All Easy Recipes. Cook all that you can cook. Chicken - And - Leek Pie
 
What You Need:            (To Serve: 4 to 6)
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  • A 4- to 4½ -pound roasting chicken or stewing fowl
  • 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 small celery stalk including the leaves
  • A bouquet of 8 parsley sprigs and 1 small bay leaf, tied together
  • ¼ teaspoon thyme
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 10 medium-sized leeks, including 1 inch of the green stems, split in half and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
  • ¼ pound cooked smoked beef tongue, cut into 1/8-inch slices
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
  • Rough puff pastry
  • 1 egg yolk combined with 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • ¼ cup heavy cream

    • How To Cook:
    1. In a heavy 6- to 8-quart pot, combine the chicken or fowl, onion, celery stalk, bouquet of parsley and bay leaf, thyme and salt, and pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken by 1inch.

    2. Bring to a boil over high heat, meanwhile skimming off all the foam and scum with a large spoon as they rise to the surface. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer partially covered until the bird is tender but not falling apart. (A roasting chicken should be done in about 1 hour; a stewing fowl may take as long as 2 hours or more, depending on its age and tenderness.)

    3. Transfer the chicken to a plate and strain the stock through a fine sieve set over a bowl, pressing down hard on the vegetables and herbs with the back of a spoon before discarding them.

    4. Pour 2 cups of the stock into a heavy 2- to 3-quart saucepan and skim the surface of its fat. Add the leeks and bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer partially covered for 15 minutes, or until the leeks are tender.

    5. With a small, sharp knife, remove the skin from the chicken and cut the meat away from the bones. Discard the skin and bones, cut the meat into 1-inch pieces, and arrange them evenly on the bottom of a 1½-quart casserole or baking dish at least 2 inches deep.

    6. Pour the leeks and their stock over the chicken and sprinkle lightly with salt. Arrange the slices of tongue side by side over the top, but leave a space about 1 inch square in the center. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

    7. Preheat the oven to 400°. On a lightly floured surface roll out the puff pastry into a rough rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Then cut 2 strips, each about 12 inches long and ½ inch wide, from the ends.

    8. Lay the strips end to end around the rim of the baking dish and press them firmly into place. Moisten them lightly with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.

    9. Drape the remaining pastry over the rolling pin, lift it up, and unfold it over the baking dish. Trim off the excess with a small, sharp knife and, with the tines of a fork or your fingers, crimp the pastry to secure it to the rim of the dish.

    10. Gather the scraps of pastry into a ball, reroll and cut them into simple leaf and flower shapes; moisten one side with the egg-yolk-and-cream mixture and arrange them decoratively on the pie. Then brush the entire pastry surface with the remaining egg-yolk-and-cream mixture and cut a 1-inch round hole in the center of the pie.

    11. Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 1 hour, or until the crust is golden brown. Just before serving, heat the ¼ cup of cream to lukewarm and pour it through the hole in the crust.
    		 
    		 
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