chicken pot pie overload

Erick has been hinting that I should make more of the chicken pot pie that we had back in February. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. So I made some today (as well as some chocolate chip cookies). It was nice and sunny in the kitchen, so the chicken pot pie making process was documented. I used Martha's recipe, but altered it a bit. Hers had mushrooms, but I don't know how I feel about that...so celery took its place.

Chicken Pot Pie

frozen puff pastry (I s'pose you could make it yourself, but no.)

5 tbsp flour

5 tbsp unsalted butter

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1'' pieces (though if you're going to freeze the pies I've read that its not a good idea to include potatoes)

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1'' pieces

3 stalks of celery, cut into 1'' pieces

1 onion, chopped up

1/3 cup brandy (optional)

2 cups of chicken stock

1 cup of milk

2 cooked chicken breasts (approx), shredded

1 cup of frozen peas

3 tbsp coarse salt

1 tsbp ground pepper

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 egg + 1 tsp water, mixed together

So, for the chicken, you cook it however you want I suppose. We often have frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, and I found that if you poach the breasts, from frozen, in vegetable broth for 45 minutes, sorta like this, it works great and is easy. And you can use the broth for the pies.

Anyhoo, shred the chicken once its cooked, set the stock aside. Chop all the veggies. Get a large-ish pot and melt the butter in it over med-high heat. Add all the veggies and cook for 10-12 minutes, until the carrots and potatoes are tender. Add brandy and cook for 30 seconds. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Pour in chicken stock and milk and stir constantly, bring to simmer, and continue stirring until thick. Stir in chicken, thyme, salt and pepper. Transfer to casserole dish/pie tins/whatever you want to cook the pies in. Cut pastry to fit the containers. Put on top of each pie, seal along the edge of the dish. Cut a hole in the top of each pie, then brush with egg/1 tsbp water mixture.

Place in 425 F oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then loosely cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 25 minutes. If the top isn't as toasty brown as you'd like it, turn the oven on broil for a bit, and carefully watch it until it looks like you want it to. Then....eat!!!

You can also freeze the pies. Freeze them uncooked, and when you want to eat them, just bake them as you normally would, perhaps just for a little longer.

Enjoy!