Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie

I had a pile of leftover filo pastry and so in keeping with my trying to use my cookbooks thing I made a pie from the Hairy Dieters cookbook. It was really tasty and only 429 calories per serving. It looks a bit of a mess on the plate but served with green veg it was delicious.

Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie (from The Hairy Dieters Cookbook - Si King and Dave Myers)
(Serves 5)

2 tsp sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 leek, trimmed and cut into thin slices
100ml white wine
150ml water
1 chicken stock cube
1kg whole cooked chicken
100g sliced smoked ham
2 tbsp plain flour
300g half-fat crème fraiche
pepper

Pastry
3 sheets filo pastry, each about 38 x 30cm
1½–2½ tsp sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and add the onion and garlic. Fry gently for 5 mins until the onion is softened, stirring occasionally. Add the leek and cook for 1 min more, stirring constantly.

Pour over the white wine and 100ml of the water. Dissolve the stock cube in the pan. Keep simmering on a high heat and stir constantly until the liquid has reduced by about half, then remove the pan from the heat.

Strip off the skin from the chicken and tear the meat off the bones and into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a large bowl. Cut the ham into strips about 1.5cm wide and add them to the bowl. Sprinkle the flour on top and toss lightly together.

Add the onion and stock mixture, the rest of the water and the crème fraiche. Season with pepper and stir all the ingredients together until combined. Spoon into a 1.5-litre pie dish.

Pile the filo sheets on the work surface, one on top of the other, and divide into 9 rectangles, cutting through all the layers.

One at a time, brush each pastry rectangle lightly with a little oil and very loosely scrunch it up. You’ll need to just dip the tip of the pastry brush in the oil to make sure the oil lasts for all the pastry. Place the scrunched-up filo on top of the filling, putting the pieces close together until the surface of the pie is completely covered.

Bake the pie for 30–35 mins or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve with green veg.