Chicken and Leek Pie

Tender chicken and soft leeks in a creamy, mustard-flecked sauce, all under a crisp golden puff pastry lid. It's the ultimate comfort dinner and easy to make ahead for a busy night.

A good chicken and leek pie is proper Sunday-supper comfort food, and it’s far easier than it looks — a simple creamy sauce, a sheet of shop-bought puff pastry, and a hot oven. The mustard and leeks keep it from being bland, and the whole thing can be assembled ahead and baked when you’re ready.

Ingredients

• 600g chicken thighs or breast — cut into chunks
• 2 leeks — trimmed and sliced
• 40g butter
• 40g plain flour
• 400ml chicken stock
• 100ml crème fraîche or double cream
• 1 tbsp wholegrain or Dijon mustard
• 1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg — beaten, to glaze
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C). Melt half the butter in a large pan and brown the chicken chunks for a few minutes, then lift out.
2. Add the rest of the butter and the leeks and cook gently for 6–8 minutes until soft. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
3. Gradually stir in the stock to make a smooth sauce, then simmer for a couple of minutes until thickened. Stir in the crème fraîche and mustard, return the chicken, and season well.
4. Tip into a pie dish and let it cool a little. Top with the pastry, trim the edges, cut a small steam hole and brush with beaten egg.
5. Bake for 25–30 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden and the filling is piping hot. Make sure the chicken is cooked through (75°C, no pink) before serving.

Serve it with

• Creamy mashed potato
• Steamed greens or peas
• Buttered carrots
• A jug of extra gravy

Why this works

Cooking a proper roux-based sauce means the filling is thick and creamy rather than watery, so it doesn't make the pastry soggy. Letting the filling cool slightly before adding the pastry also helps the lid stay crisp and rise properly.

Common swaps

• Use leftover roast chicken and skip the browning step.
• Add sliced mushrooms or a handful of frozen peas to the filling.
• Top with shortcrust pastry, or mashed potato for a chicken cottage pie.

Common mistakes to avoid

• A runny filling — cook the sauce until properly thick before it goes in the dish.
• Putting pastry on a piping-hot filling, which makes it slump. Let it cool a little first.
• Forgetting the steam hole, so the pastry goes soggy underneath.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Freezing: Freeze the assembled unbaked pie, or the cooked filling, for up to 3 months.

Reheating: Reheat in a hot oven until piping hot throughout rather than the microwave, to keep the pastry crisp.

Allergen notes: contains gluten, milk, egg. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.