Chicken Pot Pie

Tonight’s recipe comes from a friend’s blog, so click here to view her original post.  Also, I just want to point out that I made it through almost this entire recipe with both hands!  The only exception was having to hold the kiddo while cooking the chicken, and that just involved flipping it over a few times with a fork.  She slept through the rest of the ordeal, so I got off easy tonight.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 2 cups of cubed, cooked chicken
• 2 cups frozen vegetables of choice
• 2 medium potatoes
• 2 pie crusts
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp minced onion
• dash of garlic powder

Substitutions:

My friend’s original recipe says she uses 1 can of potatoes instead of having to cut up an actual potato, and you can use the dried, minced onion (found in the seasoning section) if you don’t have an onion on hand or don’t feel like crying.  I happen to have some onion left over from the other day and I bought a potato at the store, but I might take the easier options in the future if I’m in a bind. 

On the frozen veggies, you can use whatever you like.  I went with sweet peas and chopped broccoli.  You should be able to find an inexpensive premixed vegetable medley (usually peas, carrots and corn) that would add a good variety while only requiring you to buy one package.

Directions:

1. Once you have the chicken cooked and cubed, and you’ve cut up the potatoes, mix the chicken, vegetables, and potatoes in a bowl.  Set this mixture aside for later.
   
2. In a saucepan, over low-medium heat, melt the stick of butter.
3. To the melted butter, whisk in a small amount of the flour.  If the temperature is too high, this will get thick too fast, so keep it low and slow.
4. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to the saucepan.  Whisk this in until the mixture is smooth.  Alternate adding flour and broth until it’s all been added and the mixture is smooth.
5. To the buttery broth mixture, add the onion, salt, pepper, and a dash of garlic powder.  Turn up the heat under this to medium.  Keep whisking it as it heats because it’s going to start getting thick.  The original recipe said this could take up to 10 minutes, but I think I was taking so long getting things mixed in, it only took a minute or two on medium heat before my mixture got to be about the consistency of good cream gravy.  When it’s thick, get it off the heat.
6. Fill the pie crust with the veggie/chicken/potato mixture from earlier.
7. Pour the gravy mixture into the pie crust until everything is completely covered.
8. Take the second pie crust, and put it over the first one.  Pinch the edges together to seal the crusts up.  Cut a few slits in the top to vent.
9. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Finished product:

This is my pie before putting it in the oven.  It’s quite possibly the ugliest chicken pot pie I’ve ever seen:

I think my problem was twofold.  First off, I ended up with too much mixture to fit it all in the pie crust.  In the future, I’ll make sure I get a deep dish crust, and hopefully that will help.  Also, I used one big baking potato instead of two medium potatoes, so that didn’t help.  My other problem was that my second pie crust starting coming apart when I was trying to put it on top.  It tore in the middle, so I didn’t even bother trying to cut vents in top.  I was just happy it stayed in one piece.  I’ve never done this where you use one crust as a topper, so I’d set out the crusts earlier today to let them thaw out.  They were pretty soft when I got around to assembling the pie, so maybe next time I’ll let them thaw in the fridge instead of on the countertop.

Verdict:

My pie looked significantly better after it had baked:

Most importantly, it tasted delicious!  I think next time I’ll make the gravy mixture a little runnier so it’ll get into all the nooks and crannies of the pie mixture, but the crust was flaky, and the filling was wonderful.

I would go out of my way to make this again, but I’ll also be keeping it in my back pocket for times when another recipe has left me with leftover chicken or veggies.  This could easily become a catch all for whatever you have left in the fridge at the end of the week.  Two thumbs up!