My Chicken Pot Pie!

 

We practically raised our kids eating those easy, cheap frozen pot pies from the grocery store.  But, I’ll bet I haven’t eaten one for ten years.  After a while they just didn’t do it for me.

Lately though, I’ve had a hankering for one.  I decided to make them myself.  I wanted something special.  Having never had any other than those cheap store bought ones, I don’t have a standard to shoot for.  But, hey, how hard can it be?

I decided to give it a go and after making it twice in a week, with nothing but rave reviews from all eaters, figured it was time to share my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 – boneless skinless chicken breasts, steamed and cubed
• 1/2 cup – ham, cubed
• 2 – large potatoes, cubed
• 1 – large carrot, cubed
• 2 – stalks of celery, chopped
• 1/2 – yellow onion, chopped
• 1 clove – garlic, pressed
• 1 cup – frozen peas
• 1/2 – small butternut squash, cubed
• 1/2 cup – Craizins (dried cranberries), chopped
• 8 tbsp – butter
• 4 tbsp – all purpose flour
• 4 cups – milk
• 1 tsp – salt
• 1/2 – tsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 – tsp – chicken bullion
• 2 – Pillsbury pie crusts
• 1  heaping tbsp – fresh sage, chopped
• 1 – egg, beaten

Wash the chicken and place in a steamer basket.  Steam on high heat for 10 minutes.  It’ll be okay if the chicken isnt’ entirely done at this point.

Saute’ onion and garlic in 4 tbsp of butter.

Cube steamed chicken (so nice and tender)  and add to the sauteing onions.  Add sage. Simmer until time to add to the remaining ingredients.

Now steam all of the remaining vegetables.  They too, don’t have to go until they’re entirely soft.  10 minutes should do it.

In a pot make a roux with 4 tbsp butter, flour, salt and pepper.  A blond roux would be fine, but I want a yellower sauce so I cook the roux, stirring constantly, until becomes a golden brown.  Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it thickens.  Add bullion.

Add sauteed chicken, vegetables, Craizins and ham to the sauce.

Place mixture in oven proof, individual sized, deep pie dishes.  Unroll the pie crusts and lay over the top.  Trim the edges.  You can piece the pie crust with scraps of crust, it doesn’t have to be whole.  Sweetie thought the pieced ones were cuter and more appealing.  With your fingers, press the dough to the edge of the dish.  Brush the crust with egg.  With a parring knife cut four vent holes.

Bake in preheated oven at 350  degrees for 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Makes four six inch pies or six 4 1/2 inch.  My last batch I doubled the recipe and ran out of dishes.  Not wanting to waste the remaining pie filling I made a couple of Pasties.  To do this you need to let the filling cool.  Lay your crust over a cereal bowl and tuck the crust into a bowl shape being careful not to stretch the crust.  Fill the cavity and then fold the crust up over the filling.  Pinch together in four tucks and trim off the extra.  Carefully turn the tucked side down onto a greased cookie sheet, brush with egg, vent at the very top and bake as before.

Pasties are often served with gravy or melted butter over the top.  We just ate them as they were, right out of the oven.