the Bucket: Recipe: Chicken pot pie

I don't consider myself a Masterchef by any stretch of the imagination but I do love to cook! There's something about getting creative in the kitchen that spurs you on to want to try more and more different things but then there is the cleaning up bit but lets not focus on that right now. Being in the midst of winter, its time to have meals that are hearty and rich that warms you up, like soups, pies and stews. A lover of pastry myself I cannot refuse a good pie but I never did attempt to make one from scratch, I suppose I took the easy way out by making a pot pie but it still proved to be a challenge!

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken fillets
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 peeled and chopped red onion
1 chopped chilli
1 clove garlic chopped
7-8 regular sized button mushrooms chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon english mustard
Italian herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary)
500ml milk
250ml chicken stock
1 table spoon flour
2 table spoons butter
1 roll puff pastry

Method:

In a belly pot, add your olive oil and red onion. Allow too brown then add you mushrooms and garlic, there after your chopped chilli. After the mushrooms have been cooked, add the chicken breasts which you need to cut into cubes. Cover the lid as this will allow the chicken to steam up and retain moisture. After your chicken is more or less cooked, add the butter, chicken stock as well as the milk. Stir well while the heat is high, as you continue stirring, add your spices (salt, black pepper, mustard, italian herbs). Keep on stirring till the mixture starts to boil. Once it has a good consistency, add the flour to just thicken it a bit. Allow for it to rest and cool down. Pour the mixture into an oven safe dish (preferably rectangular) which should be greased. Prior to doing this, roll out your puff pastry and measure it so it fits over your dish. Leave an extra centimeter or so around the edges as the pastry does tend to shrink and we don't want the filling to dry out.
Cover the dish with the pastry once your filling is in the dish, tuck the pastry around the edges. You can glaze the top with milk or egg wash and garnish with sesame seeds. Pop it into the oven for 45min to an hour on 180 degrees, make sure your dish is centrally place and not too close to the element otherwise your pastry will not puff and just end up as a hard crispy crust...like mine. If you do get it right, enjoy! but watch out, its hot!