These chicken and roasted pumpkin tarts are quick to assemble once you have roasted the pumpkin or butternut squash. A tasty dinner with a little salad of whatever you have handy, and you can have any extra ones in your lunchbox the next day.

The chicken and pesto tarts are part of a series, starting with a poached chicken, to stretch the chicken to last a family of four all week. Twenty eight portions!

What do I need to make a chicken and pesto tart

• For 4 portions
• 140g cooked chicken. If you are starting with raw chicken, allow a little more
• 125g butternut squash, or pumpkin, sliced into crescents
• 4 tblsp pesto, you could twice as much to get a stronger flavour. I used a red pesto, but any pesto you have is just fine
• a sheet of puff pastry, about 320g, but we only use two thirds of it
• pinch dried oregano

 

56p per tart, priced at Aldi on 7th April 2024

How to make a puff pastry chicken tart

Prepare the butternut squash or pumpkin by peeling, removing the seeds and slicing into crescents.

Toss the butternut squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the squash in a hot oven until cooked through.

Cut the puff pastry sheet into 6, we will be using 4 pieces for this meal, so return the remaining 2 pieces to the freezer, or use for something else.

Put 1 or 2 tablespoons of pesto onto each of the four puff pastry pieces, spread it over.

Top with the roasted butternut squash.

If your chicken is raw, cut into small pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cook in a frying pan until cooked through and it has released the excess water.

Place the cooked chicken pieces on top and drizzle with the cooking oil from the chicken and squash.

Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes until risen, puffy and golden.

Serve immediately with a crisp green salad, roasted vegetables or anything else you fancy. Would be good cold the next day for packed lunches too.

Variations for puff pastry tarts

• Use any little pieces of meat from the Sunday joint – beef, pork or turkey
• Use more pesto and omit the meat altogether
• Swap the butternut squash for any other firm vegetable – e.g.
  • roasted peppers, fresh or from a jar
  • roasted onions
  • slivers of fennel
• Use any kind of pesto you have, or try a home made one
  • rocket, watercress, basil and sunflower seed pesto
  • sage, lemon and pumpkin seed pesto
  • you can even make pesto using cauliflower stalks and bits and pieces!

This recipe is from a series of 7 recipes, starting with a poached chicken

1. 1. Poached chicken  
   2. Spaghetti with olives, sultanas and lemon 140g chicken
   3. Oaty, nutty, seedy chicken and mushroom crumble 140g chicken
   4. Chicken and rice salad – red peppers from a jar, peas, gherkins, raisins 140g chicken and some of the stock
   5. Chicken and something Pizza, sweetcorn, onion, red pepper, mozzarella and cheddar – still to come 140g chicken
   6. Coronation Chicken Jacket Potato – still to come 140g chicken
   7. Red Cabbage Waldorf with apple, walnut and dressing – still to come 140g chicken
   8. Chicken Tart with Butternut Squash and Pesto – 140g chicken, this recipe

this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which is amazing!

A series of 7 recipes starting with a roast chicken

If you liked this series, have a look at the series starting the week with a roast chicken. They are all different recipes to those in the poaching a chicken series, which you could swap in and out in either week.

How to stretch a chicken to last the whole week

You may think that the recommended amount of chicken in each of these frugal recipes doesn’t look like it would be enough.  I have tested every one of them several times and believe me when I say that they taste of chicken – and are delicious! I wouldn’t recommend them to you if they weren’t.

Adjusting the recipes to accommodate 977g of roast chicken, each making 4 servings, I was able to stretch it to do the following:-

1. Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
2. Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables butter and parmesan, 4 portions
3. Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
4. Spicy Pasta Bake, white sauce, 120g chicken, onion, spices, stuffing, 4 portions
5. Tart, 100g chicken, onions, sweetcorn, couple of eggs, no cheese, stuffing, 4 portions
6. Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
7. Soup with the remaining half of the stock, red lentils, onion, spices, 4 portions

this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!