Chicken Pot Pie
First thing I did was boil my potatoes, if using. Boil the potatoes till tender and a fork goes through it with no force, but the potatoes are not so soft they broke in the middle when poked. Then set potatoes aside to cool. When cooled peel the skin and then dice them into nice hardy pieces.
Next you’ll cook the chicken, if using fresh chicken. You could also use leftover cooked chicken for this recipe as well, if not using leftover chicken, you’ll be poaching chicken. Place chicken breast in a large pot with a lid, you’ll be using the same pan later to make the pie filling. Sprinkle/fresh ground your chicken breast in a nice portion of salt and pepper, pour chicken broth in the pan till chicken is covered. Place lid on pot and let chicken poach in the broth for about 30 minutes. You will then remove chicken from the pan, place on a plate, let chicken rest, then cut chicken in nice big hardy pieces. DO NOT TOSS THE BROTH. Save about 1- 2 cups depending and let cool, you’ll be using some of the broth for the mixture.
While the chicken is boiling, its a good time to chop up your celery and onions. Slice celery into thin slivers and dice the onion into small diced pieces. Open your bag of frozen veggies that you took out earlier to defrost. If still slightly frozen, place in a strainer and run cold water over the frozen pieces to defrost. (My frozen veggies bag had carrots, cauliflower & broccoli. I also used half a can of corn for my veggie mix. My veggie mix varies. It all depends on what veggies i have on hand, but I always have carrots, potatoes and corn in my pot pies, its my favorite veggies for the pie.)
In a liquir measuring cup pour 1.5 cups of half & half. Add cooled broth to the cream till its slightly over 2 cups. Save the extra half cup minimum of the chicken broth, you’ll be using that soon.
Place butter in the now empty pan the chicken was in, add onions and celery, cook them for about.. 3 minutes. Add the flour to the pan and mix in the flour. Add the defrosted frozen veggies to the pan and mix it all together. Add half a cup (with no cream) chicken stock to the mixture, mix it all together. Add the cream/broth mixture to the pan and mix. Mixture should get slightly thick right away, add the corn, mix it up. Sprinkle parsley and thyme over mixture, mix it up. After another minute go ahead and add the potatoes. Let mixture boil and bubble and get all nice and thick. When mixture is nice and thick, add in cooked chicken, and mix well.
Pour mixture into a pie crust that’s already set in your pie pan. Roll the second pie crust on top and ;pinch ends, then seal them with a fork. I then just use the same fork and lightly poke air holes in top of the pie. Brush the egg-wash over the pie.
Place pie in middle rack of oven at 400°F for 30 minutes. If you have a pie shield, use that. I also set a baking tray on the bottom rack under the potpie, because sometimes it bubbles over.
Remove pie from oven and let cool a minimum of 10 minutes. Slice, serve and enjoy.
Ingredients
1-2 lbs of chicken breasts (you can boil fresh chicken as I did in my directions, or you can used leftover cooked chicken you already have)
4-8 cups reduced sodium chicken broth (the amount varies depending on the size of chicken and the size of your pan)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1.5 cups half & half
4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, white is best, I only had red, diced
1 cup celery, sliced
1/3 cup flour
I bag frozen veggies, thawed (You can use any mixture you like. This time I had carrots, broccoli & cauliflower)
1/2 cup canned corn (if there is no corn in your medley)
2-3 small white potatoes, cubed
1 tablespoon parsley, fresh chopped or dried
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pie pastry (for double crust pie)
1 egg, lightly beaten
