Chicken Pot Pie

This should have been in the oven for at least 10 more
minutes to get the top a rich golden brown.  However Albert
was having a meltdown because it was not dinner time yet
so it got pulled early.

kinda blurry, but extra crust and filling became a single
serve pie for Owen.

I made Chicken pot pie this past week; it was a great way to use up the extra chicken breasts that were in the fridge.  Actually to be honest, the bulk pack of bone in chicken breasts came with 5 and I intended for the extra chicken to become another meal.  This is a great way to use up extra pre cooked meat left over from a whole chicken, or even leftover turkey could be substituted without any changes.  Of course if you wanted to just make this without leftover chicken in the fridge, you could easily poach the chicken in a pot.

The original recipe for this got edited so much that I have numerous scratch marks in my recipe book.  This is what works for us and our tastes.  Many chicken pie recipes  call for only a single crust or biscuit topping on top, personally I like a 2 crust pie.  The crunchy pie crust blends well with the creamy savory filling inside.

I use my standard flakey crust recipe for a 2 crust pie.  Then I partially blind bake the bottom part of the pie before adding the filling. 

Chicken Pot Pie

2-2½ cups cooked shredded chicken

2 cups chicken broth

1½ Tbl vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into bite size chunks

2 celery ribs, cut into bite size bites, crosswise

1 medium potato cut into ½ inch chunky

1 cup chopped mushrooms

salt and ground black pepper

4 Tbl unsalted butter

½ cup flour                                                                             

1½ cups milk                                                       

½ tsp dried thyme

3 Tbs dry sherry

3 Tbs minced fresh parsley leaves

preheat oven to 400°

In a large sauté pan heat vegetable oil.  Add onion, carrots, celery and potatoes, and sauté until just tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  While the vegetables are sautéing shred the chicken.  Combine the vegetables with the chicken in a large bowl and set aside.  

Heat the butter over medium heat in the now empty pan, when the butter is down foaming add the flour and cook 1 minute.  Whisk in the chicken broth, milk and thyme.  Bring to a simmer and continue simmering until sauce thickens.  Season with salt, pepper and sherry.  Pour sauce over the chicken mixture and stir to combine.  Pour into pie shell and top with top portion of crust.  Bake until pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, somewhere between 30-40 mins.