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Chicken pot pies and I have a love-hate relationship.

I’m absolutely in love with it, but I also know how bad it can be for you… the crust requires butter. The filling also requires butter and some sort of a heavy cream. Annnnddd… it’s super time consuming. But man, is it the ultimate comfort food or what?!

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Chilly weather, warm oversized hoodies, fireplaces, and individualized chicken pot pies…. YES please!

Imagine the moment you stick your fork into the light, flaky, buttery crust… you’re greeted by the warm filling filled with all kinds of yummy goodness –  chunks of chicken, carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, corn, and broccoli florets. Make sure you get a little bit of everything if possible… as you savor the different textures that’s in every single bite, you can feel the the warmth of the pie filling warming your insides as it makes way to your stomach. This is exactly why I love having a hot bowl of soup in the frigid Minnesota winter.

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The past few times I’ve made pot pies, I’ve always made my crust from scratch. However, since I’m typically trying to get six things done at once nowadays, I opted for the easy way out this time and used pre-made pie crust instead… tsk tsk. However, to “balance” out the amount of butter I used, I used skim milk instead of heavy cream… just to make myself feel a little bit better about it.

First I poached the chicken. You can by all means use pre-cooked diced chicken breast if you’re strapped on time, but I find fresh chicken to be better than the processed stuff. Place the chicken in a casserole dish, fill it with 3 cups of boiling water, cover it with foil, and cook it in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Take the chicken out to cool on a cutting board, and use the same water that’s left on the dish to poach/cook your peeled and halved potatoes, about 30 minutes. Dice up the chicken and potatoes once they’re cooled, but keep them in separate dishes.

The reason you keep them separate is because you’ll be covering the bottom of your ramekin with the potatoes. This is because if you add the already cooked potatoes while you’re making and stirring the filling, you’re probably going to mash the potatoes up even more in the process… and no one wants mushy mashed potato/pot pie filling in their chicken pot pies.

While I was cooking/cooling/dicing up the chicken and potatoes, I took out my frozen pre-made pie crust out to thaw. Once thawed, remove the pie crusts from the foil baking dish it came in, onto a floured surface. Roll the dough into a big ball, then roll it out with a rolling pin until it’s about 1/8″ thick. Next, using a bowl that’s slightly bigger in diameter than the ramekins you’ll be using, place the bowl upside down the onto the dough, and trace an outline of it with a knife. This is going to be your pie crust. Use the scraps of dough to roll it back into a ball, and repeat the process until you have about 6-7 pie crusts (we have 8-oz ramekins and two pre-made pie crusts yielded seven 5″ crusts). Stack the crusts together, with either a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap in between each one. Return to fridge to chill while you’re making the filling.

chicken pot pie
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Ingredients
  1. 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  2. 2 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and halved the long way
  3. 7 tablespoons butter, divided
  4. 3 medium sized carrots, peeled and diced
  5. 3-4 stalks of celery, diced
  6. 1 small yellow onion, diced
  7. 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  8. Salt and black pepper
  9. 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  10. 1.5 cups skim milk
  11. 1 cup broccoli florets, roughly chopped
  12. 1/2 cup frozen corn
  13. 1 tablespoon dried parsley
  14. 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
  15. 2 frozen pre-made pie crusts (usually a package you find at the store has 2 crusts)
  16. 6 to 7 (8-oz) ramekins
Instructions
  1. Take frozen pie crust out to thaw. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
To cook the chicken
  1. Place the chicken breasts in a glass baking/casserole dish. Add 3 cups of boiling water to the chicken and cover with aluminum foil. Cook in oven at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Remove chicken onto cutting board to cool, then dice into bite-sized pieces. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
To make the potatoes
  1. Using the same dish with the same water you used to cook the chicken, add the potatoes, cover with foil, and cook at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until fork tender. Transfer to cutting board and let cool. Cut into bite-sized pieces and transfer to another bowl.
Make the pie crust
  1. On a floured surface, remove pie crusts from aluminum baking dishes. Combine the two pie crusts and roll into a dough ball. Using a rolling pin, roll until dough is about 1/8" thick. Find a bowl that's slightly larger in diameter than the ramekins you'll be using. Place the bowl upside down onto the dough, and trace an outline of the bowl with a knife. Combine the scraps of dough and roll it back into a ball. Repeat steps to get as many discs of crusts as you can. Stack the crusts onto a plate, separating each crust with a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Return to fridge to chill.
Make the filling
  1. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the carrots, celery, and onion and cook until onions are translucent. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir.
  2. Add in the rest of the 4 tablespoons of butter into the vegetable mixture. Once the butter has completely melted, stir in the flour. Stir continuously to make sure the bottom of your pot doesn't burn. Cook flour for 1-2 minutes.
  3. Add in the chicken broth and milk to the vegetables. Cook until mixture starts to thicken, about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add in the diced chicken, broccoli florets, corn, dried parsley, thyme, another 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Continue to simmer until all the vegetables are cooked. Once filling is thickened and vegetables are cooked, remove pot from heat and let cool for 20-30 minutes.
To assemble
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease six 8-oz ramekins. Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet.
  2. Add chunks of potatoes onto the bottom of each ramekin, enough to cover the bottom. Spoon the cooled filling mixture over the potatoes, filling each ramekin to the brim. Placed the pie dough you made earlier over the top, crimping the edges. Make several slits with a knife for ventilation.
  3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until crust turns golden brown.
  4. Remove ramekins from oven, let cool for 5-10 minutes and serve.
Adapted from Simply Scratch
Adapted from Simply Scratch
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
See?! Told you pot pies are time consuming. But I promise it’s totally worth it in the end!! :)

It will be important that you cool the filling down a bit before ladling them into the ramekins and topping them with the dough. This is because if the filling is steaming hot, it could melt your dough and your crust won’t be able to hold its shape while baking.

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This chicken pot pie is TO. DIE. FOR. The filling is creamy and the crust is buttery and flaky. Although the entire process took about 3 hours to complete, the final product sure didn’t disappoint! I’d happily do that all over again tomorrow if I had the time.

Also, just as a warning – the filling will be super hot when it comes out of the oven, so as difficult as it is to sit and wait and be tortured by the smells, letting it cool for a bit before eating is highly recommended! Burnt tongues ruin the enjoyment of eating pot pies, that’s for sure.

Recipe adapted from Simply Scratch

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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Apple pie. It’s as American as baseball, NASCAR, and country music.

(Yes, I love all of the above)

Plus, now you can make it just in time for the 4th of July holiday!

A few weeks ago when I made my key lime pie bars, I mentioned that during my break from work and school, I was going to muster up the courage and attempt to make my first ever pie.

Well, since my “days left of vacation” are dwindling down to single digits, I figured what better time than this weekend. The pie isn’t going to make itself, right?

As I was assembling my pie together, I remembered why I never made pies in the first place – they are just way too much work and take so much time! It’s definitely not something to make on a regular basis when you work and go to school full time, that’s for sure. Even though it was pretty dang worth it in the end.

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First you have to make the filling. Peeling and slicing 4 pounds of apples was not fun.

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Then you have to make the dough. This step wouldn’t have been so difficult if our food processor could hold more than 1 cup of flour at a time. I figured, “oh I’m sure it can fit 2.5 cups of flour and 4 tablespoons of shortening and 1.5 sticks of butter so let me just try to fit everything in there and pulse it together.

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Of course it wasn’t that easy: flour went everywhere and nothing was getting pulsed and mixed the way they were supposed to. Instead of a simple 10-minute process, I think it took me about 40 minutes fighting with the food processor to make the pie dough.

Needless to say, my dough-making process involved a lot of swearing, “ugh”‘s from annoyance, and thoughts about giving up and buying pre-made pie crust instead.

In the end, I persevered and showed the pie gods a tiny food processor wasn’t going to hinder my making-pie-for-the-first-time spirit.

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After the dough was made, it needed to chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Then they needed to be rolled out into two 12″ discs. Well, this step proved to be quite a challenge for me too. First my pie dough kept sticking to my work surface (I think I wasn’t generous enough with the flour), then parts of the dough stuck to my rolling pin, leaving little holes in my crust. After a small battle (and a little bit more cursing), I assembled my pie together, only to find out I forgot to dot the chilled filling with the two additional tablespoons of melted butter before covering the pie up with the other disc of dough.

UGGGHHHHHHH.

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Well, I guess I just inadvertently made this pie a little bit healthier, because I sure wasn’t about to take that thing apart and do it all over again. Now I won’t feel as guilty later when I go back for seconds (or put an extra scoop of ice cream on it).

classic apple pie
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For the pie dough
  1. 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
  2. 4 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
  3. 2 teaspoons sugar
  4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  5. 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  6. 1.5 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
For the filling
  1. 4 pounds of mixed apples (I used Granny Smiths and Gala apples), peeled and cored
  2. 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  3. 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  4. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  5. 2 tablespoons flour, plus more for dusting
  6. 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  8. 1 large egg, beaten
To make the pie dough
  1. Pulse the flour, shortening, sugar, vinegar, and salt in a food processor until it turns into a fine meal. Add the small cubes of butter and pulse. Add 1/4 cups of ice water and pulse until the dough begins to come together. Add in an addition 1-4 tablespoons of ice water (one tablespoon at a time), if the dough doesn't seem like it's holding together.
  2. Divide the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and pat into discs.
  3. Wrap tightly and chill in fridge for an hour, preferably overnight.
To make the filling
  1. Slice the apples into 1/4" thick slices. Transfer into a large bowl and toss with lemon juice and sugar.
  2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the apples and cook until softened, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the flour, cinnamon, and salt. Stir until sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Set aside and let cool completely.
To assemble the pie
  1. Roll out one disc of dough onto a well-floured work surface into a 12" round. Carefully transfer to a 9" pie plate. Add in the cooled filling.
  2. Roll out the other disc of dough into a 12" round. Lay the dough over the filling and press the two crusts together. Trim the edges if needed and crimp with your fingers.
  3. Brush the top of the crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Cut a few slits on the top crust to allow steam to escape. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
  4. Meanwhile, place a baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees for at least 30 minutes. Put the pie directly on the hot baking sheet and reduce temperature to 375 degrees.
  5. Bake until the pie is golden and filling is bubbly, about 60-70 minutes, rotating the pie several times throughout.
  6. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool until the filling is set (about 2-3 hours).
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
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Despite all the technical difficulties experienced, the pie turned out to be a success! Not only does it taste great, it’s actually a pretty good looking pie for my very first ever attempt! (If I may say so myself…)

I’ll be honest, the thing that bothered me the most throughout this whole process were the 5 slits on the top crust not being evenly spaced.

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…It’s just part of my OCDness. At least once I cut out the first slice, it didn’t bother me as much anymore.

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Now that I know I can make a pie, I think I’ll stick with cookies, cupcakes, truffles, and other individual-sized desserts for now.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

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