My Chicken Pot Pie

 Hello everybody. if there is anyone out there. :)

I think it was about time to blog about the original path I wanted my blog to go to. Seems only fair for "readers" to not be fooled by my description of this blog and there isn't any other way to prove it and blog about one of the peoples go-to comfort foods ever since Stepford wives existed!

Chicken Pot Pie

I've been so pressed up with sweets that this Sunday I decided to go with something more Savory! And I was craving for some Chicken Pot Pie.

The dilemma (again) was I didn't have a bad ass recipe in my handy dandy notebookssss so I opted to experiment again! Yes! Even with the crust (though this was quite a gamble as the crust usually makes or breaks your pie. It is, however, the highlight of the dish that's why its in the name of the dish, duh, d'oh! good thing it played to my favor! Success!)

Do keep in mind that you can put mushrooms in the filling, the only reason why my mushrooms were outside the pie is my sister came home too late for dinner and she was the one who I asked to buy me mushrooms at the shops (thanks Nez! haha)

It did however turn out nice, as the mushroom sauteed separately in butter gave it another texture and a depth of flavor so I do also recommend to do this for garnish or a side for your pie! This does go well with white wine if you want to go posh! I would pair it with a cold iced tea! Southern Style!

Do not be afraid with pie crusts, they are so good when made from scratch. I do not believe in ready made stuff. Only for puff pastry (cause its so darn hard to make puff pastry without the fancy equipment!) Pie crusts, even for your banoffee pies, blueberry pies and tarts are always ALWAYS good from scratch so make them!

In school, they would teach you the Pate Brisee, Sucree yada yada yada. In America they would teach you Pastry Crusts. Don't be Mr./Ms. Know-It-All and go on with the brisee's and sucree's an avid eater doesnt really care what they are called, they would just tell you "the pie crust"  for a savory pie or the "sweet crust" for a dessert pie. So since I'm making a savory dish this will be a Pie Crust. end of dilemma!

I'll divide the recipe in 3 parts so you can Mise en Place properly.

this makes 1 whole 8 inch Pie Pan.

So you'll be needing:

 For the Chicken:

1/2 Kilo of Chicken Breast, cut into med. sized cubes

3 cloves of Garlic, minced finely made it into a paste

1/2 of an onion, minced finely made into a paste

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (or as I call it my Condiment of the Month! Haha)

Filling:

180g  Frozen Peas

2 Medium Sized Carrots, peeled and cubed

2 Medium Sized Onions, cubed

200ml Heavy Cream

100g Water

2 tbsp Water

1/2 C mushrooms. (can be canned or fresh)

Good quality cheese. lots of it! I'm using cheddar.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pie Crust

200g All Purpose Flour

115g Butter unsalted and cubed

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 Tablespoons of Heavy Cream

1 egg yolk

1 Teaspoon Salt

A pinch of Sugar

Procedure:

preheat your oven to 350deg F

brace yourself and smile! :)

First up is your chicken, easy, once cubed, just give it some love and rub all those salts and Worcestershire on it and leave it to let the flavors marry with each other. for the pastes, just mince finely then incorporate salt a pinch a time. You can also do this with a mortar and pestle.

While that's happening, in a food processor add all of the ingredients for the pie crust and pulse until it forms into a ball! get 2 wax free papers and sandwich the dough ball and flatten out just a bit then refrigerate for at least 30 mins to let it rest and firm up a bit.

Now our filling.

Carrots! Peeled then cubed. Can you spot the heart? <3

I bought a "mestiza" onion. well thats what they
call it in the palengke. Its an almost white almost red onion
Cute!

Hearts everywhere!

Peas, thawed out with garlic. sorry couldnt
make hearts out of peas nor garlic! hehe

Once everything is prepped, in a pan, saute onions, garlic for a minute or two then add your carrots, then mushrooms. after 2 minutes once the veggies are a bit sauteed up, add your chicken just to get a sear on it. 

Now add the cream and water let it semi-boil for about 8-10 mins just till some of the liquid evaporates.

Test your carrots if it has soften a bit then add your peas. taste! its always best to taste so you would know if you need to put more salt. but definitely add some pepper!

a 15-20 minute mark it should be a semi- creamy consistency now, taste and once the taste is perfect then seal the deal with 2 tablespoons of flour. stir til creamy-creamy! :D

Set aside to cool.

Now once you've stretched your arms and warmed up, take out the rolling pin and take out from the fridge your pastry crust.

Roll your pastry crust out to half an inch thickness, still sandwiched in the wax paper. then just peel off one of the paper, dunk it in the pan and voila! saved a countertop cleaning and flour! McGuyver style! 

clean the sides and save the remaining dough for the top of your pastry!

Score your dough by piercing it with a fork.

"blind bake" means just to semi bake so you create a seal so once you put the filling it wont make the crust soggy. So blind bake for about 8 minutes.

assembling part!

add all the filling in your blind baked crust, still in the pan.

grate as much cheese as you want! fabulous!

then add on top the remaining  dough you saved earlier. go creative! Plus points if you put the names of the people who are going to eat it! 

you can egg wash. its up to you. :)

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry on top is golden brown! And serve up!

The mushrooms on the side is just about 8 pieces of fresh mushrooms (you can use button mushrooms as well) sauteed in a knob of butter.

Sorry I dont have a picture of it in the pie pan.
It smelled so good, everyone was hungry,
i bet you know what happened right after it came out of the oven! haha!

I loved the crust!

So thats my pie! A good tip though, people love to find that crust at the bottom of the pie where all of the creamy goodness of the filling is quite soaked up! so might as well thicken the bottom pie crust a bit. Go experiment! 

Dessert was a nice and one dessert I am known for and that is Creme brulee! One of these days I will post the recipe and invest in a blow torch! It can do wonders!

creme brulee, to end the day..

hows your sunday?

x