Dinner - Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pie

This is one of my favourite meals, it is very warm and comforting, perfect for the snowy winter we have at the moment! I make it with home-made pastry because wholemeal pastry is not available, but you can buy ready to use puff pastry which is just as good as home-made. I like it with broccoli, carrots, and lots of gravy. The original recipe is from BBC Good Food and can be found here

Serves 4-6

Filling;
1 tbsp butter
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped into chunks
8 rashers of streaky bacon, sliced
1 onion, halved and sliced
250g baby mushrooms,quartered
1tsp thyme
2tbsp plain flour
400ml chicken stock
200ml milk

Puff pastry;
125g wholemeal plain flour
125g white plain flour
1tsp salt
250g butter
150ml cold water

Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C

Filling;
Heat the oil in a large pan
Fry the chicken for 5-8mins, until white all the way through
Remove the chicken and fry the bacon for 5mins
Add the onion mushrooms and thyme, and fry for 3mins
Add the flour, stir and leave for 1min
Remove the pan from the heat
Stir in the stock
Stir in the milk
Add the chicken
Bring to the boil
Turn down the heat and simmer for 30mins

Pastry;
Put the salt and flour together in a bowl and mix well
Cut up the butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture
Rub the butter and flour together with your fingertips until they are mixed but still lumpy
Make a well and pour in half of the cold water
Mix until it comes together in a ball - add more water if you need to
Cover with cling film and fridge for 20mins

Put the filling into a large casserole dish
Roll out the pastry into a rectangle
Fold one third of the pastry down to the centre, then fold the last third over the top
Roll out again into a rectangle
Roll onto the casserole dish
Cut away any excess around the edges and prick holes in the centre (think Snow White making gooseberry pie for the dwarves)
Brush with egg
Bake for 30mins
Serve immediatly

Enjoy!