Chicken Baking

Upside-down creamy chicken pie

Name: Easy upside-down creamy chicken pie recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil; 2 tsp thyme leaves, plus extra to sprinkle; ½ tsp smoked paprika; 1 leek, well washed, cut into 1/2cm-thick slices; 100g soft cheese, chopped (such as Taleggio, brie or camembert); 250g leftover cooked chicken, torn into large chunks; 3 thin slices prosciutto, torn; 75g cream cheese, softened; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; ½ tsp onion powder; 375g frozen sheet puff pastry (we used Carême); 1 egg, lightly beaten; Caraway seeds, to sprinkle

Rate now

10m

25m

Jump to recipe

by Lucy Nunes

Delicious Team

Aug 20, 2025

This decadent pie is so delicious and easy, it’s destined to become your signature dish. Baking the pie with the pastry on top gives it liberty to puff up higher than you ever dared dream. Crispy, creamy, cheesy… it’s comfort food at its best.

Don’t worry too much about which order to arrange ingredients on the tray. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. This pie is also easily adaptable to suit any other ingredients available in your kitchen, or your favourite flavour combos. Try thin wedges of onion, roast vegetables, goat’s cheese, ham… use your imagination!

Making a light crisscross pattern on the pastry is not for a visual effect, as this will be the base of your final dish. Rather, this ensures that the pastry will puff up more evenly, as some of the steam from the melting butter trapped in the layers of pastry will be able to escape. Use the back of a small sharp knife, as you only want to lightly score the pastry – if you use the knife as you would to cut, you’ll cut all the way through the pastry.

Sprinkling with seeds and salt is again not for aesthetics, but will give a beautiful taste when biting into the pastry.

This pie is best served straight from the oven, or soon thereafter. Make sure you’re careful when flipping the tray onto your serving board, as the tray will be very hot.

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp thyme leaves, plus extra to sprinkle
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 leek, well washed, cut into 1/2cm-thick slices
100g soft cheese, chopped (such as Taleggio, brie or camembert)
250g leftover cooked chicken, torn into large chunks
3 thin slices prosciutto, torn
75g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp onion powder
375g frozen sheet puff pastry (we used Carême)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Caraway seeds, to sprinkle

Method

1.

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
2.

Drizzle oil over a 25cm x 34cm area of the tray, slightly smaller than your pastry sheet. Sprinkle over thyme and smoked paprika. Season with salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Arrange leek, soft cheese, chicken and prosciutto, slightly overlapping, over the top (see recipe notes above).
3.

Combine cream cheese, mustard and onion powder in a small bowl, then spoon dollops of mixture over the top of chicken mixture. Cover with pastry and press down edges with a fork. Using a small knife, make a crisscross pattern all over the top of pastry, making sure you don’t cut all the way through (see recipe notes). Brush with beaten egg, then sprinkle with caraway seeds and some salt flakes (see recipe notes).
4.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden. Carefully flip the tray onto a large board, remove tray and peel away baking paper.
5.

Serve pie sprinkled with a little extra thyme leaves and some freshly ground black pepper.