Is that a chicken in your pot pie......

In the winter, I like to play in the kitchen, turn the oven on, have the stove top burners blazing. It warms up the house, making it smell like home. Comfort food is what I usually end up making; stews, soups, pies. Below is a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie that I came up with a couple of years ago. I wanted chicken pot pie, looked at a lot of recipes and none of them appealed to me, so I checked with my taste buds and this is what I came up with. Please try it and let me know how you like it. Check with your taste buds and see if you have any additions or deletions, added spices, different crust.

Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe can be made with left over roasted chicken or boiled chicken. There have been times when I have been hungry for this recipe and I don’t want to prepare a whole chicken, so I use half of a chicken breast, a thigh and two legs, all with skin and bones, boil it with some garlic, onions, celery, salt and a bay leaf. It comes to approximately three cups of chicken and it makes my chicken broth as well.

Needed cooking implements.

10” sauté pan

4 qt. sauce pan

9” quiche pan

Ingredients

1 med. Onion coarsely chopped

4 white mushrooms

2 cloves garlic smashed

¾ cup baby carrots, in thirds

½ tea. Salt

1/8 t. salt

3 T. unsalted butter

2 T. flour

2 cups chicken broth

¾ cup frozen peas

3 cups chicken (without skin and pulled from the bones)

1 can crescent rolls (8 pack)

1 pkg. pie crust (use 1 pie crust)

(Please note that if you are up for it, you can make your own pie crust or use puff pastry on top and bottom. It is all good.)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Roll out pie crust into 9” quiche pan. Prick the bottom with a knife in a few places. Put into the oven and lightly brown the crust at 375 degrees. Remove from oven and set aside. Lower the oven to 350 degrees.

3. In a 10” sauté pan add 1tablespoon butter with ½ teaspoon salt, melt butter on medium high.  When butter is melted add 2 cloves garlic.  Let the garlic cook for about 1 min. Long enough to flavor the butter. Add the onions, sauté until soft, add in mushrooms and cook until lightly brown, then add in carrots and cook for about 5 mins. Set pan aside.

4. In a 4 qt. sauce pan add the remaining butter (2 tablespoons) and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Melt the butter, add the flour one Tablespoon at a time. It should clump together like a thick paste. Once the two are blended. Slowly pour in warm chicken broth. One cup at a time. Bring the mixture to a boil. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens about 10 minutes. Add the chicken, the sautéed vegetables and the peas. Continue cook for another five minutes, stirring it as needed.

5. Unroll crescent rolls. Separate each roll where it is perforated.

6.  Pour mixture into the lightly browned pie crust to the top of the quiche pan.  Take the individual crescent rolls and lay them on top of the filling. Lay three with the points toward the center, putting the wide bottoms on the edge meeting the cooked pie crust. Place three more crescent rolls in the opposite direction, putting the wide part of the crescent rolls in the center and the tips on the edge from the center to the edge of the quiche pan.  There will be a slight gap in the top of the pie and that is okay. Take it out of the oven when the crescent roll crust is golden brown. (about 20 mins.) The pie serves 4 to 6 people.

If you do choose to freeze the pie, let it cool down for about an hour, wrap it in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. It will stay good in the freezer for a month. When thawing, unwrap pie, set oven to 350 degrees and allow an hour cooking time. Lay foil on top to the crust while in the over to keep crust from getting too brown.