Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat a conventional oven to 200°C/400°F with a rack just below the middle. While it heats, finely dice the onion. Place the chicken breast on a rimmed baking tray and bake for 20–25 minutes, until cooked through to 74°C/165°F, then shred 450 g of meat.

2. 2

   In a 23 cm/9-inch square baking dish with a capacity of at least 2.5 litres, thoroughly stir together the condensed soup and broth. Add the shredded chicken, frozen peas and carrots, onion, garlic and herb seasoning, paprika, parsley and thyme. Mix well and level the filling.

3. 3

   Dust the work surface with the flour. Unroll the chilled, ready-to-roll puff pastry and lightly roll it into a 25 cm/10-inch square. Cut it into nine roughly equal squares.

4. 4

   Arrange the pastry squares over the filling, overlapping their edges by no more than 5 mm. Do not press the pastry down into the sauce. Cut a small steam slit in the centre square.

5. 5

   Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush a thin coating over the pastry, avoiding pools around the edges. Discard leftover egg wash.

6. 6

   Place the dish on a rimmed baking tray and bake for 40–45 minutes, until the pastry is risen, deeply golden and cooked through at the overlaps. Check the centre of the filling through a pastry gap with a food thermometer: it must reach 74°C/165°F. If the top browns before the filling is hot enough, loosely cover it with foil and continue baking until both are ready.

7. 7

   Rest for 5 minutes, then divide the pastry and filling between four plates.