Chicken Pot Pie - It's all about comfort food.

Comfort food, often it's not pretty, but it's just very good and very filling. With the wintery we have been having in the northeast, this always hits the spot. I've never made chicken pot pie before and even though the recipe said, 'this is a time consuming recipe, but well worth it'. Plan on 4 hours for pep (includes roasting the chicken), then another 90 minutes for final cooking. I broke it down into 2 days for the completion of this recipe. There's nothing like taking a roast chicken out of the oven at 2 o'clock in the morning

Software:

3 lb. roasting chicken

2 cups chopped carrots

2 cups chopped potatoes

2 cups sliced mushroomes

2 chopped cloves of garlic

24 pearl onions, peeled and left whole

Assorted herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)

1 cup peas

6 tbs. flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Puff pastry sheet

2 cups chicken stock

4 tbs butter

Olive oil

Salt and pepper this is always a given for any recipe

Hardware:

Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 7-1/4-Quart Round French Oven, Cherry Red

Progressive International 9 Inch Silicone Gripper Tongs, Red

Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
Pyrex Prepware 2-Cup Measuring Cup, Clear with Red Measurements

MIU 5-Piece Stainless Steel Measuring Cup Set

BRUSH PASTRY 1" 

Heat the oven to 375.  Cover the chicken with olive oil and salt and pepper the whole thing.  Chop all your vegetables and put them in the dutch oven (except for the peas). Add the spices and mix.   Put the chicken in the pot with the vegetables and put it in the oven for 2 hours 15 minutes.  Baste every 20 minutes.  When complete, remove from the oven and turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.

Remove the chicken and put it to one side.  Remove the vegetables and put them in a seperate bowl (make sure there's enough extra room in the bowl as you'll be adding the chicken).  Add the peas.  Remove the meat from the chicken.  I've wait to find a graceful way to do this, everytime this happens it feels like i'm in survivor mode as I'm tearing it and digging out the chunks of meat. 

With the pot now empty of chicken and vegetables, put the pot on the stove and add the chicken stock and heavy cream.  Let it come to a boil, then slowly add the flour.  This should reduce down to a soupy mixture (called roux, don't ask me why, it's french!). 

 

With the chicken meat, chop it down into small chunks (about 1") and then add it to the bowl with the vegetables.  Pour in the roux.  Mix everything together and add more spices or salt and pepper for more flavor. 

Lay the puff pastry out on a flat surface and lay your dish that will house the pot pie.  Make sure the dough will overlap the dish.  The dough should be around 1/8" thick.  The pepperidge farm one I used was perfect for this.  Cut off any excess around the bowl (leave about 1/2" around the diameter). 

Add the chicken mixture into the bowl.  Cover it with the puff pasty, making sure you seal along the edges.  You should have a pie now.

Now, mix the heavy cream with the egg yolk in a small bowl.

Taking this mixture, paint the top of the puff pastry.

 

As you can see, I had a helper show up just for this task. For those that don't have your own sous chef,  you'll need to do this on your own.  Put the pie into the oven and bake for 55 minutes.  Remove and let it cool for about 5 minutes before serving!