Creamy chicken and pesto pies

There’s nothing like a little comfort food to make you feel good inside and this recipe for delicious creamy chicken and pesto pies is one of the best out there. Although they look quite fancy once cooked, these pies are incredibly simple to make and taste absolutely delicious thanks to a tasty mix of mushrooms, cream, pesto and chicken. Once cooked the mixture is spooned into vol-au-vent cases and topped with a layer of puff pastry for a lovely flakey, golden top. Because they look quite special once cooked they’re great to serve up to guests for dinner, or you can simply enjoy tucking into them yourself with a side of mashed potato and steamed greens. Any leftover chicken mixture can be frozen and saved for next time.

Ingredients

• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 leek (white part only), thinly sliced
• 6 button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 3/4 cup chicken style liquid stock
• 3/4 cup thickened cream
• 2 tablespoons good-quality basil pesto, plus extra to serve if desired
• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 6 vol-au-vent cases
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Melt butter in pan over medium-low heat. Cook leek, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add mushroom and cook for a further minute. Add flour and stir for 1 minute. Gradually stir in chicken stock, then bring mixture to simmer. Add cream and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until thickened. Cool, season, then stir in pesto. Stir chicken into the sauce.
2. Cut 6 lids from puff pastry sheets to fit vol-au-vent cases. Place vol-au-ents on baking tray. Spoon chicken mixture into cases. Brush edge of pastry lids with a little water and place on top, pressing edges to seal. Brush tops of pies with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve.