This isn’t so much a recipe as a stress-free assembly, but it’s become a tradition in our house and my husband looks forward to it as much as, if not more than, the main Christmas dinner. I deliberately cook way too much specifically so I have a generous pie filling, but I’ve included amounts just in case you decide to make it from scratch; because of this all amounts are approximate and it’s basically about using up whatever you have left. Notes for Americans or other non Brits: Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day, while pigs in blankets are chipolata sausages wrapped in streaky bacon and are a traditional side dish for Christmas Day.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil or goose fat

2 medium carrots, cut into chunks

1 medium parsnip, cut into chunks

2 medium potatoes, cut into chunks

4 pigs in blankets

200g Brussels sprouts, halved

2 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped

50g cooked chestnuts, chopped

400g cooked turkey or chicken, shredded or cut into bite-sized cubes

200ml chicken gravy

2 tbsp cranberry sauce

2 tbsp ready-made sage & onion stuffing

1 sheet ready-made puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Salt & pepper

Method

• Preheat oven to 200°c/180°c fan/400°f/gas 6. Place a shallow roasting tin in the oven with the oil or fat to warm up. Add the potatoes, carrots and parsnip to a pan of lightly salted water and bring it to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, then drain well. Tip the veg onto the roasting tin, tossing to coat everything in oil, and roast for approximately 30 minutes or until everything is just cooked. Add the pigs in blankets roughly 10 minutes before the end or according to the cooking instructions on the packaging.
• Meanwhile parboil the Brussels sprouts for 5 minutes, then drain. In a frying pan, heat a little olive oil and fry the chopped streaky bacon for a minute then add the sprouts and chopped chestnuts. Fry them for around 5 minutes so they start to go golden and the sprouts take on some of the flavour of the bacon fat.
• Tip the gravy and cooked chicken into a saucepan and heat gently until the gravy is nice and loose and the chicken heated through. Add the chunks of stuffing, give it all a stir, and you’re ready to start assembling.
• Take a nice deep pie dish or lasagne dish and layer the roasted veg in the bottom. Add the bacon, sprouts and chestnut mixture, then pour over the chicken and gravy. Add dollops of cranberry sauce over the top. Roll out the pastry to around 1/4” or the thickness of a pound coin, place it on top of the filling and crimp the edges. Trim any excess (you can use it to make leaves or other decorations and place them on top of the pie), cut a slice in the middle of the pastry to let out the steam, then brush with beaten egg, grind over a little salt and pepper and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the filling is piping hot and the pastry golden brown. Serve immediately with extra gravy.

Magickal properties:

Sage – purification, cleansing, healing

Cranberries – abundance, healing, courage

Chestnut – purification, abundance

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