Chicken Pot Pie

I have no idea why I decided to try making chicken pot pie. The only time I’d ever eaten it was at the dining hall in college. I had a recipe bookmarked, probably because it was a featured recipe one day, and randomly decided that I needed to give it a try. So I did.

Start off with a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small pieces. With mine, this was something like 2 chicken breasts. The rest went in the freezer.

Then cut up some carrots and celery.

I put the chicken into a saucepan.

Topped it with the carrots and celery

And some frozen peas.

Then I covered everything with water and cooked it for a while.

While that cooked, I melted some butter in a big skillet.

Added some chopped onions and sautéed it for a while.

When the onions were translucent, I added a bit of flour.

Along with salt, pepper, and celery seed.

Then as it cooked, I slowly added both milk and chicken broth, whisking and cooking until it was creamy and thick.

Then I explored my store-bought pie crusts. Should have used homemade, but didn’t feel like doing all that. I unrolled the first without reading the package, and it cracked in the process.

Trying to prevent that, I nuked the second one for 20 or 30 seconds, as per the directions. That was a mistake, as it softened so much that it was impossible to unroll. This is what I ended up with.

By this point, the chicken and veggies were done, so I drained them and put them in my pie shell.

And then I topped it with my cream sauce.

Then I tried to figure out how to get my smooshed pie crust on top of it. I managed to pry it off the cutting board and got it onto a plate.. but then I had to repair the tears and rips, so it was stuck to the plate.

This was my best idea.

I had to use a spatula to get the pie crust on the chicken pot pie, it looked like this. I tried to seal the edges, but cream sauce leaked and ended up on top. I tried to vent the shell, too, but only ended up with puddles of cream sauce. I decided to quit ruining dinner and put it in the oven without any more tweaks.

Not bad, not bad!

Okay, yes, it’s leaking, and yes, it’s a bit dark on the edges, but the golden brown is pretty awesome. If I’d made my own pie crusts, I would have had much more success, but this isn’t bad.

I felt the need to take a picture of the first cut. I guess it was a magical moment.

It was goopy and difficult to serve, but I know that’s because I couldn’t wait to cut into it, like I should have.

But it sure was tasty. Really, really good. Hubby told me that this is how chicken pot pie is supposed to taste, so I guess that means I did it right.

I think I’ll be adding this to the rotation.