Makes 8 triangles, serves 4
Time: 1 hr
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~
Ingredients – Puffs
2 x 400 g boxes Genius Gluten Free Puff Pastry (a)
300 g diced chicken thighs (b)
45 g dark green tips of leek (c)
12 g / 6 dark green spring onion tips (d)
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
1 tbsp canola oil (e)
1/8 tsp citric acid
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp gluten free cornflour (f)
rice flour for dusting
1 egg
Ingredients – optional dipping sauce
120 mL water
1 tsp citric acid
2/3 tsp salt
2/3 cup white sugar
Foodnotes
(a) Genius Gluten Free Puff Pastry can be found in some Coles supermarkets.
(b) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician).
(c) Dark green tops of leeks are low FODMAP. They are also slightly higher in salicylates than the white part although suitable for failsafe elimination. Tip: re-grow leeks and spring onions.
(d) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321).
(e) Use gluten free cornflour, also known as cornstarch, which is a fine white flour. Corn flour from wheat contains wheat and gluten while yellow corn flour or maize flour is higher in salicylates.
Instructions
- One day before making chicken and leek puffs, defrost pastry in the fridge
- Remove pastry from the fridge and allow to warm to room temperature
- Preheat oven to 180 deg C (fan forced)
- Rinse dark green tips of leek and dark green tips of spring onion. Chop finely, keeping separate.
- Cut the diced chicken into smaller pieces
- Heat 1 tbsp canola oil to a small frying pan over medium-high heat
- Add the chicken to the pan, and stir continuously until the chicken is sealed, about 5 min
- Add the leek to the pan and cook until leek is soft, about 2 min
- Mix cornflour in with half of the chicken stock and make a slurry
- Add chicken stock, cornflour/stock mixture, citric acid and salt to the frying pan. Mix well
- Turn the frying pan down to medium heat and cook until the mixture has thickened. The mixture should be creamy with minimal liquid.
- Roll out each sheet of puff pastry to a 20 cm x 20 cm square.
- Using a sharp knife, cut each sheet of pastry into four 10 cm x 10 cm squares.
- Spoon the chicken mixture onto one triangular side of each small square of pastry. Do not overfill.
- On each square, fold the pastry over to form a triangle and seal the edges by pressing with a fork. This may be necessary on both sides.
- Beat the egg in a cup and lightly brush over the pastry with a pastry brush. If you don’t have a pastry brush, a piece of folded paper towel also works.
- Place the chicken and leek puffs on an oven tray lined with baking paper, and bake at 180 deg C for 25 min.
- Serve immediately as an entree, snack or main course, with optional dipping sauce. If you don’t eat them immediately, freeze them immediately as they contain meat.
- To make optional dipping sauce combine ingredients in a saucepan, simmer on high heat for 1 minute with regular stirring.
Personal Notes
I have to thank one of my colleagues for the idea for this recipe. He was surprised that I made a lamb, leek and lentil pie when his usual recipe was for chicken and leek pie. I didn’t realise chicken and leek were so commonly paired together! So I came up with this recipe – I’m sure it could also be used to make a pie with either Genius gluten free puff pastry or shortcrust pastry. When I made these I actually only had one packet of the puff pastry on hand, and I couldn’t fit all the mixture in the puffs. I ended up eating the filling on its own, which also tastes good. You could eat half the filling at once and it would still be low FODMAP and failsafe – the only significant FODMAP-containing ingredients are the green tips of the leek (safe at 28 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App, 2018) and the homemade chicken stock, which contains green tips of leek and celery (low FODMAP at 75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018).
The dipping sauce is an adapted recipe from Thai Cooking Class by Somi Anuntra Millar and Patricia Lake, it has a lot of sugar in it but is a nice addition, especially if you serve the puffs as a party snack. The original recipe poured the dipping sauce over finely chopped carrot, cucumber and coriander. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you tolerate moderate salicylates, you could pour the dipping sauce over very finely chopped peeled carrot and peeled cucumber. I tried to make a potato bake to go with the puffs but it did not turn out well – a bit of optimising is required on that recipe before I share it!
This week we had an event at Uni for International Women’s Day – there was a talk from a eminent international Chemistry professor and a shared lunch with the other female students. It was great to put some names to faces in the School and meet some new people. I brought along these chicken and leek puffs and fit right in having a delicious lunch while the others had pizza.