Comfort foods:
Chicken Pot Pie is a wonderful thing. It is one of the ultimate comfort foods in my mind. There's always baked mac and cheese, meatloaf, etc. But I really like a good homemade chicken pot pie. I found this recipe called All Sold-Out Chicken Pot Pies. It is so delicious. I've only made it once but it made so much I froze the left over filling and am making a second one today out of the leftovers. It's not quite as full as it should be, but it will hopefully work just fine.

It the absolute best pastry crust I could ever make. It can still be used even for regular pies if you remove the pepper.
The recipe is found in this book. However, we're going to cheat and just post it here!

All-Sold Out Chicken Pot Pies

Yield: 6 servings

Filling:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 purchased cooked rotisserie chicken or 1 whole stewed chicken, cooled
• 8 ounces fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces (optional)
• 1 (8-ounce) package frozen peas (optional)

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)
• Dash of hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Crust:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 10 ounces chilled cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 1 large egg

To Make The Filling: Melt the butter in a large sauté pan set over medium heat. Add the onion and potato; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, bell pepper, and mushrooms and sauté about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the crushed red pepper and add salt and pepper to taste.

While the vegetables are sautéing, skin the chicken, pull the meat off the bones, and shred the meat or cut into bite-size pieces. Place the green beans in a microwave-safe bowl and add enough water to cover. Cover the dish and microwave on high power about 10 minutes, until the beans are tender. Drain thoroughly. Stir the beans, peas, and chicken into the vegetable mixture. Set the filling aside.

To Make The Sauce: Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the chicken stock and cook the sauce over medium heat until it thickens to the consistency of a cream soup. Add the cream, hot pepper sauce, and salt and white pepper to taste. Pour the cream sauce over the chicken filling and stir to combine. Fill individual 1 1/4-cup capacity oven-safe bowls three-quarters of the way to the top with the creamed chicken filling.

To Make The Crust: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut the butter into 16 pieces. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse the butter and flour until crumbly. Add the cream cheese, salt, and white pepper. Continue pulsing just until the dough forms a ball.

Set the dough on a flat surface dusted with flour. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Measure the diameter of the pot pie bowls–mine are about 4 inches across–and cut out dough rounds that are 1 1/2 inches larger in diameter. Whisk the egg in a small bowl. Lay the dough rounds on top of the pot pies, making sure the dough hangs evenly over each bowl. Brush the dough lightly with the beaten egg. Bake the pies for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Variation: Pot pies lend themselves to all manner of vegetable additions, such as diced carrots, fresh corn kernels, diced turnips, sliced celery, cut-up asparagus spears, or sliced wild mushrooms. Just add them to the sauté mix and enjoy.

The key that I've found with the crust is to make sure it's nice and chilled before rolling it out. Less flour will be needed to get it to not stick to the counter.




Sadly it didn't come out totally picture perfect. The crust tried to separate from itself. I chose the wrong kind of pie dish, the kind that has handles on it. This is not a mistake that I will repeat! It is quite a bit of work, but I promise it is totally worth it!