#10 - Chicken Pot Pie

“I might be going out on a limb here, but this might be the best chicken pot pie I've ever had!”

That was the review my pot pie got from the Hubs!  The son that doesn't like pot pie loved it too.  They even warned that they were willing to fight over the extra pie sitting in the kitchen!

This was another one of those “experimental” recipes.  I looked up a few different recipes, pulled out things I liked from them and then did my thing.  The problem with that was that I didn't really write down everything as I went.  When it got such great reviews, I knew that I had better figure it out so I could make it again later!  So, here it is (as much as I could remember!):

Chicken Pot Pie
Makes 4 single-serve pies.

4 chicken breast halves

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons cooking oil, divided

4 cups chicken stock

4-5 small red potatoes, diced

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1/2 small red onion, minced

1 cup chopped carrots

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped

2 sprigs fresh sage

1/3 cup white wine (optional)

Frozen corn (about a cup)

Canned green beans (most of the can)

1/3 cup butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

Pinch fresh grated nutmeg

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

Egg wash (lightly whisk together 1 whole egg and 1 teaspoon water)

Special equipment: 4 (2-cup) individual baking dishes

·        Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

·        In a medium saucepan, cook potatoes in chicken stock until just tender.  Remove from stock and set aside. (You could just cook them in water, but I think it added great flavor to do it this way.)

·        Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and sauté until cooked through. Remove from heat and cut into chunks. (You could always use 2 cups of precooked chicken to save time.)

·        In the same skillet heat the other 2 tbsp. oil and sauté garlic, sage and onion 2-3 minutes. Add white wine, and simmer a minute or two and then add carrots.  Cook until carrots are tender. Remove sage sprigs and add thyme.

·        Add potatoes, corn, green beans and chicken to the carrot mixture.  Salt and pepper to taste.

·        In a large saucepan, melt butter and then slowly add flour, stirring until consistency of peanut butter, but don’t let it brown. Alternating, slowly add cream and milk. Keep stirring.

·        This is where I added some chicken stock.  Start with about ½ and stir well.  You don’t want the filling too thin, so don’t overdo it.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes.

·        When the stock mixture has thickened, add nutmeg, salt & pepper and veg & chicken mixture. Stir well and remove from heat.

·        Cut puff pastry into 4 squares big enough to cover the tops of your baking dishes.

·        Fill 4 individual oven-proof bowls with chicken mixture and top each with puff pastry. Cut a few slits in the top of each pie to vent and brush with egg wash.

·        Place pies on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

·        Cool a few minutes before serving… if you can wait that long!

A couple of notes…

When making the base (butter, flour, milk, cream, chicken stock), I just kinda eyeballed it.  SLOWLY add the liquids in, stirring well in between.  Next time I’ll pay more attention to the amounts I put in!

There will be extra filling left over. YUM!  Eat it tomorrow for lunch!

There was no blood shed for the extra pie.  The Hubs ate it a couple of days later (reheated at 350 degrees for 30 minutes) and it was still super delish!

(Recipe #10 of 52)