Chicken Pot Pie

I have a favorite Fine Cooking recipe for Chicken pot pie that I usually make in the winter or fall, but a dreary, rainy and a high temperature of 60º day felt just right for a comfort food kind of dinner.   Since we spent most of the day running errands I was short on time for preparation, but it was the perfect opportunity to adapt my favorite recipe.

Michael passed along a Consumer Report article about the  “cheap supermarket chicken” which I pick up for dinner once in a while as do many others.  I was at Sam’s Club and you can always smell the aroma of roasting chickens so I grabbed one for dinner.  It turns out that for around 4 dollars I have 2 dinners or 1 dinner for 4 and 1 chicken salad for lunch.  Not a bad deal at all…

Adapting the recipe was easy roasting all the vegetables that the recipe called for and making a wonderful gravy from the juices in the chicken tray with the addition of a hearty stock made from the chicken carcass thickened with a roux of butter and flour.   I have always used the frozen puff pastry that takes about 30 minutes to thaw out while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

I used a cast iron pan to roast the veggies in…add two cups baby Dutch yellow potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces, 6-8 brown mushroom halved or quartered if they are large mushrooms, 1/2 bag of frozen pearl onions and 4 small to medium carrots sliced into rounds of 1/2 inch pieces.  Toss in the leaves of two sprigs of fresh thyme, about 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh chopped parsley.  Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper, roast for 30-35 minutes or until the carrots

For the Gravy remove chicken from the bones and rough chop the meat for the pie, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble the pie.  Take all of the chicken bones and scraps place in a large saucepan and fill the pot with 6 cups of stock or water.   You can add  1/4 medium onion, 1 chopped small carrot, and a rib of chopped celery if you like, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil , turn down and simmer partially covered for 30-40 minutes.  Strain the broth and reserve.  Make a roux of 4 tablespoons butter and 6 tablespoons butter, whisk and cook over medium high heat for 2 minutes, slowly add 4 cups of broth whisking the entire time.  If you have additional broth add a little at a time until you reach desired thickness of gravy.

My alternate directions:  Toss the vegetables and chicken together.  For one 2 quart square dish  “remove the puff pastry from the refrigerator unfold it on a clean work surface.  Trim the pastry slightly larger than the dish.  Cover the pie with the pastry and brush with  Brush the pastry lightly with egg.  Bake until puffed and very light golden-brown, about 30-40 minutes.  If the crust is owning too quickly cover edges with foil and continue baking until the pie is bubbly hot.

Take a look at the FC recipe link below for the additional puff pastry method as it might be a little easier to handle.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/chicken-vegetable-pot-pie-puff-pastry-crust.aspx

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/cheap-supermarket-chicken/index.htm