Recipe Thursdays: Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of those recipes that has evolved over time. It started with a turkey pot pie recipe from my friend and first Mada roommate Melody–thanks Melody! But we always used chicken. Hers had a biscuit topping, which was tasty, and then a few years ago I switched to a pie crust top and bottom. I also switched to that canned veggie assortment of peas and carrots . . . just to make life easier! But the main thing about this recipe is that it’s very forgiving!! It’s one of those you can use at the end of the week to get rid of extra veggies—that’s one of the reasons I love it! Here’s what I do:

Ingredients – Filling:

• Five garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 chicken breast or pack of tenders
• 2 T olive oil
• any extra chopped, fresh veggies you want to use
• 1-2 cups chicken broth (or water and bullion cubes)
• ½ cup sour cream (or ½ cup heavy whipping cream + ½ T vinegar)
• ¼ cup corn starch

Directions – Filling:

1. Chop the garlic and onion, and begin to sauté it in a big pot with the oil. 
2. After a minute or two, lay the chicken breast or tenders in the pot and pan fry them.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper, a chicken bouillon cube, and any spices you like. 
4. Be ready to add oil or a bit of water to make sure nothing burns.
5. Break up the chicken as it cooks. 
6. Add any other fresh vegetables you’re including: chopped green beans, fresh carrots, chopped potatoes, chopped zucchini. 
7. Once the chicken is cooked through and browned just a bit, add about two cups of water (and maybe another bouillon cube) or chicken broth. 
8. Add the canned carrots and peas.
9. Take ½ a cup of the hot broth out and mix in ¼ cup of cornstarch, and then mix back into the pot. 
10. Mix ½ a cup of sour cream into the pot. 
11. Turn off the stove and add the mixture to the pie crust in the casserole dish. 

Then, here’s the pie crust recipe I use. I almost always have salted butter, so then I just leave out the teaspoon of salt. Make the crust sometime during the day and then have the two “disks”—the dough balls of the pie crusts—in the fridge. 

Once I have the filling made, I roll out one disk, press it into the bottom of a 9×9 casserole dish, and put it in the oven at 190 C. After about 10 minutes, I pull the casserole dish out, spoon in the filling, and then roll out the other disk and lay it on top. Then I put it all back in the over for another 30 minutes or so. Sometimes I put on the top grill for a few minutes at the end to brown the top.

This is one of our favorites! Enjoy!