Chicken Pie: perfect food for autumn

There's no denying that the weather is shivering towards the autumnal.  I can't help thinking that it's still a little too early, but looking on the plus side, it means I can break out with the warming comfort food! I made a chicken pie that was exactly what was needed on a day when I didn't wear a scarf and really wished I had one!

Ingredients

500g chicken

3 cloves garlic

handful of mushrooms

4 rashers of bacon

handful of broccoli

an onion

150ml double cream

stock cube dissolved in 100ml water

olive oil for frying

puff pastry

milk

a beaten egg

4 ramekins

Very simple to make: cube the chicken into bite-size pieces and fry in a drop of oil in a large saucepan until cooked through.  Set aside, chop the bacon into small pieces and fry until cooked through and slightly browned. Set it aside with the chicken.  Slice the mushrooms, chop the broccoli and finely chop the onion and garlic before adding them to the pan to fry and soften for about 10 minutes.  Add the cooked chicken and bacon and combine well.  Add the cream and stock and stir (I added a healthy dose of black pepper at this point too) and then simmer until any liquid has thickened and reduced.  Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll out the puff pastry (I did not make my own!) and cut strips to line the top of the ramekin, and a circle slightly bigger than the pot to go over the top.  Divide the chicken filling between 4 ramekins.  Wrap the strips of pastry around the top of the pot, brush with milk, and lay the circle of pastry over the top, pressing the edges together with a fork.  Brush the top with egg and make a little hole with a sharp knife to let steam escape.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the pastry has risen and turned golden.  Then devour.  Yum yum!  I served mine with sugar snap peas.  And a glass of wine :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. I looked for a recipe like this online but only found ones that were creamy chicken, or chicken and mushroom or chicken and bacon.  And the more recipes I looked at, the more I wanted chicken-and-bacon-and-mushroom-and-onion-and-garlic-and-cream pie.  Plus a way to use up the broccoli in the fridge.