Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

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As a kid, I loved frozen pot pies. Individually frozen in aluminum  tins, they were an easy dinner, just throw in the oven and in an hour you’ve got a golden crust and salty, chickeny goodness inside. As a grown up, when I want a chicken pot pie, I am not content with salty gravy and perfect cubes of chicken. I want more flavor, less salt, and while I love flaky pie crust, in pot pies, nothing beats puff pastry.

I have homemade puff pastry that I’m using in this recipe. You can easily use store bought. You’ll only be using half the package, I like to use the scraps for palmiers. This recipe is scaled for four individual pot pies. Feel free to scale up or down as you need. I use cooked chicken in this recipe, most often leftover from a roast chicken, but store bought rostisserie works great, and you can also add raw chicken (cut into bite sized pieces) while you saute the vegetables.

Boozy Epicure’s Chicken Pot Pies

Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
8 oz (1 package) crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic
3 tblsp fresh thyme
1 tblsp cognac
2 tbslp flour
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup whole milk
Roughly 1 cup cooked chicken, shredded or cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 sheet puff pastry (thawed)
1 egg (beaten with a tsp of water)
salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Start by placing a tblsp or two of oil into your pot, turn the heat to medium and add the onion, carrots and celery. Once those start to soften, add the mushrooms.

Once the mushrooms have started cooking down, add the garlic and thyme. Cook for a minute then add the cognac. Stir to combine then sprinkle the flour over the top, stir, and cook one minute more. Add the stock (start with a cup and a half) and bring to a boil.
Once you hit a boil, let the pot simmer. You want the flour to get working with the stock and thicken to a rich gravy. If it is seeming too dry, add a little more stock. Once you have a rich gravy, add in the chicken, the milk, and the frozen peas. Take the pot off of the heat, ladle into individual ramekins (or one large vessel) and pull out your puff pastry.

Filling is complete

Ladle into ramekins
Place the pastry on a lightly floured surface, Using a rolling pin, roll out your pastry and cut out circles just a bit larger than your ramekins.

 

Lightly grease the edges of the ramekins, place the puff pastry rounds on top, then cut slits for steam to escape.

 

4 pot pies, ready to bake

 

 

Bake until the top is golden brown and delicious, 30 to 45 minutes (longer if you used a bigger baking dish. When you pull them out of the oven they will be crazy hot, make sure you let them rest at least 15 minutes before diving in. Garnish with chopped parsley and eat!

And what to drink with such delicious pot pies? If you are a fan of buttery Chardonnay, the creaminess of the filling and the buttery puff pastry pairs perfectly. If you are in the mood for red, light to medium bodied reds with little to no tannin and lots of fruit are your best bets. I had an Italian Corvina blend, but a fruity, light Beaujolais would pair really well too.

Happy Eating!