This is a great recipe if you are suffering from winter induced cravings for chicken pie, or if you have plenty of leftovers from cooking a roast chicken. The recipe given here uses a whole roast bird, which is poached in its own stock (which is then used to make the sauce) before use, but it is easy to adjust the recipe for roast remains: simply pick off the remaining flesh from the carcus and reserve, and just use the bones to make the stock. You will probably need to supplement the chicken pickings with a couple of breasts to ensure the protein content is high enough, and these can be popped into the stock for the last 20 minutes or so of the cooking time. I usually serve this with plenty of green vegetables, although it is loaded with leeks and onions, so the veggie content is pretty good. It’s also nice served with salad in the summer.
Don’t be put off by the lengthy cooking time as most of it involves stock simmering and lasagne baking: otherwise, it is all relatively quick. The recipe below makes about 2 pints of stock but only uses about half of it in the finished dish, so there is plenty left over to freeze or to make a soup.
- 1.8 kg whole chicken
- 400 grammes leeks peeled and thinly sliced weight
- 300 grammes onions peeled and finely chopped weight
- 1 bunch tarragon
- 4 bay leaves
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1 carrot roughly chopped
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- splash white wine
- 50 grammes Plain flour
- 50 grammes Flora Light
- 50 ml Elmlea double light
- 50 grammes Parmesan cheese grated
- 300 grammes lasagne sheets around 15 sheets
- Pop the chicken in a pan that is just large enough to hold it, then shove the carrot, onion quarters, bay leaf, peppercorns and 6-8 sprigs of tarragon into the gaps. Top up the pan (nearly to the top) with water and bring to the boil, turn to a low simmer, cover and leave for two hours.
- Chop the onions and slice the leeks (easier if you slice them length ways first) and cook in a fry light coated pan until soft and silky. Set aside until chicken is ready as you need the stock to make the rest of the sauce.
- Once the chicken is done, remove from the pan and place on a plate ready to strip the flesh once it has cooled a little. Discard the skin.
- Strain the liquid/stock that remains from cooking the chicken into a jug to use for the sauce. I usually end up with about 2 pints, so there will probably be plenty left over to make a delicious soup. Skim the fat from the top of the stock before use.
- Return pan containing onions and leeks to a medium heat and add flora until melted.
- Add the flour and cook through for 1-2 minutes.
- Add a good splash (75ml) of white wine and stir for 1-2 minutes then begin adding chicken stock. You should need a little under a pint to make a nice thick sauce. Keep stirring until it's bubbling and add a bit more stock if it's too thick. Season well, stir in the Elmlea and remove from heat.
- Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces, finely chop another 8 sprigs of tarragon (leaves only) and add both to the sauce which is now ready for layering up in the lasagne dish.
- Start with a layer of chicken mix, topped with a sprinkling of grated parmesan and a layer of pasta. Repeat twice more finishing with a chicken layer and a final sprinkle of parmesan.
- Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.