I've seen so many gorgeous filo topped pies doing the rounds on the internet and always thought, I must try that... and so I have!! I have to say it's incredible.. Lighter then normal pastry, it fills you up just the same as a normal pie but without having to have a nap after. My filling is a delicious chicken sausage, leek and tarragon, you can swap out the chicken sausages for chicken breast and still have a yummy pie, check the tips at the bottom for cooking instructions.
And lastly... do not skip the stage of brushing the pastry with melted butter, the filo will just not melt in the mouth without it, and in fact it actually makes filo pastry very inedible.
Prep time 15 mins
Cooking time 1hr20mins, including baking
10 chicken chipolatos (I like to use The Jolly Hog)
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 leek, washed and sliced
1/2tsp each of salt and pepper
3tbsp freshly chopped tarragon(or 2tsp dried parsley)
4 tbsp of butter (2 for the sauce and 2 for brushing the pastry)
2 tbsp plain flour
600ml hot chicken stock
100ml double cream
Packet of filo pastry
Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan and add the sausages, cook on a medium to high heat until they have a nice colour, they should be partially cooked through, remove and set aside.
In the same pan but on a medium heat, add the onion and leek and a splash of water, about 100ml, this will deglaze the pan and help the leeks to cook. Cook gently for 10mins until the leeks and onions are nice and soft. You can add the chopped tarragon and salt and pepper half way through.
Now that everything is softened and the tarragon is nice and fragrant add 2tbsp of butter, let it melt.
Once melted add the flour and stir. This will immediately dry your pan up so do keep and eye on it and stir it often until the flour is cooked out. (Cooked out means to cook slightly this way the flour doesn't taste of raw flour in the sauce) This will just take a few minutes.
Now begin to add the hot stock about 150ml at a time, whisking after each addition. The first couple of additions will make it look clumpy and quite frankly look like you've ruined it... but fear not, its supposed to look like that. By the time you get to the last bit of stock you should have a lovely sauce. If its still a little thick then just add a bit more stock.
Your part cooked sausages should be cool enough to handle by now so at this point I like to slice mine into bitesize pieces, but you can leave them whole if you like. Either way pop them back into the sauce to finish cooking through. Its important now that you don't taste the sauce until the sausages are completely cooked through because they are chicken.
Once you've added the sausages in, let the sauce cook on a medium heat for about 20minutes, stirring occasionally until the sausages are nicely cooked through. If the sauce gets to thick at any point just add a little more water.
After this time test that the sausages are cooked through and if they are pour in the cream and mix well. Have a taste and add some more salt or pepper according to your taste. Remove from the heat and transfer into your pie dish, allow to full cool.
Preheat the oven to 170c
Its important to work quickly with the filo pastry so it doesn't dry out.
Melt the remaining 2tbsp of butter and brush a sheet of filo, lay that onto of the pie filling.
Now to assemble the rest of the filling brush butter on another sheet of filo on one side rip it tidily into 3 strips, loosely crumple and put each piece on top of the pie, continue with all the other sheets or until your pie is fully topped with lovely crumpled filo. So once its cooked it will look like the picture below.
Pop in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden and crisp.
If you just want to use chicken breast, dice 2 large breasts into bitesize pieces and brown off at the start, the same as the recipe says about the sausages and then re- add them at the same point as the method says about the sausages, just be sure not to taste the sauce again until the chicken is fully cooked through.
Love peas...? Add some frozen peas just before you transfer to the pie dish to cool, this will speed the cooling time and your peas won't be over cooked once it finished baking.
