When we were in England, one of Emmie’s friends dropped off the most amazing dinner. The star of the meal was a chicken, ham and leek pie that was amazing. It looked like this …

I spent most of the meal trying to figure out what was in it and how I could make it. Once we got back to the States, I poured over recipes trying to find combinations that might work and would recreate the flavors.

So I took the last of the leftover ham from Thanksgiving (freezers are a wonderful invention) and the chicken breasts from the roasted chicken from the weekend and started to think. I took one leek (minus the greens), a quarter onion, one clove garlic and one shallot and sautéed them in a little butter until they were soft. To that I added the chopped chicken and ham, then 1.5 cups cream, about 1/4 cup white wine (a California blend), salt and pepper. I stirred in one tablespoon flour.

To make the pie part of this and still keep it light, I decided to use phyllo dough instead of puffed pastry. I just used a few layers but it turned out perfect. I do admit there was one small problem with this creation …

the pie bubbled over and hit the 400 degree floor of the oven. It was all I could do to get the back doors open and fans on before the smoke alarms went nuts. Thankfully I managed it or I would have one very unhappy puppy.

The pie came out really well. It was not the exact same as the British version, but it was darn good. Bob and I both went back for seconds.