Chicken Pot Pie

I started this post at the beginning of this month and then forgot to finish it and publish it! I remembered because, again, I'm making chicken pot pie tonight and needed to find the recipe - and not digging through my spiral notebook to find my scribbled recipe.

I'm making chicken pot pie tonight and I took pictures ages ago to post it, but life got busy. Every time I make chicken pot pie, I look for it in my cookbook binders. Not there. Then, I try to look it up here. Not here either. Drat! That means it still hasn't made it out of my spiral notebook of recipe attempts. (Some copied down from online, some altered beyond memory, and some creations based on multiple recipes. And every once in a while, a creation of my own. That one is rare.)

Anyways...on to the recipe. You don't have time for my babbling. I don't have time for my babbling. I've got 5 kids who are supposed to be cleaning assigned rooms right now and no one is cleaning this one...so I'm going to guess the rest are being ignored too.

Warning: This recipe is not a throw it together kind if you want it from scratch, but I have some "cheater" options included, so don't skip it.

Chicken Pot Pie
This is FAMILY size (meaning it serves 7-8 of us) If you only have 4 eating, you'll want to cut this in half.

The abbreviated list:

• 1 1/2 lbs cooked chicken (with onion, salt, and pepper)
• 2 crusts - Pie dough
• 6 T Butter
• 6 T cornstarch 
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 3 cups water
• 1 lb frozen bag peas/carrots mix
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups milk

The list with commentary:

• Chicken  (I use 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast - I cook the entire 3 lb bag in the crockpot with salt, pepper, and onion. Then, I shred it all. Use half for this and set half aside for another casserole or two) - you can also use more or less - or leftover cooked chicken you froze and haven't used yet and it's collecting frostbite and needs to go NOW - or canned chicken - I'd go with 2 cans.
• Pie Dough - I have a recipe - there are a million more online - but half the time, I just buy the refrigerated package kind
• 6 T Butter
• 6 T cornstarch  (tonight it was flour b/c the cornstarch is empty)
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes (Instead of cubes + water, you can use chicken bouillon or broth instead - 2 average cans)
• 3 cups water
• 1 lb bag peas/carrots mix (you can use canned too, but they'll be more mushy than frozen)
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups milk (I use skim a lot b/c it's what I drink, but I prefer 2% or fatter for cooking)

Directions:
If you are starting with raw chicken, cook it in the oven, in the crock pot, or boil it stovetop until it's not pink. It's best to throw in onion to keep it from drying out too much. The crock pot on high (for the entire 3 lb bag frozen) took about 4-5 hours today. It could have gone longer before drying out, but no shorter.

Shred the chicken (I like to use the kitchenaid method b/c I want it done fast, but it is a little inconsistent - I get shreds and chunks mixed) - you can't beat 30-45 seconds though!

Melt the butter on low heat.

Whisk in cornstarch, salt, and pepper.

Add chicken bouillon cubes and water.

Whisk and stir over medium heat until thickened.   (See how the whisk leaves tracks? it's thickened)

[Tonight I didn't feel very homemade-ish, so I did this step in the microwave - just keep putting it in for 2-3 minutes at a time until it thickens. At the end, drop it to 1 minute increments and whisk after each time.]


Usually, I'll poke some holes in the bag of veggies and toss it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes just to give it a headstart on thawing/cooking. I like mine soft. But this isn't necessary and you could skip it.
[Another idea is to cook completely soft and puree and mix in with the rest - then your kids won't know they're there.]

Mix your chicken, white sauce (you just made), another cup (or so) of milk, and peas/carrots.

Pour into large casserole dish. It will completely FILL at 9x13, so I use my slightly bigger 12x15 (now that I have one) :) - or my pampered chef 9x13 because it's deeper.

If you halved this recipe, a 9x13 will be perfect. Another option, is to put it in smaller dishes for single serve size pot pies. That's what we did the night I took these pictures. And we made homemade pie crust. (I was really Homemaker-ish that night!)

Cover it with pie crusts.

 Note - these were NOT big enough to satisfy our appetites. :) But they were really cute. A corel bowl (white plain bowls from walmart) worked well too and was better for serving size.

(Oh, you can put pie crusts under it too, but my family is divided on their love of/hate for pie crust, so 1 on top only is a good compromise. And it makes me feel less guilty...I could eat half the pie crust....mmmm...but then my calories would be through the roof!) :)

Brush the pie crust with milk (or egg) to help it brown a little (or egg white to keep it light but shiny). Bake.
400 F takes about 40-50 minutes plus cool time.

This is a "Three Bears Meal" - you're going to want to bake it and take a walk or something! It retains its heat forever! If you bake it in the same dish you plan to serve & eat it out of, you'll need to let it cool even longer since the container will keep it warm as you eat - and you don't want to burn your hands on the bowl.

[Tonight I'm upping it to 450 to see if I can get it done in half an hour!]

Actually, I forgot about them and nearly burned it. Nevertheless, the kids ate almost ALL of it while my husband and I were meeting with someone in our home, and after 3 bites each (all that was left!) we got take out after the kids were in bed. sheesh.