Chicken pot pie

Chicken and vegetables in a creamy sauce under a single einkorn pastry lid. Einkorn thickens the sauce too. With only a top crust there's no soggy base to worry about, and it's quicker to make than the steak pie.

• Serves 6, 23 cm (9 in) deep pie dish or 2 litre baking dish
• Active 1 hour
• Total about 2½ hours

Filling

• 900 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 600 ml chicken stock
• 60 g butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery sticks, diced
• 200 g chestnut mushrooms, quartered (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• Leaves from 4 thyme sprigs
• 60 g fresh-milled whole einkorn flour
• 250 ml whole milk
• 150 g frozen peas
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper

Einkorn pastry lid

• 300 g fresh-milled whole einkorn flour, sifted if you like
• ¾ tsp fine salt
• 170 g cold butter, cubed
• 1 egg, beaten
• 30–50 g ice-cold water
• 1 beaten egg, to glaze

Method

Make the pastry

1. Mix the flour and salt. Rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps left.
2. Add the egg and 30 g of the water. Mix with a knife until the dough clumps, adding the rest of the water only if it stays crumbly.
3. Press the dough into a disc without kneading, wrap it, and chill it for at least 1 hour while you make the filling.

Make the filling

1. Cover the chicken with the stock and bring it to a bare simmer. Cook gently, covered, for 20–25 minutes, until it reaches 75 °C (165 °F) inside. Lift it out, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and keep the stock warm.
2. Melt the butter in a large pan. Cook the onion, carrots, celery and mushrooms over medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and thyme for 1 minute.
3. Stir in the einkorn flour and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually stir in the warm stock, then the milk. Simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes, until thick enough to coat a spoon.
4. Stir in the chicken, peas and parsley, and season well. Pour it into the dish and let it cool for at least 30 minutes. Lukewarm filling is fine under a lid, but hot filling softens the butter in the pastry before it bakes.

Top and bake

1. Heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F).
2. Roll the pastry between two sheets of parchment to 4 mm thick and a little larger than the dish. Brush the rim of the dish with egg, lay the pastry over, trim, and press it onto the rim. Patch any tears with scraps.
3. Cut two steam slits and brush the top with egg.
4. Put the dish on a baking tray and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and the filling bubbles at the slits. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.