With the Xmas turkey on the horizon this post on leftovers is timely. I’m a fan of a Sunday Roast lunch but the other half of the foodies isn’t so keen. We managed to agree to have a chilli roasted chicken for lunch this week. When there was plenty of leftover roast chicken and vegetables, I decided to make a pie for the week. I’ve not made a pie since I left Yorkshire when I was 16. I tried to follow an Elizabeth David recipe, but I confess that I ditched the recipe as I went along and the old memories kicked in.

You need:

1 cup of flour, sieved
50g butter, chopped into small cubes
30g finely grated cheese
sprinkle of salt
2 eggs (keep them separate)
½ cup of cold water
sprinkle of dried thyme
500g chopped roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables leftover
gravy or chicken stock

Method:

For the pastry rub together the butter, flour, salt until it has the texture of breadcrumbs. Then add water and 1 egg, bring it together as a dough. Turn it out onto a floured surface, split in half and roll out one half to 5mm circle.

Grease a pie dish then line it with the rolled out pastry and blind bake in an oven at Gas mark 5/190C/375F for 10 minutes.

Roll out the second half of pastry, sprinkle over the grated cheese and thyme, roll back into a ball and incorporate the cheese. Leave it to rest before rolling it out again into a 5mm circle.

Meanwhile, chop and fry the onion, then add the chopped leftover vegetables and chicken. Cook through with either leftover gravy or some chicken stock. Add a tablespoon of flour if you want a thicker sauce or some cream if you want a creamy sauce in the pie.

Add the pie filling to the base and then cover with the top layer of pastry. Seal around the edge of the pastry, trim and brush with beaten egg. You can use the trimmed bits of pastry to make decorations for the top of your pie. We only had a holly leaf cutter so we ended up with a rather Christmassy-looking pie.

Bake the pie in the top of the oven at Gas 6/200C/450F for 35-45 minutes.