Chicken Pot Pie
5 or 6 chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed
2 cans chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tbsp butter (or cooking spray)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup fat free half-and-half *
1 (12 oz or thereabouts) package frozen peas and carrots, thawed
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (optional)
about ½ cup cornstarch
2 boxes refrigerated pie crust (4 crusts total)
6 aluminum foil disposable pot pie pans
Salt and pepper to taste
The chicken pot pie is really all about the crust, right? So I like to make individual pot pies so we all get the most crust possible. I use these little ones from the grocery store . . . maybe someone will get me some real ones for my birthday (hint, hint).
Preheat your oven to 375.
I suppose you could make your own pie crust if you are a super over-achiever but these work just fine for me!
Unfortunately, these pie crusts are not quite big enough, and I guess they would be too thick if used as-is, so you will need to roll them out a bit.
From your first pie crust, you need to be able to cut out three pot pie tops.
To do this I get out my little pans and press the top so it leaves light marks and I make sure I can cut out three full tops.
Use a paring knife to make a circle around the top. Set aside and separate your tops with pieces of wax paper.
Repeat with your second pie crust.
Save your scraps! You'll need them for your bottoms.
Roll your second two pie crusts out to about the same thickness, but this time you will be cutting out the bottoms, so you'll need to leave about 1/2 an inch of overlap. You will only be able to get two bottom crusts out of one circle of dough, so you'll have to cobble together two bottoms with all your scraps.
Gently place one of your bottom circles over your pie plate.
Work your pie crust down into the bottom of the pie plate. Don't smash it in there, just make sure the crust touches the bottom.
For the two bottom crusts that you'll have to cobble together with your scraps, you will have some sections that will wrap around the top easily. You don't need to reroll the crust, just lay your various pieces next to each other in a way that minimizes overlap. Cut away any excess with your knife and gently pinch the seams together. No one is going to see this bottom part anyway so it doesn't have to look great.
See, not bad! They'll never know the difference.
In a medium to large saucepan over medium heat, melt tablespoon of butter. You could also use a tablespoon of olive oil or cooking spray.
Add onions and saute until translucent. Then add cream of chicken soup and chicken broth and stir until combined.
Remember the
flower pin? It's still in one piece, even after an accidental trip through the washing machine and dryer!
Put about half a cup of cornstarch in a small bowl and add half a cup to a cup of your broth mixture. Whisk until there are no more lumps. Pour back into your pot and stir to combine. Then add your salt, pepper and fat free half and half (of course you could use real, but FF works just as well!)
Add your chicken, carrots, peas and parsley (optional). Normally I use the bag of frozen peas and carrots. This time I had frozen carrots left over from my
dill roasted carrots. I thawed them in a Ziploc steam bag and chopped them. They turned out fine but next time I will go back to the frozen bag due to its ease.
Place all of your pot pie bottoms on a cookie sheet.
Fill them almost all the way to the top. Just make sure everyone gets the same amount :)
Place your top on top, and pinch to seal.
Cut slits to vent IMMEDIATELY after you put the top on. If you attempt to put all the tops on first and then go back and cut slits, your dough will have gotten all melty from the heat of your filling and your slits will be all gooey (trust me . . . . )
As such.
Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until tops are a nice golden brown. The inside is already cooked, so you don't have to worry about it getting done.
The inside will be hot!
Yummy!
