Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010 - Chicken Pot Pie

Recipes:

Heather's Pie Crust Recipe:

2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup shortening
6 tbsp. ice water

Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl.  Add in shortening piece by piece and mush in with your hands.  Pour one tablespoon of ice water at a time over the dough.  Roll into a ball.  Roll out on a cutting board.

Pot Pie Filling:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Pot-Pie-IX/Detail.aspx

NGREDIENTS:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup frozen green peas 1/2 cup sliced celery 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup chopped onion 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon celery seed 1 3/4 cups chicken broth 2/3 cup milk   2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2.	In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3.	In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4.	Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
5.	Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Changes: I'm like Steve and I only sort of measure things.  I did not use celery seed.  I used one carrot, one celery stick, some peas,  and one chicken leg quarter.  I used a fourth of onion, two tablespoons of butter, two tablespoons of flour, 1/3 cup milk, 1 cup of chicken broth.  I had the right amount of chicken mixture, but a little too much liquid mixture.  I only cooked them for 25 minutes because the filling was bubbling over by then.

Everything turned out great!  They tasted great!  It took me two hours from separating and storing the chicken legs to the final product, but I think with practice, the time could be cut down.