Saturday, November 27, 2010

Chicken Pot Pie

So, R, here is my interpretation of chicken pot pie. I'll post it how I made it, with how I SHOULD'VE at the bottom.

Ingredients (as I used them):
-- chicken (either leftover roast, or chicken breasts)
-- 1# puff pastry
-- butter
-- olive oil
-- flour
-- onion
-- carrot
-- celery
-- potato
-- beet
-- parsnip
-- chicken stock
-- milk
-- spices (I used salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, oregano, and bay)

If your chicken is not leftover from a roast, chop your chicken breasts into chunks and fry them in olive oil, with some pepper and rosemary. After they cooked completely, I chopped them further (with the spatula) into 1 cm squares (approx.).

Before I went any further, after preheating to 375F, I draped one of the pieces of puff pastry in the bottom of my casserole dish (8"x12"), peppered the bottom with fork holes, and popped it in the oven to get lightly golden and puffy. After it came out, I deflated much of it with the same fork.



Pretty toasted puff pastry shell.


While the puff pastry shell was in the oven, I chopped all of my vegetables into a fine dice. All total, I used one beet, one potato, one parsnip, two celery stalks and two carrots. I considered adding some squash, but decided I was too lazy. I also chopped the onion at this time.



All my chopped veggies.


I melted 3-4 Tbs. of butter in the same pan that I fried my chicken in, and added a handful or two of flour.* Mixed together well, and let cook until a little until lightly golden. I then added the onion, and some more olive oil to let the onion cook down a touch.



Butter, flour and onions.


After cooking for a bit, I threw in the rest of the vegetables, the spices, a few cups of chicken stock, and a splash of milk (while the stock was still cold). I let this cook down a bit, until the carrots were just a little chewy. I also added some more flour as it wasn't thickening as much as I'd like ('cause I'd burned the roux in this method).



Oh beets, why must you turn things pink?


After everything cooked down as much as I wanted, I threw in the chicken, gave it a good mix, and then poured it into the puff pastry shell. Note, I also removed the bay leaf, as I didn't want a surprise when eating.



Tossing the chicken in.


I covered it with the remaining piece of puff pastry, trimming as necessary to get it to fit properly, and put it in the oven at 375F until it was done (approx. 20 mins.). Also, I added some vents in the crust with a knife.



In the oven (with a drip pan beneath it).


It then cooled on a rack to settle for about 10 minutes before eating.



All crispy and done!


Verdict? Delicious. Could use more spices, but that's how I cook in general.



Lookit how it begs me to eat it!


*= I should have cooked the onions in the butter first, then added the flour. And immediately after the flour was toasted, added in the stock THEN followed by the rest of the veggies. But it still tasted good.

5 comments:

  1. Goodness, this is a little different from what I think of as pie! Hmm, looks like I'll have to make it now, just to show you what my idea f pie is.

    But this looks del. icious.

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  2. You could also make it in little ramekins for individual servings (how I'm used to it), but I don't have any. It also is a different color than I'd planned, because of the beets!

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  3. I know, beets are the devil! I made something called the 'dimer chop' -- I'm pretty sure I put the recipe up -- and the same thing happened to me. Red, red, everywhere.

    Just give me a couple of days to shake off my lazyness, and I think I'm going to do my version of the pie. It's not really much different, except we make the dough at home, and it's not puff pastry dough. It's just flour mixed with cold butter and cold water, laid out on a pie plate. One layer at the bottom, and one layer at the top. Ever done it that way?

    BTW, lovely shot of the chopped veggies!

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  4. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the flakiness of puffed pastry. So, although I make a mean pie crust, I'd rather buy the puff pastry. And I'm FAR too lazy to make it. Rolling a pound of butter over and over? Not I!

    Thanks! I love having my shiny metal bowls out of storage. :-P

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  5. I love anything with puff pastry. My aunt used to make it, in winter, windows open, using a marble counter top. But some things are nice when you buy them already made:)

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