Chicken Pot Pie

Made mini chicken pot pies!! A little more work than jut making 1 big pie, but the kids had more fun with this. I had to use 3 Pillsbury pie pastry round dough sheets.  It was also harder to put all the filling in and crimp the edges. Used a 6 large muffin tray, baked the bottom payer for 5 min at 425, then baked the mini pot pies for 30 min at 420. I just froze 2 of these. Hope that they will still taste good after being frozen!  



Crimp the edges of the pie with a fork. My assistant is help with that today!  



Add cooked chicken, peas, carrots, and celery to the bottom pie crust.

Combine chicken broth, butter, onions, milk to make the sauce for the chicken pot pie. Then pour on top of the bottom pie crust filled with the chicken and vegetables.

My kids really like this recipe! And you can definitely make this egg and dairy-free. Put my edits to recipe in red.

Tip- if you need to make for folks with dairy or egg allergy, just sub milk for soy milk, and use Earth’s balance soy butter when cooking onions. Is as yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (or chicken tenders) - cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots (I tend to add a little more carrots and celery than the recipe calls for)
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed (I don’t use this)
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (I use Pillsbury crust. Tried Publix crust once and wasn't quite the same...)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. Put bottom crust on pie dish. Poke several times with a fork, and brush with egg white wash or milk wash. Bake for 5 minutes. I find this helps to make the pie crust crunchy. After pie crust done, turn oven down to 375 degrees.
3. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add chicken broth water to cover and boil for 15 minutes (could even cook for just 10 min). Remove from heat, drain and set aside. Save chicken broth!! You will need 1 ¾ cups of the chicken broth in next step.
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed (I don’t use celery seed). Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Crimp edges of the pie with a fork. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the crust with either an egg white wash or milk wash. The wash gives it a nice brown color. Just make sure to monitor the edges that they don’t burn. If they start turning really brown, then just take it out and cover the edges with aluminum foil. Basic concept for other pies- like apple pie. But with apple or fruit pies, you can sprinkle top with a little granulated sugar to give it a nice crunch.  
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 to 40 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.