This recipe is a bit of a play on the traditional Scottish Cock-a-leekie soup. Leeks are right in season in February and this recipe matches them beautifully with the smoked bacon and prunes. If you had some leftover roast chicken from the weekend’s roast then just swap that in instead!
serves 6-8
Shopping List
- 1 litre of chicken stock
- 1.3kg free-range chicken
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 200g smoked bacon lardons
- 2 large leeks, sliced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 shallots diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- ½ glass of white wine
- 60g butter
- 80g plain flour
- 10 soft prunes, chopped
- ½ bunch tarragon, chopped
- 600g shortcrust pastry
Method
- Place the chicken in a pot with the stock on a medium hob and bring to the boil, turn down to allow a gentle simmer for around 60 minutes. Once cooked through, take half the meat from the bird and tear into bite sized chunks
- Sweat the leeks, carrots, shallots, garlic and bacon in the olive oil and the butter until softened
- sprinkle the flour over the mixture, stir in and let it cook out for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the white wine and continue to cook out for a further 3 minutes, then add the chicken stock, the chicken and prunes, continue to cook for 20 minutes then add the tarragon
- Preheat oven to 180c. Place the pie filling into a 26cm pie dish, roll out the pastry to about 3-5cm thick and lay over the mixture so that it overhangs the pie dish, crimp all around the pastry dish either with your fingers or a fork
- Brush the pie lid with beaten egg and pierce two holes in the lid to allow steam to escape
- Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown