Sluttishly Savoury: Chicken and Asparagus Pasties

Asparagus is, quite literally, popping up around the country right now. It's a bit late this year but like most of the best things in life it is definitely worth waiting for (except cake, when that urge takes hold there is no waiting allowed).

This was another one of those happy accidental kitchen discoveries. I always have chicken left over on a Monday from our roast dinner and I was making a chicken and asparagus pie for tea. I had some mix and pastry left over and hate wasting stuff so decided to turn it into pasties, turns out it works much better in pasty form (my fella was well chuffed as he hails himself as the Pie King around these parts!).

You'll need:

• ready made pastry (I use puff but shortcrust or even filo is fine)
• asparagus spears
• leftover cooked chicken
• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 2 tsp chicken stock powder
• 260ml double cream
• salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• herbs (chives/parsley/tarragon its up to you)
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

Make it!

1. Preheat your oven to 220C. Remove any hard woody bases from your asparagus (bend a spear and where it snaps naturally is your cut point) then chop . You want them to be reasonably small, think pea sized really. Chop your chicken pieces and set them to one side with your asparagus.
2. Make your sauce. Melt the butter then stir in your flour and stock powder, once its fully mixed whisk in your cream. Add your mustard, asparagus and chicken. Check for seasoning and add your salt and pepper.
3. Leave to cool then roll out your pastry. I use a bowl as a template and cut out circles. Add chopped herbs to your cold pie mix then spoon on to one half of your pasty circle, fold your pastry over and crimp. My crimping skills are pretty rubbish (no actually they are way beyond rubbish) but as long as no filling is going to escape then all is good!  Brush with beaten egg and bake for about 20-25mins.