Chicken, leek, and mushroom potato pie.

 I believe that this is the first chicken dish that I've made that's been really successful. It's light but creamy, the chicken is moist and pulls apart easily, and the flavours from the veg and herbs are all there. Pretty darn good if I say so myself.
    I was originally going to attempt to make a short crust pastry topping for this pie....It would have been brave.
Pastry can go wrong in all sorts of ways. It has in the past. But I was prepared this time- I made the filling in advance so that it could be cool before the pastry lid touched it, and I was all determined and envisioning this perfect golden pie lid.

...if I hadn't forgotten to buy the butter, maybe, (although most likely not), that perfect pie would be pictured here. Instead, however, you've got a simple and yummy golden mash to accompany your pie.

Ingredients (bare in mind this makes a fair few portions):

• 6-8 chicken thighs
• A  large hand full of button mushrooms,sliced.
• One large onion, chopped.
• Two garlic cloves, sliced.
• One leek, sliced.
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 200ml milk
• 3 bay leaves, torn slightly to release their fragrance.
• Half a carrot, chopped v. Small
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Dried thyme
• Dried basil
• 1/8th tsp mustard.
• Small squeeze lemon juice
• 1/2tsp sugar
• 2-3 white potatoes per person + milk! butter! and seasoning for mashing.

Method:

• In a large deep pan, fry the onion, garlic, leeks and carrot until the onions have turned translucent and soft.
• Add the chicken thighs and then on to that pour the stock and then the milk.
• Add the bay leaves and a good pinch of thyme and basil and some black pepper and simmer for about 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
• Prepare a clean plate next to the pan, with a knife and fork. Using the fork and the wooden spoon you have been cooking with, take out the chicken from the pan, one thigh at a time, and place on the clean plate. Using the knife and fork, slip the meat away from the skin and bone and shread the chicken meat. The bones and skin can be disposed of. Once you have done this for each of the thighs, return the meat to the simmering stock.
• To a clean bowl, add 3-4tbsp corn flour. Then gradually add to this , spoonfuls of the broth that the chicken is cooking in. After every spoonful of broth, mix the corn flour and the liquid. The aim is to make a smooth paste that is liquid enough to not form in to lumps one it is placed in to the hot liquid of the pan.
• When the corn flour is in a loose paste, tip it in to the chicken broth and stir it in. Keep stirring and it will thicken within a few minutes.
• Next, add the mushrooms.
• When the mushrooms have cooked down a bit, add the mustard, lemon juice and sugar and any extra seasoning it may require (I.e. More herbs).
• To save some of the filling for later, tip in to a suitable container, wait for it to cool and then refrigerate. To reheat this in the over will take about an hour at 180C.
• To eat now, tip the filling in to a suitable oven proof pie dish and make the mash as standard. When the mash is done, spread it evenly over the filling, using a fork to give it an uneven shape ( this makes lots of nice browned crispy bits of mash to be made).
• Bake in the oven for about 25 mins until golden brown.