Baked Chicken, 4 ways- Part 4, Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie
Originally uploaded by L.TON

Ah, so here is my last installment of "Baked Chicken, 4 ways". Chicken Pot Pie! This wasn't my best looking pie nor is this really one of my better photos, but its okay... the end result of this dish is deeelliiccciiouuussss!! Creamy, chickeny with a top of puff pastry... it is buttery, fatty, goodness.

My photo doesn't show the great puff factor of the puff pastry, mainly because I made a mistake of putting some in a baking dish, and some on a cookie sheet, which made alllll the difference in the puff factor. The ones on the cookie sheet puffed amazingly, where as the ones in the baking dish did not... so word of advice, put it on a cookie sheet!

I bought puff pastry. To make puff pastry, you need days upon days and a lot of patience. Unfortunately, most puff pastry that you find in conventional groceries have hydrogenated oil (ie tran fats), which makes them cheap but I am not a trans fat eating kind of girl, plus puff pastry should be made with nothing but flour, butter, salt and some ice cold water. So I went to Whole Foods and splurged on a 14 oz package of puff pastry ($10) which was the most expensive component, but totally worth it!

Everything else in the filling is pretty standard, shredded chicken, peas, carrots, onion, celery, chicken broth and whole milk. Finally, the end is near for all of that shredded chicken!

Chicken Pot Pie
ingredients
2.5 tblspn butter
1.5 c shredded chicken
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup flour
2.5-3 cup chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
1 cup peas
1 tblspn parsley
s&p to taste
1 package of puff pastry, thawed in advance
1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
6 6oz ramekins

instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375F, take your puff pastry out of the fridge and cut out the shape of your ramekin so that the puff pastry is slightly larger then your ramekin, put back into the fridge while you make your filling
2. in a large sauce pan, with medium high heat, melt butter and add onions, celery, carrots and garlic, and a little bit of salt and pepper
3. sautee the mix until onions are translucent, about 10-15 minutes
4. sprinkle flour on, evenly coating the mixture. this will help prevent lumping
5. add 2.5 cups of chicken stock to start and bring to a simmer
6. add milk
7. add chicken, peas and parsley,
8. if the mixture seems too thick, thin out with additional chicken broth.
9. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired
10. ladle in hot filling, until ramekins about 2/3 full
11. put on puff pastry top, pinching the edges to the bowl. cut or punch a hole in the top to allow the pot pie to vent
12. brush on egg wash
13. while you are filling up the other ramekins, put the prepared ones in the fridge
14. once all the ramekins have been prepared, place in oven, on a cookie sheet for 15-25 minutes, until tops have puffed and are golden brown

yum yum yum!