A Winter's Chicken Pot Pie

I absolutely love chicken pot pie, especially during winter. It's got everything in it that you need and want in a comfort food. I have read dozens of chicken pot pie recipes online and made as many. For one reason or another I just never got it right, resulting in, it never tasting right. So I made up my own. I think this recipe is fairly easy to make. The inclusion of frozen vegetables and canned potatoes are the perfect offset for having to make your own gravy. Let's do this.  

Makes 2 Chicken Pot Pies

Boiled Chicken

2 chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

1 medium onion roughly chopped.

2/3 stalks of celery roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of butter

6 cups of water

Pie Filling:

2 tablespoons butter

1 16 oz package frozen mixed veggies

2 8 oz cans small unsalted white potatoes

1 cup of milk

4 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon tarragon

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 frozen pre-formed pie crusts (bottom)
2 frozen pie crusts (top)

Boil that chicken! Melt the butter and saute the onions and celery until the onions are translucent. Add the chicken breasts, bay leaf and parsley and the 6 cups of water. It should just cover the chicken. Bring to a boil, then down to simmer, cover and cook until the chicken is fork tender (usually around an hour). Remove the chicken breasts and set aside to cool. Strain the liquid from removing the celery, onion and bay leaf. Set this chicken stock aside.

* Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

Pie Filling:

Melt the butter in large sauce pan or stock pot and add the frozen vegetable mix. Saute until they are cooked through. Strain the canned white potatoes and cut quarter them. Add to the vegetable mixture. Once the chicken has cooled down, shred or cut it into small bite size pieces and add that to the vegetable/potato mixture, along with the sage, tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper. Add 4 cups of the chicken stock you put aside and 1 cup of milk. Bring to a simmer. Dissolve the cornstarch in just enough water to cover it. Slowly begin adding the cornstarch mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring to thicken between tablespoons, until the chicken/potato/veggie mixture reaches what I call a slightly thin soup consistency. 2 to 3 tablespoons is usually enough.  

*Defrost the frozen pie crusts according to the manufactures instructions.

Spoon the pie filling into both pies and cover with the remaining crusts. Pinch the dough around the edges (I'm not too fancy with forks and decorations), connecting all the dough. Make several small cuts in the top of the pies. Pop them in the oven for roughly 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Once out of the oven you really want to let it sit and settle for 45 minutes to an hour. To be honest it’s even better made the day before and reheated the next day.

*To reheat, put it in a casserole dish and into a 350-375 degree oven for roughly a half hour or as I told my brother after he inquired how long to heat the one I gave him, “I don’t know, until it’s done.”

There's no re-invention of the wheel on this one. Just a good hearty chicken pot pie to warm you up on a cold winter's night that I hope you enjoy.