Here A great cold weather meal that you can make on the weekend and pick at it during the week over
many meals. My son Max says this is his new family favorite.
You can make this with a frozen pie crust or else a homemade pie crust using my recipe. A single pie top
crust will do, but if you are going the distance you can layer a bottom crust and a top crust.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
One or two frozen pie crusts or else one or two homemade pie crusts
One egg plus one tablespoon water, milk or cream for an egg wash on the crust
For the filling:
⅓ cup unsalted butter
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
½ teaspoon non-iodized salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon pepper, or to taste
1 package 16 ounces frozen vegetables (I like peas & carrots)
1 ¾ cup chicken broth (I use Better Than Bouillon)
½ cup half and half. You may try substituting whole milk or heavy cream if they are handy.
2 cups cooked boneless chicken, cubed and/or shredded or cut up as you like.
I boil about 1 ½ large boneless chicken breasts to get the 2 cups cooked chicken. Do
not overcook
because nobody likes tough chicken chunks in a pot pie. In fact you can slightly
under-cook the
chicken so that it is slightly pink inside and it will finish cooking in the oven. I cook 3
large breasts and cut and freeze half; 2 cups ready for a future pot pie.
Optional: add some chopped fresh rosemary to the filling
Melt the butter in a medium sized pot on low heat. It is important to keep the heat on low
because when you add the flour you don’t want it to burn or form lumps.
Blend in the flour, onion, salt and pepper and cook until bubbly. You must stir this almost
constantly so that the flour does not burn. It’s okay if it turns a little brown.
Stir in the chicken broth and the half and half. Turn up the heat to a boil while stirring.
As soon as the mixture boils, continue boiling and stir for one minute. You are cooking the flour so that it
thickens, but not so much as it overcooks. Nothing is worse than burnt flour taste in a sauce.
Add the cooked chicken to this mixture and reserve.
If you are using homemade crust(s) be sure to roll them out and chill them beforehand so that when you fit
them to the dish they are still cold. A cold crust yields a flaky crust.
Now you can layer the first pie crust into your ungreased dish if you are going to have a bottom crust.
Then pour in the filling mixture and top with your frozen (now defrosted) or homemade top crust.
Crimp the edges of the top crust with your fingers for a finished look, or press down with a fork to make a
pattern around the whole edge. Add some slits to the crust to vent steam out during baking, and brush the crust
with the egg wash for the best browning ever.
Bake in a 425 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until the top crust browns.
Cool on a rack and eat the whole thing.
Chicken Pot Pie