Homemade Chicken Pot Pie (Crust and all!)

Last Monday I was ambitious and hit my most domestic level: Slow cooking a whole chicken. Now I wondered, what do I do with all this leftover chicken? Dan’s eyes got wide as I pondered this and started begging for chicken pot pie. I’ve never been one for pot pie, but after countless requests, I agreed to do it. Last week was terrible for weather and the Seattle area was threatened with snow and we all feared we were going to be hit with Snowpocalypse 2011 (we don’t handle snow well here). Wednesday was supposed to be the worst of it, and I figured – what would be the best way to combat cold weather than with some chicken pot pie? Dan picked me up from work and we went to Whole Foods to gather our pot pie ingredients. I figured it would be easy to grab some potatoes, mushrooms, frozen veggies, and puff pastry. It can’t be that expensive, right? I was deadly wrong. Puff pastry at Whole Foods is “local” therefor, costs way more than it should. Ok, so it was only $12.99, but still, you can go to QFC and it’s 1/3 that price.  I told Dan we’d save money and I’d make the pie crust. My roommate used to make pie crust all the time, it couldn’t be that hard, right? Wrong again. We ate dinner at 10:30 at night. But it was beyond delicious and given the choice, I’d start at an earlier time (or make the pie crust the night before) and do it again! This time, maybe the snow will show up.

Pie Crust Recipe
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chilled butter
• 1/2 cup water

Stir the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the chilled butter – since I don’t have a pastry knife or large food processor, I pinched the butter into the mix tablespoon by tablespoon. Do this until your mix has the texture of cornmeal.

Pinching in the butter

Add in the water one tablespoon at a time, mixing it gently with a fork. Try not to overwork the dough or it will become tough.  When it’s all mixed in, split the dough in two, roll it into a ball then flatten slightly. Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to roll it out, generously cover the area with flour. I also put more flour on the dough and the rolling pin. Roll it until it is 1/4 inch or smaller. Gently fold the dough in half, and then into quarters. Put the dough into the pie pan and unfold, then fill with the pot pie recipe below!

allrecipes.com has an indepth step-by-step process for making dough which I found helpful!

Rolling out the dough

I was inspired by this recipe for my Chicken Pot Pie.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chicken breast
• 1 cup chicken broth (I took mine from the chicken roast I made)
• 1 cup cream of mushroom
• 3 potatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (I used peas, carrots and lima beans)
• 1 to taste salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

The insides

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Wash and cut potatoes into bite sizes pieces and boil until almost tender. Drain and set aside. Wash celery and cut into bite size pieces, same with the onion. In a large heavy skillet, over medium heat, saute celery and onion with 2 tablespoons oil, for 5 to 8 minutes. Add the frozen vegetables and cook another 5 minutes. Add flour and cook about 30 seconds. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. After it has become thick, add potatoes. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and add to the skillet. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour into the pie plate and cover with the second rolled out pie crust. Make sure you crimp the edges of the pie shell to the plate so no juices spill in oven. I also poked a couple holes in the top with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until pie shell is cooked and golden brown.

Et voila!

So delicious!

I was quite proud of my pie. The inside part was perfect, and the crust turned out light and flaky. By the time it was in the oven though, I was so exhausted and told Dan I was never going to cook again. Note to self – forgo running stairs in the snow and just start cooking dinner!