Chicken Pot Pie (get PDF)

   This was our first attempt to make a chicken pot pie! I was inspired by a photo my sister sent to me of a pot pie she had made. It looked so good I had to attempt this myself.

   I have my mother's recipe for chicken pot pie, but I wanted to try something completely new and different, so the wife and I put our heads together to come up with this recipe.

   We precooked or par-boiled everything before-hand. I knew the crust on top would take about 35 minutes to brown, and estimated how long to par-boil based on the remaining 35 minute cooking time.

   I cooked 3 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breast via sous vide, 149° for 55 minutes. When done, we cut this into cubes. We ended up using 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. of the chicken. I actually did the sous vide the day before, and refrigerated it until the next day.

   We used 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed, and par-boiled them for 10 minutes.

   We used 2-3 carrots, peeled and cubed, and par-boiled them for 10 minutes.

   We used 2 stalks of celery, sliced, and par-boiled them for 5 minutes. (threw them in with the carrots at 5 minutes)

   We saulteed 2 garlic cloves, minced, and 1/2 of an onion, chopped in butter until caramelized.

   We used maybe 1 lb. of frozen mixed vegetables which I ran under warm water until they were thawed.

   For our gravy, we used 2 pints of turkey bone broth we had canned while making our spatchcocked turkey. This had already been seasoned when we made it, and required just a few touchups, adding some black pepper, rosemary, thyme, allspice, broth base & seasoning, and star anise. It was thickened with a buerre manie. On final evaluation, our gravy should have been a bit thicker, so I would say that when thicking the gravy, make it thicker than usual.

   We used an 8" x 9" glass baking dish. I wanted a top and bottom crust, and purchased ready-made frozen crust dough. Due to food store shortages I could only find round, but we made that work. We lined the bottom of the dish with the dough and pressed it up the sides and into the corners.

   We mixed all of our ingredients in a large bowl, using the "by eye" method to get the proper ratios. We used most of what we had prepared.

   We then filled the dish with our mixture until it was completely full. We then aded the gravy on top.

   We then added the top dough crust and tucked and sealed it as best as we could with a round piece of dough. We had to roll it out a bit in one direction to make it large enough to cover the pie.

   We baked this at 450° for about 38 minutes.We went by the crust doneness, looking for a nice golden brown.

   We took this out of the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes.

   Time to check out the result! To our joy, the potatoes were fully cooked but firm, as were the carrots, celery, and vegetables. The chicken was perfect too. We congratulated ourselves on the pre-cooking estimates we decided on. The only negatives were that the gravy should have been a bit thicker, and we forgot to put in the mushrooms we bought for this project.

   It was delicious, and was devoured quickly!