Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot pie doesn’t sound like anything special, but this was a great dinner! I admit, I didn’t work too hard on making it look nice – I was starting to run low on time and just wanted to get the pies into the oven – but they tasted great. I really don’t think I’ve had chicken pot pie before tonight. It definitely wasn’t something my mom made, and it’s not the type of dish you order at a restaurant. I think I associate chicken pot pie with frozen meals, like Marie Callender’s, and I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a frozen meal before.

I adapted this recipe from Ina Garten’s from her show, Barefoot Contessa. The recipe below is my version. The first major change I made was halving the recipe, but I can’t understand how Ina’s recipe yields 4 servings. My halved recipe yielded practically 4 servings! And my husband and I do not have small appetites. I was able to fill 3 16 oz. baking dishes (these from Corningware) and one smaller ramekin. I also used less butter in my filling – Ina’s recipe calls for 3 T per serving, and this doesn’t even include all the butter in the pastry. I swapped out her heavy cream for whole milk, and used all butter in my pie topping instead of part butter and part shortening. I’ve never cooked with shortening before, and I know it comes in a trans-fat-free variety these days, but I just didn’t have any on hand. I found the pie crust to still be extremely flaky even without the shortening, and it had a great buttery taste. I nixed the frozen pearl onions from Ina’s recipe and substituted diced celery for the frozen peas. I also got rid of the chicken bouillon in Ina’s recipe, as I was using homemade stock that I thought was flavorful enough – also, I have never cooked with chicken bouillon before, so I didn’t have any in the house.  Instead of heating the stock in a separate saucepan, I just brought to a simmer in the same pot the filling was being cooked in.  Lastly, I cut the baking time by 20 minutes – I happened to peek through the oven door at about 40 minutes and noticed that the pie crust was golden and I could see the filling bubbling. Now that I’ve typed them all out, I realized that I made quite a few changes! To me, that’s what recipes are for – they’re guides that each person can adapt to their own tastes.

This took a bit of time to put together, partly b/c there are so many steps and the pie dough has to be chilled for 30 minutes – but it’s worth it if you have a bit of extra time to prepare dinner. And there’s something so comforting about breaking open that pie shell and revealing a steamy, flavorful chicken stew underneath! This would be a great wintertime meal, but we liked it on a hot summer night (in our air-conditioned apartment, of course) as well.

Chicken Pot Pie serves 3 hungry people (according to me..)

adapted from Ina Garten on Barefoot Contessa

For the filling:

• 3 split chicken breasts, bone-in and skin on
• 2 T olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 2.5 cups of chicken stock (homemade is preferable)
• 4 T unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 T whole milk
• 1 cup carrots, cut in medium dice and blanched for 2 minutes
• 1 cup of celery, cut in medium dice

For the pastry:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups butter (1.5 sticks), diced and cold (I usually dice the butter and then stick it in the freezer for 15 minutes – and then take it right from the freezer into the flour)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup ice water
• 1 egg beaten, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub with olive oil. Season with salt & pepper. Roast for 35 minutes.

While the chicken breasts are roasting, prepare the pastry. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Scatter the butter over the flour in the bowl of the food processor and mix quickly with your fingers (keeping in mind that there is a sharp blade in the food processor under that flour … a lesson I learned today..) until each piece is coated in flour. Pulse until the fat is the size of peas (about 10 pulses). With the motor running, add the ice water; process only until the dough is moistened. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

When the chicken breasts are ready to come out of the oven, put them aside so they can cool. When they are cool enough to handle, discard the skin (save the bones for stock) and shred the meat.  Heat the butter in a large pan or Dutch oven and cook the onions over low-medium heat until they are translucent (about 10 minutes). Add the flour and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.  Stir until the mixture is thickened. Add salt, pepper, and millk – taste and adjust. Add carrots, celery, and shredded chicken. Mix well.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the filing into 3 or 4 ramekins (it really depends on the size). When the pie crust has chilled for at least 30 minutes, take it out and divide it into portions depending upon how many individual pot pies you are making. roll the crust out to fit over each ramekin. The sides of the crust should go over the edge about 1/2 inch. Brush some egg wash on the rim of the ramekin and press the crust onto the ramekins. At this point, I meant to use a fork to make pretty edges, but the crust was getting warm quickly in my warm kitchen, so I just pressed the pie crust down and called it a day – it was just getting hard to handle after awhile! Brush each pie with egg wash and make a few slits on the top.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for about 40 minutes, until the crust is golden and you can see the filling bubbling underneath. Let the pies cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!