Chicken Pot Pie

A wonderful delicious treat during the winters.
Warms you up inside out.
I love this with some cottage cheese and chopped Italian parsely on the side.

Ingredients

2 Pie Crusts (the bottom crust is blind baked for only the first 10 mins and then cooled)
You can always use store bought pie crusts to save on time.
However the above recipe is the most flakiest ever. Definitely try and make it if you have the time.

1 1/2 Chicken breasts - medium sized, skinless, boneless (cut into 1" pieces)
1 tsp Garlic (minced fine)
4 Tbs Onion (diced fine)
4 Crimini mushrooms (diced fine)
1 cup Carrots (sliced at a bias about 1/4" thick)
1 cup Celery (sliced at a bias about 1/4" thick)
1 cup Boiled potatoes (cut into 1" cubes)
1/2 cup Frozen Peas *optional
1 can Chicken stock
1 1/4 cup Whole Milk * see note below
1 tsp Thyme (dried)
1 tsp Tarragon (dried)
2/4 tsp Chili flakes *optional
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 Tbs Oil for cooking (I used canola oil)
Salt

For the roux:
3 Tbs flour
3 Tbs butter

For the egg wash:
1 Egg mixed in with 1 Tbs of water.

Method

Before getting started, you will need to blind bake the first pie crust.
See instructions here and here.
The recipe and method are exactly the same.
The only difference is that for the chocolate tart the crust was baked twice. However for this recipe I only baked the crust once for 10 minutes with the weights.

Blanche the carrots and celery by plunging them in boiling water for 2 mins and then plunging them into ice water right afterwards.
When the veggies have cooled down, drain them and set aside for later use.
Heat up some oil in a frying pan and cook the chopped onion until soft.
Add the garlic for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
Now add the mushrooms and cook on a med high heat for about 4-5 mins or until the mushroom are cooked through.
Take out in a bowl and set aside.
Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and brown the chopped chicken on high heat until they are nice and light brown on the outside.
Season with salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon and chili flakes.
Now add chicken broth and milk to the pan.
Bring it all to a boil, reduce heat and cook the chicken for about 6-8 minutes or until cooked through.
In a separate frying pan melt the butter and add flour to it.
The roux will be used to thicken the broth.
Make sure you use equal parts fat and flour otherwise you might risk lumps in your sauce.
And depending on how you want the color of the sauce to be you can cook your roux till it's white, blonde or brown.
I cooked mine for about 1-2 minutes on med heat for a white roux.
Add this to the broth and stir gently until well combined.
Turn off heat.
Let this cool for about 15 mins and then gently fold in all the veggies.
Carrots, celery, potatoes, mushroom mixture and peas if you are using them.
Allow this to cool further and reach room temperature before pouring it into the blind baked pie shell.
The half baked shell and the cold sauce will ensure that the bottom crust will not turn soggy during baking.
Cover with the second pie crust.
Seal in the crust all around.
I don't like fancy edges on a chicken pie. So I don't bother fluting the edges, I just make sure that it looks neat.
Paint egg wash all over.
Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil. This will protect then from browning too quickly.
Make a few vent holes in the center.
Bake for 45 mins in a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees.
Remove the aluminum foil in the last 15 mins of baking.
Let this rest for 20-30 minutes before digging in.
Enjoy.

*I perfer the sauce to be a bit on the runny side, this isn't.
However I adjusted the recipe that I shared above so that it will have more sauce.

But if you perfer less/thicker sauce then take out 1/4 cup of milk and add an additional tablespoon of roux.

Read more ...