edited to add: I just realized that I posted about pot-pie on pi day! Completely a fun accident, haha!
It's technically still winter, right? :) In spite of my focus on simpler cooking lately, I've taken a few diversions. One Friday recently, we had chicken pot pie! It doesn't get much simpler in concept or taste, but it is a bit time-consuming to make, at least in comparison with a lot of the other meals we've been having lately.
Chicken pot pie is one of those dishes I grew up on but don't remember my mother using a recipe for, so I consulted my
Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, tweaked it quite a bit, and think I can truly call the results my own. And they were very, very yummy!
One thing I did differently was to use evaporated milk for the roux, instead of the cream or half-and-half (which I didn't have on hand) or just plain milk which the recipe presented as options. I have grown to LOVE evaporated milk! It's like poor man's cream! It's only 65 cents a can at our Aldi, tastes marvelous in tea. It may not be fresh or organic . . . but it's yummy. :)
Another thing I've grown to love is freshly ground black pepper! A friend gave me a can of Watkins black pepper for our wedding shower which lasted us until a few months ago, at which point I decided to buy one of those self-peppercorn grinders at Aldi. Such flavor! Let's put pepper in everything!
Enough rambling . . . here's the recipe!
Ingredients:
1 large boneless chicken breast, uncooked
1 1/2 stalks sliced celery
2 big fat carrots (or a few smaller ones)
4 small red potatoes (I prefer organic so you don't have to peel them!)
1 cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup evaporated milk
pastry for top crust
1. In a small/medium saucepan, cover chicken breast with water and simmer on medium-low heat until cooked through. Remove meat, reserving broth. Chop meat into bite-size chunks.
2. Peel carrot. Chop carrot and potatoes into fine, even slices. Cook until tender in broth reserved from the chicken breast. Reserve the broth again to add to the roux later! (You might be able to save time by cooking the chicken and vegetables together?)
3. Finely chop celery and cook in a large saucepan (or Dutch oven!) in hot butter over medium heat until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the flour, poultry seasoning, salt and black pepper, and cook roux, stirring constantly for 2 minutes or until it's nice and fragrant. Add 1 1/2 cups of reserved broth and evaporated milk all at once. Stir and cook until thickened and bubbly. Stir in meat and vegetables and pour into your favorite earthenware baking dish. :)
4. At some point, make your pastry . . . I decided on a very basic crust of 1 cup flour and half a stick of butter, cut in with a pastry cutter. Stir quickly with a fork, adding ice water in small amounts until the dough forms into a ball around the fork. Gently roll out on a floured surface, fold it in half, and use it to top the meat mixture. Flute the edges if you like and cut a few slits into the top with a sharp knife.
5. Bake, uncovered, at 375F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until filling starts bubbling out the slits. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.
Wouldn't it be marvelous with a few other root vegetables added to the mix, like some parsnips or turnips? Perhaps you're still enjoying this cooler weather for baking, or perhaps you're looking for a traditional dish to make for St. Patrick's Day? I don't know that it's particularly Irish, but savory pies are certainly an old, old concept!
