Chicken pie

What can be better than getting together with family and friends and having a good old catch-up? This pie is made for just that – plonk your masterpiece in the middle of the table along with some vegetables and let everyone help themselves, then sit back and relax.

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

Pastry

• 500g/1lb 1 oz gluten-free pastry (for homemade see page 183; you will need a double quantity)

Filling

• 1 whole roasted chicken
• 1 tbsp Lucy Bee coconut oil
• 2 large leeks, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp dried tarragon
• 125g/4 1/2 oz mushrooms, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Sauce

• 40g/1/3 cup gluten-free plain (all-purpose) flour
• 40g/1 1/2 oz Lucy Bee coconut oil
• 500ml/2 cups plus 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• Himalayan salt and ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

2. Remove the chicken skin and strip the meat from the bones and put into a bowl. (At home we always make stock with the bones. If you don’t want to make stock at this stage, you can place the bones in a freezer bag and freeze until later – see the recipe on page 177.) Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and sauté the leeks, onion, garlic, tarragon and mushrooms, if using, until soft. Mix this into the chicken.

3. To make the sauce, put the flour, coconut oil and milk in a saucepan. Stir with a balloon whisk over a medium heat, to avoid any lumps, until thickened, then stir in the mustard and remove from the heat. Stir the sauce into the chicken mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Roll out half the pastry on a sheet of cling film to a round big enough to fit into a 24cm/9 in diameter round pie dish. Carefully turn over the cling film (so the cling film is on top) and push the pastry gently into the pie dish. Fill with the chicken mixture. Lightly moisten the edges of the pastry and roll out the remaining pastry, using the same technique. Place over the pie and press the edges together using a fork, to seal, trimming off any excess pastry.

5. If you like, make a leaf pattern with any leftover pastry (or use to make mini tarts) and brush over with egg yolk.

6. Bake in the oven for 50–60 minutes, until the pastry is nicely coloured.

Tips and notes

If you prefer your pie to have more sauce, increase the flour quantity to 75g/2/3 cup, the coconut oil to 80g/2 1/2 oz, and the milk to 800ml/scant 3 1/2 cups.

From Coconut Oil: Recipes for Real Life. Recipe text © 2016 Lucy Bee Limited.