Leftover Chicken and Sweetcorn Pie

With it’s creamy sauce topped with flaky puff pastry, this leftover chicken and sweetcorn pie is an easy recipe for leftover roast chicken and is always popular with the whole family.

Chicken pies are always a popular dinner in our family; from chicken and ham pie to leftover chicken and leek pie. This chicken pie recipe is the easiest of the lot, the addition of sweetcorn as a store cupboard or freezer staple means I can whip this pie up easily and quickly, like the way it is eaten 😉

Jump to:

• Why we love this recipe
• Ingredients notes and substitutions
• How to make this chicken pie recipe
• FAQ
• My recipe tips
• Storage
• Serving Ideas
• Variations
• More leftover chicken recipes
• Leftover Chicken and Sweetcorn Pie

Why we love this recipe

• Using chicken leftovers and tinned or frozen corn, this chicken pie recipe is not only a kid friendly dinner, but also a budget friendly dinner too.
• This pie is comfort food at it’s best, with it’s creamy white sauce and crispy flaky puff pastry lid.
• The homemade béchamel sauce uses chicken stock as well as milk, for extra rich chicken flavour.

Ingredients notes and substitutions

• Puff pastry. I like to use a puff pastry sheet for convenience, but you can use a block of shortcrust pastry or make your own pastry. You will need approx 160g (5 ½ oz) of pastry.
• Chicken – Any leftover cooked chicken would work in this pie: leftover roast chicken, leftover rotisserie chicken, leftover poached chicken, or double the batch of these oven baked chicken thighs and use the leftovers in this pie the following night.
• Sweetcorn – tinned or frozen sweetcorn, or if you have leftover corn cobs use the kernels from those!
• Butter – you can use margarine to make the sauce instead of butter if you prefer.
• Flour – plain flour / all purpose flour
• Milk – I like to use full fat milk, although you can use half fat or reduced fat milk.
• Mustard – wholegrain mustard or dijon mustard, optional.
• Worcestershire sauce – this is optional. I like to add it for extra background flavour to the sauce.
• Stock – Chicken or vegetable stock. If you have roast chicken, and have made homemade chicken stock this is a lovely flavourful addition, but you can use water and a stock cube, just water or all milk to make the sauce.

How to make this chicken pie recipe

For the full, detailed recipe, please scroll down to the recipe card at the end of the post.

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan / 200˚C / 260˚F convection / 400˚F.
2. Make the sauce: melt the butter or margarine in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. When melted, stir in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Pour in the water / stock a little at a time, using a balloon whisk to beat out any lumps.

4. When all the water / stock has been added, add the milk in two goes, stirring or whisking in between. Stir in the wholegrain mustard and Worcestershire sauce (if using) and season with salt and pepper. If you are using bought stock you won’t need as much salt.
5. Heat gently for 5 minutes, stirring all the time, until the sauce has thickened slightly – you should see ribbons on the surface following the balloon whisk. Stir in the shredded leftover cooked chicken and the sweetcorn.

6. Pour the chicken and sauce in to a a baking dish / pie dish.
7. Lay the puff pastry across the top of the dish.

12. Trim any overhanging edges, using these to decorate the surface.
13. Brush with a little milk if your like TIP: (I use the milk at the bottom of the jug / bowl I measured it out in – there’s enough to lightly coat the pie top).

10. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the pie is piping hot.
11. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

FAQ

My recipe tips

• I often make leftover chicken pie with puff pastry, however if you want to make your own pastry then I use the pastry recipe from my chicken and ham pie.
• Don’t take the filling off the heat before it has thickened – baking it in the oven will not thicken it so you will end up with a runnier pie filling.
• If you use hot sauce and place the puff pastry on the top the pastry will start to melt. Either work quickly (as in the video) or leave to cool for 5 minutes in the dish before adding the pastry.

Storage

As this pie is made from leftover cooked chicken I do not recommend freezing any leftovers – second helpings are always popular so there’s often no need to think what to do with leftover pie!

Serving Ideas

• The pie is a meal in itself, but if you wanted to serve with extra veggies, peas, boiled carrots or a leafy salad would be great accompaniments.
• Mashed potato or roasted potatoes would be delicious too.

Variations

• Other vegetables – you can use any leftover vegetables from you Sunday roast – cooked carrots, parsnips, roast vegetables.
• Leftover turkey pie – this is SUCH a great recipe for leftover Christmas turkey or Thanksgiving turkey. You can also add a spoonful of leftover bread sauce to the sauce (stir through at the end) and use leftover roast veggies instead of the sweetcorn.
• Pie without pastry – top the pie with mashed potato instead of pastry.

More leftover chicken recipes

I love to roast a whole chicken and then enjoy leftovers over the next days or freeze cooked chicken for an easy family dinner later in the week. Budget friendly and easy!