Chicken Pot Pie

I like chicken pot pie, but the recipes I have had have been too time intensive for me to make them often, or much at all. After some time, I came up with this chicken pot pie version, in which I combined the recipes and simplified them into what I penciled-in as my 'quick' version. Last time I made this, it was so delicious and easy that I decided it was worthy of The Sisters Cafe. :) I hope you enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie
submitted by Erin - The Sisters Cafe

2 large chicken breasts
5 T. flour
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp pepper
2 ½ tsp chicken bouillon granules (about 2 ½ cubes)- I prefer using "Better than Bouillon"
4-5 T. butter
1 onion, chopped
1 head broccoli, cut into small bite sized pieces (or 1 bag frozen broccoli carrot mix)
1 ½ c. frozen peas
2 c. reserved chicken broth
1 c. skim milk

Prepare Barefoot Contessa’s pie crust recipe below; use half the pie crust dough for this pot pie. Or you may use your own recipe for a pie crust.
Boil chicken breasts in water, cool and chop. Reserve 2 cups of the broth.

Combine  flour, parsley, thyme, pepper, and chicken bouillon. Set aside.  Melt 4-5 T. butter in a large pan and add chopped onion and broccoli. Saute until broccoli is tender, then add peas.  Simmer until veggies are thawed and onions are cooked a little.  Add flour mixture, stir to coat.  Add 2 c. reserved chicken broth and skim milk.  Simmer until thickened. Add chicken pieces. Pour into a glass 9x13 baking dish.

Roll out pie crust thinly and lay on top. Cut off extra dough, leaving an inch of overhang (if there is any hanging over in the first place – this isn’t that big of a deal). Tuck in the extra dough around the edges. (*Be sure to roll out the pie crust very thin so it gets crispy throughout; otherwise, if it is too thick, the bottom of the crust will taste raw.) Cut some slits in the top of the crust.
Bake at 400° for 35 minutes or until the crust is golden.

 

Barefoot Contessa’s Pie Crust Recipe
(This makes two 10-inch pie crusts. Only use half of this dough for the pot pie.)

12 Tbs (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
1/3 cup very cold shortening (I always use butter flavored shortening)
6-8 Tbs (about 1/2 cup) ice water

Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8-12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out onto a floured lightly- silicone mat, divide into half, and roll each half into a ball and flatten into a disk. (Handle the dough as little as possible, to prevent overworking it.) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Using a rolling pin, roll each disk out on a lightly-floured silicone mat into a circle, rolling for the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the mat. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the the other half and use it as a top crust or another base pie crust.

*For this pot pie recipe, you only need one of the halves of pie crust dough. The other half may be kept in the disk, wrapped in seran wrap and placed in a freezer gallon-sized bag and kept in the freezer until you need it for another recipe.  At which time you may take it out of the freezer, let it soften for only a few minutes until it is workable, and roll out as usual.