British asparagus season runs from mid-April to early June and works best in this recipe, but if you're cooking outside of this seasonal period, look for asparagus with thick stems and no blemishes or bruises.
This easy pie recipe only requires 25 minutes of prep time, and then you whack it into the oven to do its thing - it couldn't be simpler.
We've used a sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry to save time and also added frozen peas and flat-leaf parsley for freshness, too.
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Yields:
6 serving(s)
Prep Time:
25 mins
Cook Time:
45 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 10 mins
Cal/Serv:
569
Ingredients
1tsp.
oil
3
skinless chicken breasts (about 500g), cut into bite-sized pieces
25g
butter
25g
plain flour
200ml
double cream
200ml
chicken stock
150g
asparagus, roughly chopped into 4cm pieces
150g
frozen peas
finely grated zest 1 lemon
small handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped
320g
sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
1
medium egg, beaten
Directions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Heat oil in a large pan and fry chicken for 8min until golden. Tip chicken out on to a plate and set aside.
Step 2
Heat butter in empty chicken pan until melted, stir in flour, then cook for a further minute. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cream and stock until smooth. Put back on the heat, bring mixture to the boil and bubble for 3min, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in chicken, asparagus, peas, zest and parsley and check the seasoning.
Step 3
Spoon mixture into a 2 litre ovenproof serving dish. Unroll puff pastry and position over top of dish to cover (trim if needed). Brush pastry well with some of the egg, then cook for 25-30min in the oven until pastry is golden and puffed up. Serve.
GH TIPS:
If you're outside of asparagus season, you could use thinly sliced courgette or leeks in it's place.
Want to make this vegetarian? Use quorn or replace chicken with firm tofu or paneer cheese for a twist!
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
