Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie

Here is part two of our English/Welsh supper from last night. Chicken pot pie is a dish that I think most people have had or are at least generally aware of, so I won’t go with a long intro for this one. But, I highly encourage you to play with ingredient substitutions. If you don’t like mushrooms, try subbing in peas or corn. Want a subtle twist on your flavour base? Try leeks instead of onion. On top of that, you can play with different seasonings. Regardless, you’ll have a nice creamy rich filling and a crispy buttery topping that everyone will love.

We paired this dish with Broiled Tomatoes and steamed green beans, but other nice pairings to consider are mushy peas, non-mushy peas, mashed potatoes, French fries (chips), or roasted veggies.

Time: 45-50 minutes (a lot of which is baking time)

Ingredients (to make two pies)

• For the Dough:…or you could use frozen puff pastry if you prefer
  • 1/4 cup of flour
  • 1 Tablespoon of butter (use more if you want a flakier crust)
  • A little cold water
• For the filling:
  • 1 Chicken Breast
  • 2 Celery Stalks
  • 1 Onion
  • 6-7 Baby Carrots
  • 4-5 Mushrooms
  • 2 Tablespoons of flour
  • 1 Tablespoon of butter
  • Milk
  • Extra seasonings (I used a little salt and pepper, but I bet ground sage would have been an interesting addition)

Method:

• Start prepping your dough by putting your flour into the bowl of your food processor, and adding cubed butter to it and pulsing to combine. Then, slowly, add a little water and pulse. Keep adding little amounts of water until your dough starts to clump. At this point, pull the dough out, form it into a ball, wrap it in some plastic wrap, and stash it in the fridge.
• Turn your attention to your filling! Start by cutting your carrots, onion, and celery (a combination also known as mirepoix).
• Then, heat some oil in a large pan, and add your mirepoix.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with some foil (just to prevent a mess as your ramekins cook later).
• While your mirepoix is cooking, and your oven is preheating, slice your mushrooms, and cut your chicken breast into cubes.
• When your mirepoix starts to caramelize and brown a little (it should smell amazing at this point), add your chicken, mushrooms, and seasonings, and cook until the chicken is nearly thoroughly cooked (most of the pink should be gone from the chicken), move on to the next step.
• Add in your flour, and stir to combine. Then, melt in your butter, and once that’s melted, add your milk.
• Stirring occasionally, let this thicken a little, and then pour the whole mix into your ramekins. (I had the ramekins on the baking sheet for this step)
• Pull your dough ball from the fridge, and cut it in half. Then, roll out each half with a rolling pin (the dough should be pretty hard at first and become more pliable as you roll it thinner, and it warms a little).
• Place the dough over the top of your ramekin so it completely covers the edge. Then, give it a quick score on top to allow the escape of steam during cooking, and put it into the oven.
• Let this go for 30-35 minutes until the dough reaches your desired level of brownness/crispiness.
• Plate, devour, and enjoy!