Chicken, bacon and leek quiche

With the weather being so good lately, no-one has fancied eating anything too heavy and this creation is somewhere in between - it fills just enough. It is also very moreish! This evening, instead of cooking the standard quiche Lorraine we altered the ingredients to create this delightfully cheesy, meaty and sumptuous savoury meal. 

For ease we have used ready made shortcrust pastry (which is a perfectly acceptable cheat, compared to other things) as playing with homemade pastry in this heat isn't so simple to deal with, but if you do fancy making your own from scratch, we have posted recipes previously that involve this type of pastry.

Chicken, bacon and leek quiche

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 pack of ready made shortcrust pastry

1 leek

150 g smoked bacon lardons

1 large chicken breast

5 large free range eggs

100 ml double cream

1 tsp Dijon mustard

150 g cheddar cheese or a good quality hard cheese

salt and pepper

a knob of butter

olive oil

Method

1. Firstly, season both sides of the chicken and place in a suitable oven proof dish, dab with butter and roast in the oven at Gas Mark 4 for 15 minutes, or until cooked. Remove from oven and slice into small cubes then set aside.

2. Meanwhile, place the lardons in a frying pan over a low heat and slowly render the fat from them, gradually increasing the heat until they turn a lovely and crispy brown.

3. Whilst cooking the bacon, rinse the leek and slice in half length ways and then into 1/2 cm slices. Once the bacon is cooked, set aside. Add a dash of oil to the pan with a knob of butter and sauté the leeks, with a pinch of salt and pepper, until lovely and caramelised. Set aside.

4. Roll out your pastry to fit the dish, ensuring the pastry sits into all edges of the dish and leaving an overhang. We used a 10 inch flan dish. Blind bake for 15 minutes with baking beans and 10 minutes without the beans at Gas Mark 4 until lightly golden and fully cooked through. 

5. To prepare the egg mixture, crack all the eggs into a bowl with the cream, Dijon mustard, 100 g of the cheese and whisk together, seasoning with a pinch of salt and pepper (remember not too much as the bacon is quite salty). 

6. To make the quiche, layer the leeks, bacon and chicken in the pastry base and pour the egg mixture over the top. To finish, sprinkle the last of the cheese on top along with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper. Bake in the oven at Gas Mark 4 for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through to the centre. 

You can serve the quiche immediately if you're starving or if you can wait, it is best served cold with a lovely side salad.