This little chicken crossed the road ...

And whilst we're still on the subject of leftovers, what's wrong with chicken pie?

Last weekend at Carrefour I thought I'd get a chicken to roast for dinner, which I did - only cost 6 euros but unfortunately it must have been on a body-building course or on steroids because it weighed about 1.5 kg, which is rather more than enough for three. In fact, it kept me in chicken salad sandwiches for the next few days, and then as the Heap of meat showed few signs of diminishing I shamefacedly shovelled the lot into a ziploc bag and flang it (past perfect, you'll get used to grammar) into the freezer.

From whence, requiring nourishment for two tonight, I extricated it, thinking that perhaps I could pair it up with the chicken breast that's been sitting forlornly in the fridge for the past two days. So I thought, why not a chicken pie? And as Margo's up in Paris and I am thus allowed to cook things that only I like, why not dumplings? Come to that, why not the two together?

So it was chicken dumpling pie which was, let's face it, well suited to the weather - which is, in case you're interested, frikkin' frigid around here. Godnose why the bloody Parisians want to come - maybe they enjoy freezing their arses off on the chairlifts and paying ten euros for a three-euro sandwich. Can't think of any other rational explanation.

(Please note. if you don't have leftover chicken - you're doing well - use four chicken breasts. Whatever, you need enough chicken to feed however many people you have at the table.)

Whatever, you will need some white wine for this one. So open it now. Then gently stew a shallot (on an onion) in butter until soft, sprinkle with some good chicken or veal stock powder (or, if you're a little goody-two-shoes, use some of the stock you've made yourself) and add some wine - not too much, remembering that you should leave some for yourself. Once that's simmering, stick the chicken breast(s) in and let them simmer for twenty minutes or so.

During this frenzy of activity, you could usefully make up some lardy pastry. Which is no more than a short pastry made with lard instead of butter. Do remember not to work it too much so that you still have lumps of lard in it when you roll it out: like that it should puff up as it cooks. You could also boil some potatos, for the dumplings.

Once the chicken breast is done, fish it out and slice it, then fling it back in together with the (defrosted) leftover chicken and bring it to a simmer. Add some sour cream (just for fun) and let it simmer some more: if it looks a bit runny add some beurre manié (we discussed that last time round) and then let it cool for ten minutes. Which I do by sticking it out on the balcony: at -10° it chills out quite quickly. So would you.

Now would be a good time to roll out the lardy pastry and line a pie dish with it. Do not slice off the overhanging edges, it's much more fun to fold them over onto the filling. But we'll get to that later.

At this point, if I may recapitulate, we have

• pie dish lined with pastry
• tasty chicken filling slowly freezing out there
• some boiled potatoes

So, take the boiled potatoes and mash them well, add two or three tbsp of lard, some salt and some fines herbes. At a minimum, thyme and chives (or ciboulette, if you're Frog), whatever takes your fancy. And a good tsp or two of baking powder. Beat the whole lot together, adding milk (or fresh goat cheese, if you happen to have that handy) as required until you get a soft dough.

Proceeding to the assemblage, just stick the chicken filling into the lined pie dish, spread the dumpling mixture out over the top, and fold any pastry edges over and onto the top. Then stick the whole damn lot into a hot oven and let it cook, until done. About thirty minutes, I reckon.

Easy as that, really. You could sprinkle the dumpling with grated cheese, or paprika, or whatever - the recipe is not patented. In fact, I hereby place it in the public domain, and renounce my rights to sue anyone.

Bon appetit, les enfants.