Chicken Pot Pie

This to me is the ultimate in comfort food.  My mom used to make chicken pot pie and we would scarf that thing down in no time!  I've kind of changed things up a bit from her recipe, but it still reminds me of dinner-time when I was a little girl.
I only use a top crust on my pot pie, mostly because my husband isn't a crust guy, and also it's easier to just roll out one crust instead of two!  I've also swapped in fresh vegetables instead of frozen.  Every now and then I'll make it with frozen veggies, but I try to buy fresh when I can.
If you don't want to buy fresh vegetables, look for the package of frozen veggies you like best, a 10 oz. package will work.

CHICKEN POT PIE


INGREDIENTS:

• 2 half chicken breasts, bone in
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 4 Tbsp. flour
• 1 cup fresh green beans, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup fresh corn, cut off cob
• 1 cup red potatoes {find the tiny ones and cut in half}
• 2 carrots, cut into large dice
• 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped finely {or 1/8 tsp. dried thyme}
• 2 tsp. salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

*Pie Crust recipe below, or use refrigerated pie dough {works great}

DIRECTIONS:

  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Place chicken in a roasting pan, drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven uncovered for 50 minutes, then cover with foil, turn oven off, and let sit in oven for about 30 minutes to an hour.  This will make your chicken nice and tender.  Remove chicken from roasting pan and cut into chunks or shred; discard bones.  Set chicken aside.

In a medium stock pot, heat butter.  Add cut potatoes and carrots.  Saute for 5-7 minutes.  Add corn and green beans.  Saute for another 7-10 minutes, or until veggies are tender.  Add flour and stir.  Once vegetables are coated with flour, pour in chicken broth and milk, and stir.  Heat to medium-high and bring to slight boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer. Add thyme, salt, and pepper.  Stir until thickened, about 5 minutes.  

Remove from heat and stir in chicken.  

To make pie crust:

Combine 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp. salt.  Cut 1/3 cup cold butter into small chunks.  Add butter to flour mixture and, using your hands, crumble the butter into the flour until the butter turns into tiny pea-sized balls.  Slowly add 3 Tbsp. ICE COLD water.  If the dough seems way too crumbly, add another 1 Tbsp. of water.  Bring the dough together with your hands and turn onto a floured surface.  Lightly turn the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes.  Roll dough on floured surface to about a 9-inch circle.

To assemble Pot Pie:
Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a 9-inch pie dish.  Pour chicken mixture into pie dish and top with pie dough.  Fold the overhanging dough under the edges to make a nice thick crust.  Cut a couple slits in the middle of the pie to let steam escape.  If you would like you can brush the top of the pot pie with a little egg wash {1 egg yolk beaten with a little water}.  This will give it a nice golden top.
Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.  If the edges begin to brown too quickly, cover them with some foil.