Chicken Pot Pie

A month ago my friend MC and I went to a Chicken Cooking Class at Epicurean.  We had bought a great deal from Groupon and this was one of the classes we were interested and that we both could make.  You may be thinking Chicken, I can cook chicken?!  It was a simple class, but we learned so much in terms of technique as well as we left with 10 awesome new chicken recipes. 

One of my favorites, which I wasn’t even interested in when I read it was on the menu was Chicken Pot Pie (CPP).  Oh CPP how I misjudged you, I forgot how comforting and simple you are!!  How a layer of buttery puff pastry, creamy gravy and tender juicy chicken could be so good.  Sorry to say that I don’t really have nice pictures of the finished product since I took this dish over to my friends house for dinner.  My friend K and I were visiting the new mommy; keeping her company with the baby while her husband was out of town.  Between her cute dogs, the adorable baby and the heavenly smell coming out the oven the dish went from stove to our tummies pretty quickly! 

  It may not look pretty here, but how could you not love all that puff pastry goodness??

Chicken Pot Pie
adapted from Epicurean

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 Tbsp thyme
1 Tbsp sage
2 oz butter
2 oz flour
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half
8 oz frozen peas and carrots
salt
pepper
1 box of puff pastry, defrosted

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

2.  Sautee onions and celery with the herbs with the butter until the veggies are softened. 

3.  Slowly add in the flour, stirring and cooking the flour down.  Then whisk in the stock and cook over medium heat until it starts to boil and thicken. 

4.  Add the cream, then the chicken and the peas and carrots.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until chicken is just done.  *If you wanted to make this the night or day before you could stop at this step and refrigerate or freeze this mixture.  I did this a day or two before I had to go over to my friends (so I wouldn’t make a mess in her kitchen) and it came out great!* 

5.  Pour mixture into a casserole dish (circular or rectangle is fine).  Lay 1 to 2 layers of the puff pastry over the casserole dish (depending on size of dish) and cut several slits in the pastry to allow the steam to escape.  Trim excess puff pastry as necessary from over edge of casserole dish. 

Note:  We used a rectangle dish at the new mommy’s house, which gave us lots of yummy puff pastry but less fillings.  This recipe would fit perfectly in a round casserole dish and be covered by 1 sheet of puff pastry.  If you are feeding hearty appetites but want to make it in a rectangle casserole dish, you may want to double or do an 1.5 portion of the filling recipe above.   

I only had this a couple weeks ago, but I want to remake it!  I tried to lighten it up a little bit by using half and half instead of cream.  I want to make individual serving size portions and try adding other veggies in there as well.  Even though we are moving into spring and warmer weather, this dish is so comforting it will still put a smile on your face (and in your tummy).