chicken pie

I am loving my new cookbook, Donna Hay's The Instant Cook. Simple and delicious food. And when I say I am loving it, I mean I've made no less than 3 of her dishes in the last 3 days. Yep, I'm hooked.

Since I always have store-bought puff pastry in the freezer, and usually some frozen chicken on hand too, this chicken pie will be great when I don't seem to have anything fresh to make. I trust I'm not the only one who stares into my fridge thinking I have nothing for dinner (or into my closet thinking that I have nothing to wear), so I get excited about meals I can whip up from freezer staples.

chicken pie

Adapted from The Instant Cook by Donna Hay

serves 4

2 chicken breasts

olive oil

1-2 sheets ready-made puff pastry, thawed (I used only one sheet, but my chicken breasts weren't very big.)

2 Tbs grated cheddar cheese

2 Tbs grated parmesan cheese

2 teas dijon mustard

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together mustard and cheeses. Set aside.

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook, turning once, until chicken is almost done but still very moist. Depending on the thickness of the meat, this takes about 4 minutes a side. Remove from pan and cut each breast in half.

On lightly floured counter, roll out pastry until 1/8" thick. Cut 4 circles for the bases and 4 slightly larger circles for the tops. The size of the rounds depends on the size of your chicken pieces, but will probably be about 5" diameter.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place 4 pastry bottoms on paper. Top each with chicken piece and 1/4 of the mustard/cheese mixture. Brush pastry edges with beaten egg and top with other round of pastry, pinching the edges together to seal. Brush top and edges with egg. Bake for 20 minutes, or until pies are golden and the chicken is cooked through.