Ingredients

• 500g chicken thighs
• 1 leek
• 200g mushrooms
• 2 cups milk
• 100g fetta
• 2 sheets shortcrust pastry
• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp butter

Tools: pie pan

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180 °C.
2. Put your pastry sheets on the counter so they can defrost.
3. Melt a little butter in the microwave and using a pastry brush, grease your pie pan. I like to also use muffin pans to make mini pies for the kids. They are adorable.
4. Moving onto the filling. Dice your mushrooms, leek and fetta. Remember these are pies so you don’t want giant chunks of anything. Cut your chicken thighs into smallish chunks.
5. Pan fry the mushrooms and leek in a little butter and olive oil in a pan on medium heat until nicely browned. Remove from pan.
6. Add more butter and oil if needed and fry your chicken until golden brown and cooked through.
7. While this is happening make your white sauce (also known as bechamel). Melt you 2 tbsp of butter until bubbly in a pot on medium heat. Add 2 tbsp of plain flour. Mix so there are no lumps. Once the two are incorporated add a bit of the milk to form a paste.
8. Once this is well mixed add another cup of milk and mix. Finally add the remainder of the milk and whisk occasionally as the sauce thickens.
9. Take it off the heat and mix the fetta in.
10. Once the chicken is cooked through deglaze the pan with a little white wine.
11. Add the vegetables and then pour the bechamel in. Give everything a stir and take it off the heat.
12. By now your pastry has defrosted. Cut the sheets into quarters.
13. Put a shortcrust quarter in each depression and push it in. There will be some overhang. This is OK.
14. Put a generous amount of filling in the pie (about 3/4 cup full).
15. Quarter your puff pastry and lie it on top. I try to position the two quarters so that the corners alternate.
16. Role the overhanging edges up, towards the centre of the pie, pinching and forming a ridge around it.
17. Cut a little X into the centre of your pie. This allows some of the heat and steam to escape during cooking.
18. Crack open the egg into a cup, whisk it and use a pastry brush to baste the pies. I never used to bother with this step but it makes the most beautiful golden crust so it is worth it.
19. Bake for about 20 minutes (until the pastry is cooked). That’s it, you’re done!