Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Chicken Pot Pie

Bev had a whole chicken and some refrigerator pie crust that she wanted to use and I’d just seen pictures of a delicious looking version from a blogger buddy, so we opted for pot pie.  While it is usually made with leftover poultry, we decided there was no reason not to start with raw chicken and I found a recipe from Taste of Home that would give use the proportions we needed and included potatoes.  Bev usually makes pot pie without a recipe and it is sometimes too runny or too dry, so I was hopeful a recipe would help with that and we’ve always like recipes from Taste Of Home.

Since the recipe called for three cups of chicken broth and I wanted all of the chicken flavor to end up in the pot pie, I cut up the bird, and added it to a pot along with three cups of water and some S&P– this was in lieu of roasting the chicken and then using a separate broth.


Favorite Chicken Pot Pie – Adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
2 cups diced peeled potatoes
1¾ cups sliced carrots
1 cup butter, cubed
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 cup celery, small dice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¾ teaspoon pepper
3 cups water
1½ cups milk
4½ cups cubed cooked chicken (from a pretty big fresh hen)
1 cup frozen peas
1 packages (14.1 ounces) refrigerated pie pastry

Since I wanted to use as few pans as possible, I altered the directions some but you can see the original by clicking on the link above.

Directions:
1. Place the cut up chicken pieces in a stock pot and add three cups of water and a little salt and pepper. Cover, bring to a boil then simmer until breast internal temperature is 165F.  2. 2. Remove chicken and allow to cool enough to handle.
3. Add carrots and potatoes to the broth and cook until tender then remove them from the broth to a bowl.
4. Strain the broth into a four cup measuring cup and adjust as needed to get three cups.
5. Preheat oven to 425°.
6. Rinse out the pan and heat butter over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook and stir until tender.
7. While the onions cook, shape the two round pieces of pie dough to fit the top of a 9”x13” casserole dish.  (The original recipe called for two packages of dough for a top and bottom crust in two pie pans, but I wanted to try it this way.)
8. Stir in flour and seasonings into the onions and carrots until blended and cook for a few minutes to cook the flour.
9. Gradually stir in broth and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; cook and stir until thickened. Stir in chicken, peas, and potato mixture; remove from heat.
10. Spray a 9”x13” casserole dish with Pam and add the chicken mixture.  Place the pastry over filling, flute edges, and cut slits in top.


Bake 35-40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cover with foil if crust gets too brown.  Let stand 15 minutes before cutting.  


Plate and enjoy.



After seeing how thick the filling was in the pan, Bev convinced me to add about a half cup of milk and as you can see the filling bled out pretty bad when we cut the pie.  Bev still said she likes it to be even runnier than this.  Since I know her preference is for a pot pie topped with biscuits which does indeed require more liquid, I knew where she was coming from.  But for this type, I would not add more liquid than the recipe calls for.  Next time I’ll use this recipe, add extra broth, and top with biscuits just for her - but will definitely use this recipe for future poultry pot pies.

Having said that, we thought it was delicious and as good as I have ever eaten, so definitely a keeper recipe and I only had one pan and the dish to hand wash – everything else in the dishwasher.

As I write this at 6:30am, we are just over a week removed from an early morning temperature of 7F and with snow on the ground, but this morning it is 64F.  That’s a whopping 57 degree change and the daffodil’s are up about 3” – hard to believe the change.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/16/16 event date

12 comments:

  1. OK, so you'll laugh at this, but I made a pot pie exactly once, perhaps around 1995. It was terrific. But my kids never have meals like that, because it's not how I cook, but after the third day of turkey (I was only feeding about 14 people at that time), I needed to do something else. My loyal Jeffrey told me it was good; everyone else was ready to throw me out in the snow with no shoes. So I can admire your chicken pot pie, but will never make one again.

    And I hope those daffodils aren't too early; January 20th is usually prime snow time down there!

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  2. I'm going to have to try this recipe. And soon. Taste of Home recipes are pretty darn reliable.

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  3. Wow this looks delicious, thick or thin I would be a happy girl. This weather is crazy! So sorry about your daffodils. Hope they don't freeze. Early spring?

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  4. Larry, Laurie and I love chicken pot pies! Commercially, good ones are very hard to find but I've printed out the recipe for this one and added it to our list of meals to make. Yours looks terrific and I wouldn't want mine to be any runnier than yours. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  5. It has been a roller coaster winter for us also and much of our snow is already melted. I'm sure winter will bring us back to reality soon and that is when a delicious chicken pot pie will hit the spot! Yours looks perfect to me ;)

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  6. Mmmmmm...Your crust is amazing...such a lovely golden brown! Chicken pot pie is the very best comfort food! Yours looks delicious...

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  7. Chicken pot pie is one of my main comfort foods - I absolutely love it. I think your pie looks terrific the way it is...I am not picky when it comes to pot pie - I love it thick or runny.

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  8. We just love chicken pot pie and if you say that this is a keeper recipe; then this is going to be the recipe that we make at home. My husband will be thrilled. Especially the quantity made!

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  9. The crust looks so comforting. I have a warm feeling just looking at the image.

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  10. My husband and I love chicken pot pie and your post reminded me that I haven't made one since we've moved to Florida. Yours sounds good whether thick or thin.

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  11. That is some serious chicky pot pie, Larry. That crust looks perfect, makes me want to dive right in.

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