Chicken and tarragon pie.

Tarragon is an easy herb to grow and dry. Dried tarragon is very strongly flavoured and you must use it sparingly.

Ingredients.

1oz Butter.

1oz plain flour.

1/2 pint milk.

1/2 level tsp dried tarragon.

1lb fresh chicken breast cut into bite size cubes.

1/2 lb button mushrooms.

1/4 pint cream.

6 oz puff pastry.

Method.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes gradually adding the milk and blending with a balloon whisk to make a white sauce. Fry the chicken breast in butter and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the button mushrooms and dried tarragon and fry on until the mushrooms are beginning to soften then cover the pan and remove it from the heat.

Blend the white sauce with the cream and add the cooked chicken and mushroom and stir through to combine the flavours then adjust the seasoning if necessary. Pour into a 2 pint pie dish and leave to cool while you roll out your puff pastry. The pastry should be two inches wider than the pie dish. When you cover the pie knock it back around the edges and seal it well to the rim and cut a steam hole in the middle at least the size of a 5pence piece or it will reseal in the cooking as the pastry will tend to shrink back before it rises so make sure it isn't being stretched onto the pie but is lying quiet happily into any space below the rim before you seal it. Bake in a hot oven 400f or gas mark 6 for about 30mins until the pastry is fully risen and golden brown.

 

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