Recipe: The Perfect Pot Pie

So, I've had a couple three folks ask for my pot pie recipe -- which is yummy, gluten free, and all mine. :D

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 bag of frozen peas

2 c. chicken stock

salt and pepper

Thyme

1 T. corn starch

1/2 half and half

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 c. (for me, gluten free) flour

 

Okay, so get you a nice-sized pan. I love the one in the picture because it's wide and shallow and pretty and I can just put it on the table. If you don't have a pretty pan, you can *always* transfer this into anything you want, no stress. If you haven't taken your cream cheese and butter out of the fridge, do that now. 

Drizzle the bottom with a little oil and get your chicken cooking on med high heat. While it's cooking away, cut up all your veggies. When the chicken's done and a pretty golden brown, take it out and let it rest a minute. Get your veggies in the pan to cook for a minute (really, literally, like a minute so you don't burn the garlic), then put in some of your chicken stock. Check to make sure you have corn starch. At this point you still have time to send someone to the store.

Now, you've got 2 cups of chicken stock and you've got 30 minutes of cooking. My head says that you can dump the chicken stock in all at once and all will be well. I don't. I put in some, let it cook down, add more. You've got to stir periodically anyway, so you might as well try it my way. ;-)

Stir.

Now cut up your chicken into pot pie sized for you pieces. Add them to the pot. Stir. Add a little more stock.

Salt and pepper and thyme to taste. I have tried dill too, but we didn't love that. Julia puts rosemary in when she catches me at this point, but I don't like how rosemary gets in my teeth.

Turn your heat to medium, turn your oven to 350.

Now, get your mixer out and mix the hell out of your butter and cream cheese. 

Go stir and add a little stock. 

Put a cup of whatever flour make you and your allergies happy in the butterycreamycheesy stuff and mix it up.

Now get a cookie sheet and cover it with parchment paper (trust me) and plop your dough on it and press it down in approximately the shape you want (or in a square, if you want to cut it at the end and make teeny tiny fancy pot pielets.

Now into the oven for 25 minutes.

Every now and then, stir and add for the next 15 minutes. (I do it maybe twice).

When you have 10 minutes left on the oven, get you a jar with a screw lid (or a bowl and a whisk, whatever) and put your cold half and half (this also works with milk, cream, almond milk, soy milk, evaporated milk, hemp milk, or plain old water in a pinch) in with the corn starch. Put the lid on and shake hard. Stir this slurry into the chicken mixture.

Now your crust should be amazing. Take it out and slide it onto your goo. Or spoon your goo into a serving dish and slide the crust onto that. Or spoon your goo into many individual dishes and cut the crust up and put them on.

Tada.

Perfect pot pie.

Much love.

BA