Chicken, Leek and Bacon Pie with Quick Vodka Flaky Pastry
This pie is a whopper, serving 6-8 people, so find that big pie dish you’ve hidden at the back of the cupboard, and get it out and cleaned.
If you make less filling, just wrap half of the pastry up in cling film and then in foil and store in the freezer for up to three months, making sure to defrost overnight in the fridge, when needed.
It’s a fantastic pie to serve in the centre of the table to a group of friends, and because both the pastry and the filling can be prepared the previous day, it gives me a chance to relax if I have family here.
Vodka in a pie crust, is such a good idea.
Vodka has little water so when it’s in the oven it evaporates more quickly than just water, meaning the pastry puffs up quicker than it would if the pastry had only water as a binding agent. It’s a great trick with most pastries.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
A pie worthy of the centre spot on a table.
What You Need
Quick Vodka Flaky Pastry
300g Plain Flour
250g Cold Butter – See Tip Box
6-8tbsp Ice water – See Tip Box
3 tbsp Vodka
1 Large Egg – To Glaze
Cut the cold butter into pieces before they go into the flour.
Filling
500g Back Bacon Slices – Roughly Chopped
50g Butter
5 Chicken legs - Skin On
3 Large Leeks - Cleaned and chopped into thing rounds
1 Large Onion – Finely Chopped
2 tsp Dried Thyme
2 tsp Dried Parsley
1 tsp Dried Ground Cinnamon – See Tip Box
Malden Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Yuo should be able to see pieces of butter in the pastry.
Sauce
120g Plain Flour
100ml Double Cream
70g Butter
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
Malden Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Bacon, onion and those leeks cooking together with some butter and seasoning.
How It’s Done
Quick Vodka Flaky Pastry
Put the flour into a large bowl and if not using salted butter, add a pinch of salt and give it a mix.
Cut the block of butter into four quarters and then cut each of the quarters into rough pieces.
Add the pieces of one quarter of the butter to the flour, and using finger tips or a pastry cutter, gently work the butter into the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
Add the remaining pieces of butter and toss them in the flour so all of them are coated in the flour.
Quickly use finger tips to flatten each piece of butter making sure they stay coated in the flour.
Once each piece of butter is flat, return the bowl to the fridge for at least 20 minutes, or the freezer for 10 minutes, so the butter stays cold.
Remove the bowl from the fridge or freezer and put in 6 tbsp of ice water along with all the vodka.
Use a spatula to stir it together it together until it starts to come together into rough shaggy dough pieces.
Tip the dough out on to a clean work surface and without kneading at all, (do not knead) and without mixing the butter in any more, being the dough together.
Cut the dough in half, and gently flatten them into disks.
Wrap each piece in cling film, and place each of them into the fridge until ready to use – In the fridge for no less than 20 minutes.
Freeze at this stage if wanting to use another day – See Tip Box
While the pastry is chilling, and resting, prepare the filling and sauce.
The pastry can be made the day before and kept over night in the fridge
Cook the chicken skin side down first.
Filling
Cut the bacon into rough pieces
Prepare the onion and give it a rough chop.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into a heavy bottomed, large, shallow pan and add the onions and bacon along with a good grind of black pepper and a pinch of Malden salt.
Don’t over salt at this stage, you don’t know how salty the bacon is but the salt it needed to help soften the onions and draw the water out.
Let the bacon and onion cook on a medium heat, until the bacon has let out its liquid and it evaporates and the onion has done the same.
Add the rings of leeks and the butter along with the dried parsley, thyme and cinnamon.
Give it all a good stir and on a low to medium heat, let everything cook until the leeks are slightly softer but still have a little bit of bite to them – Stir occasionally so nothing urns on the bottom.
Once ready, remove the mixture from the pan onto a plate to use later.
Add more oil to the same pan and put it on a low to medium heat.
Use paper towels to dry the skin side of the chicken legs, season them with black pepper and place them, skin side down in the hot pan.
Let the chicken legs cook in the pan for 5 minutes, and then turn them over to cook for another 5 minutes.
It doesn’t matter if the skin sticks to the pan – See Tip Box
Pull the chicken off the bone but keep them noce and chunky
While the chicken is cooking, put the two chicken stock cubes into a jug and add 1 litre of boiling water.
Stir the stock until the stock cubes have dissolved.
Add the stock to the pan along with the chicken and put on a tight-fitting lid.
Let the chicken legs poach in the stock for 30-40 minutes, until the chicken near the bone is no longer pink and its hot all the way through – This time may vary so adjust cooking time accordingly.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it to a plate so that it goes cold.
Don’t throw away the stock, it’s needed for the sauce.
The stock from cooking the chicken is deep and rich with flavour.
Once the chicken is cool enough to be handled, strip all the meat from the legs, keep around half of the pieces large so the pieces of chicken in the tart are all differ sizes.
Discard any of the soft skin left around the chicken legs.
While the chicken is cooling, make the sauce.
The sauce is thick and full of flavour.
Sauce
Cut the utter into pieces, and add it to a large, clean saucepan, and on a medium heat, let it melt.
Dump the flour into the melted butter and mix with a whisk until it comes together into clumps.
Turn the heat down to low, and let the flour mix and cook it for two minutes, making sure to stir occasionally so none of the mixture burns.
After two minutes, using a whisk to mix, add the sauce the chicken was cooked in, to the flour mixture.
Don’t do this all at once, do this one tablespoon at a time making sure to whisk in before adding the next.
Before each addition of the chicken stock, the sauce must be smooth.
Once all the stock is used, add the cream to the sauce and once again, whisk until smooth.
Add all shredded chicken and the onion, bacon and leek mix to the sauce, giving it a gentle mix to combine.
Add everything back in with the sauce and mix.
Give it a taste and if needed, add more pepper and salt – Be aware that the bacon is salty.
Set the filling aside, to come to room temperature, before assembling the pie.
The filling can be made the day before and kept covered, in the fridge, bringing back up to room temperature before assembly.
Roll one pastry disk for the bottom and the other for the top
Assembly & Cook
Heat the oven to 180c
Place an oven proof tray in the oven to heat up.
Dust a clean worksurface with a little flour and remove one piece of the pastry from the fridge and take off the cling film.
Be very gentle and quick when handling this pastry. To get a flaky pastry, the butter pieces need to stay whole on the pastry when they hit the heat of the oven – See Tip Box
Roll the disk of pastry out to fit the bottom of the oven proof pie dish – If it isn’t prefect don’t worry, as long as the pastry goes some way up the sides and your able to patch it up, it will be fine.
Pour the filling into the dish and set it aside while you roll out the lid of the pie.
Dust the work surface again with some flour and roll out the second piece of pastry so that it is around 1 inch bigger than the pie dish.
Lay the pastry on top of the pie filling, and use your fingers to crimp and seal around the edges.
Crimp the edges, cut three holes and glaze with the egg.
Use a sharp knife to cut three slits on the centre of the pie lid.
Break the egg into a small bowl, and use a fork to really give it a mix together.
Use a pastry brush and paint the egg glaze all over the top of the pie lid and the crimped edges.
Open the oven and place the pie onto the pre heated oven tray.
Push it in the oven, and let it cook for 50-70 minutes – depending on your oven.
The pie should be a very deep golden colour and the pie filling should be piping hot in the centre.
Creamy and full of all those great things we cooked.
Check the pie after 50 minutes, and if the top is getting too dark before the centre is piping hot, cover very loosely with foil, to finish off cooking.
If there are some very dark almost burnt bits on the top, don’t worry, this is just flavour and these bits are my favourite bits.
Let the pie cool for ten minutes before eating.
Serve hot or at room temperature.
Golden pastry with a bubbling centre.
Tip Box
Butter – I use salted butter in all of my cooking, so I am very cautious about adding salt. It’s really difficult judge the amount of salt when bacon is in the recipe and it won’t be until everything is mixed with the sauce and you give it a taste that you’ll know how much salt is really in the dish. So, use it sparingly at the beginning of the cook.
Cinnamon – This is a superhero flavour and when the pie goes in your mouth, you won’t even know it was there, but it’s very much needed.
Ice Water – How much ice water is a bit fluid. Its best to add less than the recipe tell you too and seeing how the pastry is. If needed it’s easy to add more. The pastry should be soft, but not sticky.
Freeze the pastry – It’s possible to freeze the pastry once it has ready to be rested. To freeze it, double wrap in cling film and int the freezer for up to three months. When defrosting, do this slowly by sitting the pastry, still in the cling film wrap, it in the fridge over night to defrost. I find this is the best way to ensure the butter pieces stay cold and ready to off up in the oven.
Chicken – 1) Legs vs other pieces - Legs or chicken thighs for me every time and always having its first cook on the bone. Cooking on the bone gives extra flavour and using thighs or legs means the chicken will still be moist even after it’s been cooked for the second tome on the pie.
2) Skin that sticks to the pan –If the skin of the chicken legs sticks to the pan, it doesn’t matter. Let it stay there and as it cooks, it will take on more flavour. Once the stock is added, scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the flavoursome chicken skin, and use it in the sauce.
Keep the Pastry Flaky – When the pastry is rolled out, you should still be able to see large bits of butter under the pastry. If they’re not there, the pastry won’t be flaky and may be tough to eat.
To keep the butter from melting and becoming invisible, handle it very carefully and only when you need to
Don’t knead the pastry at all, just bring it together very gently with your fingers.
Pastry Cooking – How long the pastry takes to cook will largely depend on how thick you roll your pastry and how hot the oven is.
The top of the pastry should be dark golden and glossy, and if it has really dark (almost burnt bits) so much the better. That means more flavour.
To help the pastry cook on the bottom of the pie, putting it onto a hot oven proof tray, gives the bottom of the pie a jump start.
