The Mini Pie Revolution - Chicken and Leek Pies

Ann at Redacted Recipes is hosting this month's Mini Pie Revolution, and to give our teeth some respite from sugar, she has chosen Mini Pot Pies as the theme. Your pie can be any savoury combination, so long as it is mini and has a crust (and is therefore a pie).

I have chosen to make single crust chicken and leek pies in ramekins for my entry. The recipe for these pies is from The Australian Heart Foundation's The New Classic Cookbook by Loukie Werle. The only changes that I made to the recipe that are worth mentioning were to add green capsicum to the filling (because I had one in the crisper that had started to curl up its toes) and to sprinkle poppy seeds on top (simply because it looks pretty!!).

To make these pies, you will need:

2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 small chopped onion
200g sliced button mushrooms
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cups cold water
1 bay leaf
600g sliced leeks
500g diced skinless chicken breast fillets
250g frozen peas
1 chopped green capsicum (optional)
1 teaspoon cornflour
8 sheets filo pastry
cooking oil spray
poppy seeds to decorate (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Warm the oil in a frypan, then add the onion and capsicum and cook gently until soft. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft. Finally, stir through the tarragon, remove from the heat and place the onion mixture in a large bowl.

Next, bring the stock, water and bay leaf to the boil in a pan. Add the chicken and the leeks and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Pour in the peas, stir through until heated, and then remove the pan from the heat. Drain the mixture, reserving one cup of the liquid, discard the bay leaf and add the solids to the bowl containing the onion mixture.

Make a paste with the cornflour and 1 tablespoon of cold water. In a small saucepan, stir the cornflour paste through the reserved stock, bring the liquid to the boil and simmer for one minute. Pour the resulting liquid into the chicken and vegetable mixture, combine thoroughly and spoon equal portions into 6 ramekins.

Spray cooking oil between every two layers of filo pastry, and cut 6 rounds from the filo to cover the top of each of the 6 ramekins, leaving a slight overhang. Place a filo pastry "lid" on top of each ramekin, scrunching decoratively around the edges to seal the top, and spray each "lid" with cooking oil. Finally, sprinkle the top of each pie with poppy seeds, and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve with mash on the side. Delicious!

Thanks to Ann for hosting this month's Mini Pie Revolution, and don't forget to check Ann's site for the roundup at the end of the month.