Chicken and Chips Pie

This recipe is especially for my friend Olga, who can make me laugh no matter how dire the situation or weather.

Oh the weather of Britain, what a talking point at the moment! April certainly lived up to its folklore forecast, it was one of the wettest months on record, May bank holiday weekend was a washout and the month of May is set to be the coldest May for 100 years. Today is no exception, it is a cold, wet, rainy day in London. I'm recovering from a 24hr stomach bug while looking after my active toddler and expecting 6 people for dinner. Groan. This calls for cheats Chicken and Chips pie. The beauty of this recipe is to add whatever you have/fancy; green peppers, celery or a cup of cooked rice to make it go further, great for big families. Perfect comfort food in the coldest May in a 100 years.

You can make filling in advance, but don't add the potato chips until it's time to bake or they'll go soggy. You may need to bake a little longer as the filling will be cold. It's best to stick to salt and vinegar pototo chips, other pototo chip flavours don't do this recipe justice.


Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
300ml of chicken stock
150g button mushrooms
a bunch of spring onions
2 tablespoons of cornflour
2 tablespoons English mustard
1 cup of crushed salt and vinegar potato chips (I used Pringles)
100ml double cream
1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a knob of butter
Black pepper
Salt

Method
Cut the chicken breasts into 1cm strips. Put a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter into a large wide saucepan. Add the chicken and cook for about 3 mins until chicken is white and sealed.

In the meantime, slice up the button mushrooms and spring onions and add to the saucepan with the two tablespoons of cornflour and stir in well, cook for 2 minutes.
Add the 2 tablespoons of mustard, the double cream and 300ml chicken stock. Stir well.
Pick the thyme leaves and stir into the pan with the nutmeg, a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Tip the filling into an ovenproof baking dish. Top with the crushed salt and vinegar potato chips and bake for 20mins at 180 degrees or until filling is bubbly and chips are golden.

Serves 6.