Ingredients

• 600 g boneless skinless chicken thighs, bite-sizethighs, not breast; they stay juicy through a long bake
• 150 g thick-cut smoked streaky baconchopped
• 2 leekswashed and sliced
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 250 ml chicken stock
• 150 ml double cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 320 g all-butter puff pastryall-butter, and cut a real steam slit or the filling lifts it off the rim
• 1 eggbeaten
• 1 tsp fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. 01

   Render the bacon

   Heat the oven to 200 C / 180 C fan. Put the chopped bacon into a cold, dry, wide pan and set it over medium-low heat. Starting cold renders the fat out slowly instead of seizing the meat, 6-8 minutes, until crisp. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and leave every drop of fat in the pan.

   150 g thick-cut smoked streaky bacon

   Start the bacon in a cold panFrom cold the fat renders out slowly. You get crisp bacon and the fat to cook everything else in.

2. 02

   Brown the chicken in the bacon fat

   Raise the heat to medium-high and brown the 600 g chicken thigh pieces in two batches, 3-4 minutes each, until golden on at least two sides. Crowding the pan steams the meat and you lose the fond. Remove and set aside with the bacon.

3. 03

   Soften the leeks

   Turn the heat to medium, add the butter and the sliced leeks with a pinch of salt, and cook for 6-8 minutes until soft and sweet, scraping the browned bits off the base of the pan as they release.

   30 g butter · 2 leeks

4. 04

   Make the sauce

   Stir in the flour and cook for a full minute to lose the raw taste. Add the stock a splash at a time, stirring out the lumps before each addition, then the cream, 1 tsp Dijon and 1 tsp thyme. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a line when you draw a finger through it. It wants to be noticeably thicker than a pouring sauce.

   2 tbsp plain flour · 250 ml chicken stock · 150 ml double cream

   Thicker than you thinkThe filling loosens in the oven. If it only just coats a spoon now, it will be soup under the pastry.

5. 05

   Combine and cool

   Return the chicken and bacon, simmer for 5 minutes, then season. Transfer to a pie dish and leave for at least 10 minutes. Hot filling melts the pastry butter on contact, and you lose the lift.

   Cool the filling firstWarm filling melts the butter layers and the pastry bakes flat and greasy.

6. 06

   Top and bake

   Lay the pastry over the dish, press the edges onto the rim to seal, cut a 2 cm steam slit in the centre and brush all over with the beaten egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes until dramatically puffed and deep golden, and the filling is bubbling up through the slit.

   320 g all-butter puff pastry