Emerging from Christmas: leftovers filo pie

Hello!  We made it to the other side of Christmas in one piece!  And actually, it was pretty good.  Getting drunk on christmas eve wasn’t the best plan, I’ve never been so hungover on Christmas day!  And it meant everything was a bit delayed and I wasn’t on the ball in making sure the capon didn’t go dry.  But all in all, pretty good.

I did the same lunch as I did last year – you can find it here if you want https://mrsjacksoncooks.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/food-glorious-christmas-food/

The pudding was a complete success – everyone loved it and it was very fruity and delicious and not as dense as some can be.  The recipe for that, is here https://mrsjacksoncooks.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/preparing-for-christmas-a-fruity-christmas-pudding/

But after you’ve cooked all that, fed everyone until they can’t eat anymore, you still have an insane amount of leftovers.  So what to do?  Well it’s traditional to make a pie.  But as you know, I’m hopeless with shortcrust pastry (unless its an upside down tarte!) so I thought I’d try filo, especially as I’d already made a few filo things and they turned out well and it’s a much lighter pastry.  After the Christmas excess the last thing you want is heavy stodgy pastry.

I found this recipe here, which seemed perfect and very easy http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/chicken-ham-and-leek-filo-pie

I more or less followed it, but I didn’t have any gravy left so I just used chicken stock and I added extra vegetables.  I used carrot and celery, but mushrooms, peppers, brocolli would also be nice in it – whatever you have in the fridge.   I also left out the leek as I didn’t have one.

You could also put bacon in it, or substitute it for the ham – depending on what leftovers you’ve got.

Chicken and ham leftovers pie

Serves 4 ish

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 200g chopped, cooked ham (or whatever you’ve got)
• 400g chopped, cooked chicken (or turkey)
• 300ml leftover gravy or chicken stock
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• handful of chopped fresh thyme (or about 1tbsp dried thyme)
• 2 tbsp thick double cream
• salt and pepper
• 4 (ish) sheets filo pastry
• 25g butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
2. Heat the oil in a high sided frying pan or saucepan.  Gently saute the onion, carrot and celery until softened.
3. Add in the ham and chicken pieces and fry for a further few minutes.
4. Stir in the gravy or stock.  Sprinkle over the flour.  Stir well to mix and bring to the boil.
5. Reduce to a simmer and add the cream and thyme.  Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.  Add extra water if the sauce is too thick.
7. Chop the filo pastry into strips.
8. Pour the pie mixture into a casserole dish or oven proof baking dish.
9. Brush the strips with melted butter and scrunch up.  Place all over the pie mix until covered.
10. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes or until crispy and golden on top.
11. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
12. Enjoy a lighter version of a pie 🙂