Chicken Pot Pie is classic recipe for a reason. It’s simple to make, comforting to eat and warms you up from the inside out.
From a very early age, I always knew when my parents were going out and leaving us with a babysitter. I would hear the freezer door open, the sound of something solid dropping onto a cookie sheet and about 30 minutes later, the smell of pie crust would permeate the air. As with most kids, I hated being left at home while my mom and dad went out, but I sure did love that it meant I was getting Chicken Pot Pie so things kind of evened out.
To me, there are few meals more comforting than crisp, flaky pie crust covering a creamy blend of chicken and veggies. I wanted to recreate that great childhood food memory with this recipe, but I wanted to make it a little healthier than the store bought frozen variety pot pie I had as a kid.
On the whole my kids are a pretty amazing eaters, but the night that I took this potpie out of the oven, “I don’t want it” came out of Gemma’s mouth. My feelings were totally hurt, but I also know how finicky and temperamental youngsters can be, so I decided not to push her and see what happened. I let her continue to play in the kitchen and about 15 minutes later I saw her wander over to where the pies were cooling, take a fork and investigate this little pie. She took one bite and said, “I love it”. No joke. Kids are funny, yeah?
She went from unwilling to try Chicken Pot Pie to loving it in a matter of minutes and I didn’t have to do anything but be patient. If there is one thing that I’ve learned time and again when it comes to kids and eating, it’s that pushing things on them almost always makes them more resistant to try new foods. When you let kids discover things for themselves, it gives them an ownership over what they eat and a sense of discovery with food that just can’t be achieved by cajoling, sneaking, persuading or begging. Just giving Gemma a bit of space allowed her to fall in love with chicken pot pie just like I knew she would.
Are you a Chicken Pot Pie lover? Let me know what you think of this recipe by tagging me on social media!
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 4 tablespoons butter, chilled and cubed
- 4 tablespoons shortening or lard, chilled and cubed
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ice water
For the Filling:
- 2 cups (14 oz can) chicken broth I use low sodium
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless about 1 pound
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup peas I use frozen peas
- kosher salt
Instructions
Make The Crust:
- Place the first 4 ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse cornmeal.
- Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the water in the food processor and pulse a few times until the dough starts to come together.
- Place the dough of a piece of parchment or plastic wrap and gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk.
- Refrigerate the pie crust dough for 30 minutes or until chilled.
Make the Filling:
- In a saucepan, bring chicken stock and chicken breasts to a boil, reduce to a simmer, partially covered for 12 minutes. Remove the chicken breasts to a plate, reserving the chicken broth, and when cool, cut the chicken into bite size chunks.
- Heat 1 tbsp of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and cook the onions for 4 minutes or until translucent.
- Add the celery, carrots and thyme and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Melt the remaining 3 tbsp of butter into the vegetables and sprinkle 3 tbsp of flour over and stir to make a roux. Cook for 1-2 minutes stirring to coat the vegetables.
- Add the milk, reserved chicken broth, chopped chicken and peas and simmer over low to medium for 10 minutes or until thick and creamy. Add salt to taste.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place 1/4 of the mixture in 4 10 oz ramekins or 1 large ramekin/pie dish.
- Dust a flat surface with flour and roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick (about the size of a pie plate).
- Place the ramekins on the dough upside-down and cut 1/2 inch wider around to make the top crust of the pot pie.
- Place the cut-out dough on top of the ramekin and gently pinch the sides, pressing it to make it stick.
- Using the tip of a knife, make 3 slits on top of the dough (to allow ventilation).
- Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.
- Cool and serve.
The chicken is fully cooked after boiling!
When you make the chicken in step one is it fully cooked when you take it out, or, does the next step and baking cook the chicken through. Trying to avoid tough pieces of chicken for a very picky eater. Thank you.
I’m not a baker, not even close. Can somebody tell me why my crust was so dry and crumbly? I followed the recipe exactly. I do live in Denver, could that make a difference?
I used store bought crust and added garlic and sliced mixed mushrooms and deleted the onion. Big hit with my husband and son.