The intoxicating smell of buttery pastry, root vegetables & herby chicken baking in the warm oven is the ultimate comfort on a cold night. Mind you, I am writing about this dreamy autumnal dish on a record breaking Colorado day of 90 degrees in the middle of September. Wishful thinking, but I hold hope because here on the Front Range, the weather has a way of sneaking up and changing on a dime. Always better to be prepared, especially in case you have a freak snow storm for two days in summer. Yes, you read that correctly- SUMMER SNOW. This recently happened to us, so I took full advantage and made this wonderfully, satisfying, rustic pot pie. The recipe does take a bit of time but let me tell you- it is so worth it! Depending on how many you're feeding, I would say this is substantial enough to be 2 separate meals for 4 people each.
Ingredients:
1 3-4lb. Roasted Chicken; All meat removed from bones and cut into bite sized chunks
1 Large Yellow Onion, diced
3 stalks of Celery, roughly diced
5-6 Carrots; peeled and cut into 1" chunks
2 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary; de-stemmed finely chopped
4-5 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme; de-stemmed and finely chopped
4 Yukon Gold Potatoes(medium sized); diced into 1" cubes
3/4 cup Peas (if not fresh, frozen works great)
1 cup Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves of Garlic, minced
4 Cups of Chicken Stock, divided into 3 cups and 1 cup
¼ Cup Butter
3 Tbsp. Flour
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Crust:
1 Prepared Pie Dough Crust
OR
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
1 egg
**Homemade Pie Dough Recipe to Come
In a medium sauce pan, gently melt butter on medium low heat, sprinkle flour over butter consistently whisking in pan until "roux" begins to brown. This will become thick and bubbly quickly.
Once the roux has browned a bit, add 3 cups of chicken stock and begin to reduce into gravy. This will take about 20-25 minutes, lightly season with salt and pepper. Careful not to over salt because as the sauce thickens, the salinity increases while the stock reduces. Stirring occasionally.
As your gravy reduces, in a large deep sided pan, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery & carrots; sauté until about half way tender and the onions begins to turn translucent. 5-10 minutes. They will continue to cook in the next steps. Add garlic and fresh herbs; sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add potatoes and 1 cup chicken stock to the sautéed vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and let simmer on low until carrots and potatoes become fork tender. About 20 minutes.
This is a good time to defrost your pie crust or puff pastry and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In the large pan, add chicken, peas, shiitake mushrooms and gravy. Stir together and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes to marry flavors.
In a large cast iron pan or oven safe casserole dish, add filling and lay crust over the top. You can be creative while doing this or you can simply use the sheet as a whole, cutting around the edges of the pan. Be sure to slice air slits along the top to let steam out if covering the entire pie with crust.
Using a fork, scramble 1 egg in a small bowl to create the egg wash. Brush the top of the pie dough with the egg wash. This will create a nice sheen on the finished crust.
Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.
Serve hot or you can make the filling ahead of time and assemble the crust on the pie to be baked later or the following day.
A tip that I recommend is using enough of the filling to feed whomever you are serving and freeze any leftovers for a future meal. My family of 4 (mainly just three of us eating this minus the baby) can usually get two meals out of this one recipe.
Adding diced Red Bell Pepper or Corn to the filling are great options too. If you are wanting a vegetarian pot pie, I suggest swapping out the Chicken Stock for Mushroom or Vegetable Stock. Omitting the Chicken and adding sliced large Portobello Caps, Sweet potatoes and Parsnips.
Another tip that I find useful in my everyday cooking is: Roasting A Whole Chicken. I do this quite often and this way it gives us meat for different meals, and then I use the bones to make chicken stock. For this pot pie, homemade yields the best results especially since you are reducing your stock into the gravy.
**If in a pinch time wise, a rotisserie chicken is a great alternative to roasting your own bird. Also substituting homemade gravy for cream of mushroom soup will work just fine.
I hope you enjoy and please be sure to comment & share your cooking/flavor results either on this post or on any of my social media pages using #alliesfeast
-Alexandra
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