This chicken pot pie is delicious despite the picture…you’ll have to look past the amateur photography, it’s not one of my fortes.  Everything about this dish is from scratch, so that means no yucky additives.

The last time I made this a bit easier by using the liquid that you simmer the veggies and chicken in as the broth base for the sauce.  I didn’t have any homemade chicken broth on hand due to the fact that I filled the jars too high then put them in the freezer and shattered all of my quart jars!  I learned a valuable lesson.

It’s delicious. I love the flavor of the celery seed in the sauce.  You can really add any veggies you like.  This time I forgot to add the peas but I don’t think anyone noticed but me.

You’ll also notice that this is not a typical “pie”.  No, I didn’t bother using a pie dish, I don’t have the patience for making the crust look all pretty, and it always seems like I have too much filling to even fit in a pie dish so I switched to a good old 9 x 13 baking dish.  When I made the pie crust and divided it into 2 balls, I just rolled them out into a makeshift rectangular shape.  The bottom crust looked pretty bad but it doesn’t matter because no one sees it!  My husband was hungry and lingering around and saw the scary bottom crust and took the liberty of turning the top crust into a nice lattice pattern.  He just cut the strips with a pizza cutter and placed them on top of the filling like a tic-tac-toe board.  And by the way, this is very rare, he’s not usually in the kitchen, but I was grateful for the help and he made the pie look a lot nicer than if I had finished the top crust!

The crust recipe (below) is from my Better Homes Cookbook, a very basic crust recipe and I just subbed butter for the shortening that they used in the recipe.  I make the crust while the veggies and chicken are cooking for the 15 minutes.  My husband even made the comment that it’s pathetic that the little frozen chicken pot pies from the grocery store take just as long to cook as a homemade one.  It’s true!  Those things take about 45 minutes or more to bake! And are packed with TONS of ingredients. This dish lasted our family of 5, two nights which is a bonus because then I don’t have to cook the next night! As the “pie” is cooling make a salad and homemade dressing like this ranch dressing and you’re good to go.

Chicken Pot Pie

www.easyrealfood.com

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast cubed

1 c. sliced carrots

1 c. sliced celery

1 c. cubed potato

1 small chopped onion

1 c. frozen peas

1/3 c. butter

1/3 c. flour

3/4 t. salt

1/4 t. black pepper

1/2 t. celery seed

2 c. chicken broth (reserved liquid from cooking veggies and chicken)

2/3 c. milk (whole)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  In a large saucepan combine raw cubed chicken, carrots, celery, potato, and onion.  Cover with water and boil for 15 minutes (now go make the crust!). Remove from heat, pour vegetable mixture into a colander over a pot or bowl to catch the liquid.  Save liquid and set aside cooked veggie mixture.

2. In original saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour.  Add salt, pepper and celery seed.

3. Slowly stir in reserved “broth” and milk.  Simmer over medium-low heat until thickened just a bit.  Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Add veggie mixture to sauce, stir and add to prepared bottom layer of pie crust in 9 x 13 baking dish.  Cover with top crust and bake for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.

5. Cool for 10 minutes while you make your salad.

Basic Pie Crust (2 crusts)

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour (or half white whole wheat or sprouted, whatever you have on hand!)

3/4 t. salt

2/3 c. cold butter cubed

8-10 T. cold water

Directions:

1. In a bowl stir flour and salt.  Add cubed butter and using a pastry cutter, fork or fingers (my preferred method) cut in butter until pieces are pea-sized or a bit smaller (as mine were).

2. Sprinkle water 1 tablespoon at a time over mixture and stir until dough comes together and forms a ball.  I just use my hands for this.  Once all the dry pieces are incorporated into a ball I call it good.

3. Divide dough into 2 halves.  Using flour if needed, roll each half out into desired shape (circle or rectangle).  Place 1 crust into bottom of dish, fill with desired filling, top with second pie crust and bake.

*I always used to buy the pillsbury pie crusts, but making your own is so fast and with 4 ingredients you can’t get any easier or cheaper!

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