Chicken Pot Pie

For whatever reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to make a chicken pot pie from scratch.

I have only done this one other time that I could remember.  But I had seen what looked like a good recipe for a butter-free pie crust.  (Please be warned that Ben Starr uses language that is a bit salty in his videos on occasion.  His recipes, from what I have tried, are excellent.)

I used the recipe for the savory crust, with a few minor adjustments, to make it dairy free.

6.7 oz (1 1/3 cups) all purpose flour

1 tsp (6 grams) Kosher salt

1 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp black pepper

2.5 oz (1/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil

Subbed for buttermilk: 3 generous Tablespoons almond milk with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

For the pie itself, I used a chicken pot pie recipe I found on Allrecipes, subbing in my homemade crusts for the pre-made crust called for in the recipe.

Ingredients (and substitutions):

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast - cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots and 1 cup frozen peas (subbed for two cups frozen carrot and peas mix. This turned out to be too heavy on the peas for me)
• 1/2 cup sliced celery (plus more, see below)
• Added 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/3 cup Imperial margarine (subbed in for butter)
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed (subbed for extra celery, only because I didn't have any celery seed)
• 1 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk (subbed almond milk)

I didn't take step by step photos, as I had not yet resuscitated my food blog when I cooked this. So, if you would like step by step pictures, head over to Allrecipes.

Essentially, you put the filling items (chicken, carrots, peas, celery, and potatoes) in a pot and boil it for 15 minutes.  Then you drain the boiling water off.  

While that is boiling, you will melt the margarine and sauté the onion until it is soft, which takes about 6 minutes.  Then you stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and (if you have it) celery seed.  I'm curious, is celery seed something that you regularly have on hand in your kitchen?

Then you stir in the chicken broth and almond milk. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer until it has thickened up like gravy. This takes another 5 to 10 minutes.

Now you dump the cooked and drained pie filling into the bottom prepared crust, and pour the gravy over it.

Put the second crust on top, seal the edges, and make some slits for the steam to escape.  I cut out little flower shapes instead, because it amused me to do so.

Cosmo, a frequent observer in my kitchen, seems to approve.

I put the extra bits on top, because why not?  And then it was ready to go in the oven.

At this point, while the pie was baking for about 30 to 35 minutes, I surveyed my kitchen.  Yikes!  If having a messy kitchen is an indication that someone is cooking from scratch, then I definitely must be doing it right.

By the time I had cleared the mess away, my pie had gotten just a touch of golden brown on top.  I probably could have left it in for a few more minutes, but I was getting hungry, and it still needed to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

The result was delicious!  If only this type of pot pie dinner suited the tastes of the rest of Team Schmidt.  Ah well.  I will have to find others to enjoy it with me again sometime.

While writing this blog entry, I came across a recipe for chicken pot pie from The Pioneer Woman that looks delicious, as well.  Her recipe calls for a single crust, which I like the idea of (since I usually leave some crust on my plate when I go back for seconds).  Maybe next time I will give that recipe a try.  Yum!