Chicken, curry and leek pie

I had a big dinner for 40 people to make recently and I took the opportunity to make some new recipes. I was in the mood for a huge pie, with a deliciously buttery pastry and a tasty filling. Chicken, leeks, celery, and a touch of curry, give this dish an extraordinary taste. This pie is really big, but you can halve the quantities with the measurements I give you below. I had made plenty of salads (rich, not green!), but this pie was a big hit with my guests!

Recipe for a pie circle (huge!) of 26cm diameter and 6cm height:
(divide by 2 for a circle of 22cm diameter and 4cm height)

1,4kg of chicken breast
2 onions
3 leeks
3 stalks of celery
4 teaspoons yellow curry powder
180g of Saint Môret
180g of cream cheese
olive oil
salt pepper

Dough:

500g of flour
335g of semi-salted butter
80g of egg
1 egg yolk for gilding

Place the chicken breasts in boiling salted water for 12 minutes. In the picture there is less, but I used 1.4kg of chicken breast.

Save the cooking water for later.
Let cool .

Remove some of the green from the leeks, then cut them lengthwise into quarters and then into small strips. Make sure they are clean and free of sand!

Peel and cut onions into small pieces. Put in a very large pan with 6 tablespoons of olive oil.

Also cut the celery stalks without their leaves.

Add the celery to the pan and cook for 10 minutes over moderate heat.

Add the leeks and cook for 20 minutes.

The leeks must be well cooked.

For the chicken, two solutions. You can flake it with a fork, which is a little time consuming for this recipe. You can also put the chicken (cooked and cooled) in the blender. Mix by pulsing for a few seconds.

It goes much faster and is perfect for the amount we have here!

Add a good 4 ladles of chicken juices (that you had set aside).

Pour in the curry powder.

The cream cheese and the Saint Môret. You can also put only one or the other. In this case, a total of 360g is needed!

Put salt and pepper at your taste. Adjust the softness of the stuffing by letting it dry over low heat, or by adding a little of the chicken’s cooking juices.

For the dough, put the flour and semi-salted butter at room temperature in a bowl.

Mix well to blend. If the butter clumps too quickly, don’t worry! Finally add the 80g of egg. To do this, beat two eggs into an omelet, then pour in the desired amount.

Let the food processor run to clump the dough (or do it by hand!).

No need to rest in the cooler. Immediately roll out 3/4 of the dough on parchment paper.

Line your greased circle (or pan). As always, I use release agent.

Place the paper with the pastry ring on a baking sheet and pour the entire chicken filling over it.

Roll out the remaining dough.

Place the dough on the circle.

Squeeze the dough well to join the bottom one to the top one. As you go along, you will seal it and then the dough will fall out.

And then a clean job!

Brush the entire surface of the dough with egg yolk.

Bake at 180°C for about 1h30. Since the filling is already cooked, it is only the dough that needs to cook and brown nicely.

Delicately cut up.

If you eat it hot, you’ll have a hard time cutting slices. What I do to get very clean slices: I let the pie cool completely and then put it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. At this point, it is very easy to cut slices without the dough breaking. I then put it back in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes so that it becomes perfect. Since the slices are already done, all that’s left to do is serve!