Chicken Pot Pie
The Laird bought some frozen pot pies and I thought to myself, I thought, “I can do that.”
First step: Pot Pie pans. I bought the 4-inch aluminum ones because they only had three in stainless steel and I wanted four. I ran them through the dishwasher, first thing, to see if they would oxidize (or whatever turns aluminum grey in dishwashers). After going through twice, they seem fine.
The filling is just what one would expect: Chicken (four boneless thighs chopped small and browned), onion (one diced), carrot (two diced), deglazed the pan with leftover sherry, frozen peas and condensed cream of mushroom added last. Seasoned with salt, thyme, and garlic.
The pie crust is my usual pie crust recipe with garlic salt and thyme. I decided to try the food processor method. Um, no. I assume it was the food processor that gave the crust a very strange crunchewy texture. I think the butter may have caramelized.
I blind/par baked them for what felt like a long time (about 15 minutes in 5 minute increments). It could have been longer. The bottom crust wasn’t soggy, but turning them out of the pans revealed a quite pale bottom.
The Laird had one of the frozen ones a couple of days after having one of these and said mine are much better. While that was sweet, one has to really screw up pie crust to be worse than frozen pot pie crust. Yuck.
We’ll find out if it was the food processor next time when I make it the usual way (now with shredded frozen butter instead of cubes; that works). That batch will be beef. I am inspired to make Julia’s Beef Bourguignon.
Slightly modified (or at least drained) for less liquid.
Marked Up 