Chicken Pot Pie

The following recipe you could also use turkey in place of the chicken. This would be a great way to use turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Chicken Pot Pie

*5 Chicken Breasts, cooked and cut into small pieces/squares
(Pre-cooked Rotisserie Chickens from the grocery store would work great too!). See here for a recipe on cooking chicken
*4 Celery Sticks, diced
*4 medium Carrots, diced
*1 medium Red or Yellow Onion, diced
*1 1/2 cups of fresh peas, or freshly frozen peas from your garden
*3 medium Russet Potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch squares, we used Caribe potatoes a purple skinned potato they worked great in this recipe.
*1-2 cans 15 ounce low sodium Chicken Broth
*1/2 teaspoon dried Parsley
*1/4 teaspoon Thyme
*1/4 teaspoon crushed Rosemary
*1 whole Bay Leaf, used in cooking for flavor, then discard
*Freshly ground Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste or 1/2 teaspoon of each
**1 1/2 cups of fresh Peas, or freshly frozen peas from your garden, add them last

Roux

*4 tablespoons Butter
*6 tablespoons All-purpose Flour

Slowly add:

*2 1/2 cups Milk
*1/2 cup Whipping Cream
*1 1/2 teaspoons Lemon Juice

Sauté together in an enamel covered cast iron pot, on medium heat adding the 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melt and add the celery, carrots and onions, sauté for about 3 minutes.

Add to the sautéed vegetables; 1 can Chicken stock, potatoes, parsley, thyme, rosemary and 1 bay leaf. Continue on medium heat until potatoes are firmly tender about 15-25 minutes. Add the chicken.

In a small sauce pan make the roux by melting butter and stir in the flour until combined then slowly add the milk stir continuously until smooth. Remove from heat and add roux/sauce to your pot of chicken and vegetables. Continue to cook on low adding peas and more chicken stock if needed. Stir in lemon juice, cream and remove bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare baking dishes by spraying them with cooking spray and add the above chicken pot pie mixture.

Recipe adapted from a Cooking Classy Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Top Crust

Crust:

Recipe makes 1 pie crust top and bottom. For the chicken pot pies 1/2 the dough made 7 small ramekin crust tops and the other half of dough makes two size 12 , medium sized, crust tops for oval (holds 8-10 ounces of pot pie mixture) ceramic baking dishes.

*2 cups All-purpose Flour
*1/2 teaspoon Salt
*3/4 cup Shortening/Crisco
*1/3 cup Milk plus 2 teaspoons Vinegar

Combine flour, salt and Crisco just until crumbly, don’t over mix. Add the milk and vinegar mixture and mix just until moist. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Divide the dough into two balls, refrigerate just until cold and roll out each ball of dough on individual pieces of wax paper and cut into desired shapes for crust tops. Place the rolled-out dough shapes on top of chicken pot pie mixture in baking dishes and place baking dishes on a foil covered 1/2 baking sheet to catch spillage.

Beat 1 egg and use as an egg wash and brush the edges of dough and bake at 375*F. for 35-45 minutes or until crust is a golden brown. Cool completely before removing from baking sheet or cutting.

Crust recipe slightly adapted from Food for Real People, Best Pie Crust