both Dc scraped their plates clean and asked for more which I think is a record, they usually like different things.

A new family favourite to add to my repertoire, brilliant. And so easy as well, can't believe I've never made it before :)

plain flour and a splash of milk or cream if you have any will work fine.

The only thing I would add is to not put the chicken in straight away. Cook your veg, make the sauce (by whatever method) then add the chicken at the last minute, as it will heat up in the oven. Overcooking it might make it tough.