Some of you may know that tomorrow is Pi Day. The date March 14 is usually reserved to celebrate the number Pi (oh, I'm sure you know that Pi is 3.14 blah blah blah). I believe that March 14 is also Albert Einstein's Birthday. Last year, I took my son down to the Science Center where they had a big celebration for Pi Day. I am pretty sure they did that because last year Pi Day was on a Sunday. This year March 14 falls on a Monday, so no celebrations of any kind have been planned. That means I have to bake some Pie in celebration of Pi Day. I was asked to do that by guess who? I decided to make my first ever Chicken Pot Pie. I am pretty excited about trying it. I even went out and bought a brand new deep dish pie plate for this endeavor. I found a Chicken Pot Pie recipe on Allrecipes.com that got good reviews but it had lots of "tweaks" in the comments. There were hundreds of comments all saying the same things so I decided to take heed and use the suggestions. The first of many of the comments said pie was dry. That is not something you want in a Chicken Pot Pie. I am no expert on them but the few I have eaten were anything but dry. Therefore, I doubled the liquid portion of this pie. That made a bit too much "juice" so I went back and revised the amounts down by a little bit. I also punched up the seasonings as suggested and reduced the temperature of the oven while increasing the cooking time. The great thing about Chicken Pot Pie Recipes is that you can change the vegetables in almost any way you like. I used two cups of mixed vegetables instead of the suggested ones. Anyway, here goes my first ever Chicken Pot Pie recipe adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com.
Chicken Pot Pie
Servings: 6
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast - cubed
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
2 (0-inch) unbaked pie crusts
2 tablespoons water or egg white for brushing pie crust
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a saucepan combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add chicken broth and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain broth but reserve it. Set aside to cool.
3. In the saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper and other spices. Slowly stir in reserved broth and skim milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thickened. Set aside.
4. Place a pastry crust into the deep dish pie pan. Pour the chicken mixture into the pie pan. Pour hot liquid mixture over the chicken mixture. Cover with the top pie crust. Cut away excess dough. Make several small slits into the top of the crust to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the pie with water or egg white.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. This pie can also be refrigerated and reheated.
Enjoy your Chicken Pot Pie on Pi Day or any other day. I am making an Apple Pie for dessert.
The Creative Cook
