Chicken Pot Pie

    It has been quite chilly here in Waterloo the last few days--in the 60's!  This makes it perfect weather for chicken pot pie!  I haven't always been a fan of dessert pies (I had an unpleasant evening after a pie eating contest when I was a kid...), but I have always been a fan of pot pies.  My family would get those single-serving frozen pot pies from the supermarket occasionally, and I would be in heaven that night.  The crust of those pies were my favorite parts as they are like a prize for eating all of the delicious filling.  (In fact, the crust of most pies is my favorite part which is perfect because Greg doesn't care for the crust on pies, but I do like the filling for this pie--don't get me wrong.)  Anyway, here is my recipe for chicken pot pie.  I hope you do get to enjoy this pie when the weather has cooled down sufficiently in your area!

I recognize that my photography skills aren't fantastic, but at least you have a realistic picture of food, right?

This recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Ingredients:

*Filling:

1 medium onion, diced

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced

2 small potatoes, cut into thin slices 

frozen peas and corn (about a 1/2 cup of each)

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil

1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 cup chicken broth

1 cup half and half or milk

2 1/2 cups shredded chicken (For the chicken, you can bake the chicken and then shred/chop it, buy a rotisserie chicken, or boil it in water and seasoning like I did--I was making chicken broth anyway!)

I don't measure seasonings, but I used chili powder, garlic powder, parsley, salt, and pepper. 

*If you want to put your own twist on this, the original recipe adds diced red sweet pepper, leeks (instead of onions), celery, and mushrooms to the filling.

Crust:

(Makes enough to cover the top, but you could always double the recipe to add crust to the bottom as well)

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter

4-5 Tbsp cold water

Combine butter, potatoes, carrots, and onions into a large saucepan over medium heat until vegetables are tender.  Stir in flour and seasonings.  Add in half and half and chicken broth, and allow it to thicken.  Once the filling has become bubbly, add in chicken, corn, and peas.  Cook for a few minutes, and then pour the mixture into a casserole dish.  

The guts will look like this.  Yum!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, placing a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf (so the pot pie doesn't spill onto your oven by accident!), and cover the filling with a lid to keep it hot.  As the oven is preheating, prepare the crust of the pie.  Combine the salt and flour into a small bowl.  Add the butter into the bowl and mix until the dough resembles peas.  (At this point, you can mix the dough as much as you want, but after you add the water, you want to mix it as little as possible to make the crust flaky!)  Add water in 1 Tbsp at a time, sprinkling it over a part of the mixture.  Kind of push the moist dough together and flip it so as to gather more dough.  Shape dough into a ball, and roll out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out dough into a rectangle a bit larger than your casserole dish.  Using a sharp knife, cut slits into the pastry to allow steam to escape.  Or if desired, use a small cookie cutter to cut shapes from pasty. Place crust on top of pie, and shape edges if you'd like. Cook for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown, rotating pie half way through.  The book recommends waiting for 20 minutes to serve, but I probably waited 3 minutes to serve. 

The crust is edible wrapping paper.  

And there you have it; homemade chicken pot pie that is super yummy and really easy to make.