 |
| Pot Pie! The fifth food group! |
Chicken or Turkey Pot Pie! -
Hi folks, I hope everyone is surviving this wet winter weather. Its been a while since I've had much to post, but the wet weather inspired me to craft what could possibly be adopted as the perfect 5th food group;POT PIE!
The pot pie we will do today is seasoned for chicken or turkey, but with a couple changes will work well for beef as well.
The prep time for the dish is around 45 minutes, but a lot of that is just waiting on the chicken or turkey to cook. That wait time is always a good time to prep your other ingredients, chop your vegetables, gather your seasonings and such.
Here we go.....
Pot Pie - Chicken or Turkey (or meatless for vegetarian pallets)
INGREDIENTS: (makes 1 - 9" pot pie)
 |
| Get your ingredient together first. |
2 Cups - Cooked Turkey or Chicken (cubed)
Veggies -
1 Cup - White potatoes - (Cubed
1/2 Cup - Yellow Onion - (diced)
1/2 Cup - Celery (diced)
1/2 Cup - Frozen Green Peas (thawed)
1/2 Cup - Carrots (diced)
Seasonings and other stuff -
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 stick Butter
1/4 tsp. Poultry Seasoning
1/4 tsp. Ground Sage
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 Cup Milk (2% works fine)
2 - Pie Crusts (the rolled kind)
Preheat oven to 350F. Lay the rolled pie crusts out of the fridge to acclimate to room temperature.(leave them rolled)
Butter or spray one 9" round baking dish or pan.
I'm starting by cooking the chicken or turkey. I've also used turkey and chicken breast leftovers from other meals as the meat ingredient. If I want chicken broth or stock for other meals, I will boil the chicken breast for around 30-40 minutes with some salt and pepper. Once the chicken is done, I remove it to allow it to cool some while I am straining the fresh chicken stock to use elsewhere. If you don't need the broth at the moment, the freeze it for later. I haven't tried canned chicken breast, but if you do, let me know how it goes.
Start by putting 1/2 of the butter (1/4 stick) in a large pot or deep pan. On a medium to medium-high heat, saute the onions and celery for around 5 minutes.
While the onions and celery are beginning to cook, microwave the potatoes and carrots in a covered dish for 5 minutes. Use a tablespoon of water to help steam the vegetable. This gets us ahead of the cooking curve for these two hard to cook ingredients.
Once they are out of the microwave, pour them directly into the pot with the onions and celery.
Pour in the peas, the cubed poultry, the sage, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir well and allow to simmer on medium heat for 5 more minutes.
Making the Gravy -
Remove all ingredients from pot into a large bowl. Melt the remaining butter in the pot on medium-high heat. Once melted, add the 3 TB of flour. Stir the flour well into the butter. Once it has all melted together, pour in the milk. Using a blunt nosed spatula or large spoon, stir the mixture constantly to break down the butter and flour. The mixture will begin to thicken in about three minutes at medium-high heat.
Once the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat. Reintroduce the sauteed vegetables and meat into the gravy. Stir well.
 |
| Pack the filling in well. |
Dampen the edges of the lower pie crust with water on your fingertips. Place the upper pie crust over the lower crust. Fold the upper crust under the edges of the upper crust. Using a fork, press around the crust edges to seal the crusts together. Cut THREE slits across the filled pie crust to allow steam to escape the pie.
 |
| Cut slits for steam and seal the edges. |
Place the pie onto the center rack of the preheated oven for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
Once removed, allow the pie to rest for 10 minutes before serving. It helps the sauce thicken and makes it easier to remove from the baking dish.
Enjoy!
