Twitter chef avatar fun: Delia's chicken pot pie

Our February chef for our Twitter avatar fun is Delia Smith, chosen by Nancy. Delia is a new chef for me, but luckily her website is absolutely overflowing with delicious recipes to try. (Kayte made her French onion soup.) Looking for a good dinner idea, I found her recipe for chicken and leek pot pie. Chicken pot pie is always a hit around here, and this one was covered with puff pastry; I just happened to have just enough of NM's puff pastry left in my freezer to cover my pies.

The recipe is great for a small household, baking in a small round casserole and serving two. Feeding a family of four, but not needing leftovers for the next day, I made one and a half times the recipe. And actually, it makes quite a bit: it fed us all, plus healthy seconds for hubby, and he still had a sizable portion leftover for lunch today.

I had a bit of a challenge with the pot pie topping: you're supposed to cut out a little strip of pastry and stick it to the side of the casserole, and then press a round bit of pastry on top. I just couldn't make it work and was in a rush, so I just threw the round on the top of the casseroles. As a result, the puff pastry sank onto the topping and was a little soggy; still tasty though! I also made a change in the decoration: Delia has you decorate the top of the pie with a cut out of a leaf. To get buy-in from my family, I used our Star Wars cookie cutters and made Millennium Falcon and Tie-Fighter cut-outs instead. :-)

As for the verdict? This pot pie filling was awesome, definitely a rival to our favorite recipe. It was kind of time-consuming, but most (good) pot pie recipes are, and it probably would've been easier if I wasn't making ice cream at the same time. Definitely a repeat!

Melty Millennium Falcon

Delia's chicken and leek pot pie
adapted from Delia Smith

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (a 20 oz package)
3 leeks, thinly sliced, with tough green ends removed
2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
12 oz hard cider
3 oz chicken broth (Delia calls for only hard cider, but I didn't want to open a 2nd bottle, so I used broth to fill in the rest of the liquid)
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
12 oz puff pastry (fresh or frozen and defrosted)
1 egg, lightly beaten
finely grated Parmesan for sprinkling
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce:
15 oz milk
1 1/8 oz all-purpose flour
1 1/8 oz unsalted butter
pinch of cayenne pepper
1.5 oz sharp cheddar, grated
3/4 oz Parmesan, finely grated
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper


[Edited: Apparently Delia is pretty strict about copyright, and I don't want to step on any toes, so please see her site for assembly instructions. I am including my measurements and list of ingredients, as I made quite a number of changes.]

Leftover puff pastry = dessert!