Chicken Pot Pie

I know that most of my recipes have been for cupcakes and party food, but I'm starting a new section of the blog. Kitschy Girls Guide To Home Cookin'. I make most everything from scratch or nearly from scratch in my home. I do this for a few reasons. The first being, I want to know what is in my food and I want to limit chemicals and preservatives as much as possible. The second reason is, I find that in most cases the level of difficulty and time involved in a meal directly relates to how good it is for you. A simple piece of grilled chicken and steamed veggies takes hardly any time at all, where as a chicken pot pie or eggplant parmesan takes considerably longer. This works out perfectly for me and my family because it helps keep us in line with moderation. If you eat chicken pot pie every night for dinner, you will eventually look like a stick of butter, but who has time to make it every night anyway. Once I had chicken pot pie made form scratch, I could never buy it frozen again, and that's just fine by me.

                                                                  Chicken Pot Pie

Crust
2 sticks of butter chopped and frozen
2 1/2 cups flour (plus some for dusting)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 teaspoons ice water

If you have a food processor add frozen butter, flour and salt together and process until they are the consistency of course meal. If you don't have a food processor, I have been using my hands. I was surprised at how well this actually works, don't be afraid of it.
Add vanilla and continue to work together either with your hands or with your processor. Do not over work the dough, you want little chunks of butter in the dough to help it stay light and crispy. Add the water a little at a time and continue to work the dough until all the water is added. Separate the dough in to two balls and put it in a ziploc bag in your refrigerator. You can do this the night before, or a few hours before. In all honesty I usually do it all at once and the dough only sits in my fridge for about an hour.

Filling
1/2lb of boneless skinless chicken
1 bag of frozen vegetables (10 or so ounces) I prefer the mix that has corn, green beans, lima beans, and carrots.
3 to 4 cups of chicken broth
poultry seasoning

cut and season chicken and place it in a deep saute pan or a sauce pan with frozen veggies. Cover with chicken broth until everything is submerged. Cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, drain and set aside.

Sauce
5 1/2 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Season Salt
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Season Pepper
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted butter (for pie crust)
tin foil

Preheat oven to 425.  Melt butter in a sauce pan and add onion. Cook onion until tender, add garlic. Add flour and whisk until thick. Add chicken broth and spices. Add milk and bring to a simmer. Let mixture simmer until thick (about 10 minutes)

While you sauce is thickening grease and flour a pie pan. Roll out your dough on to a lightly floured surface. Place the bottom in to the pie tin and fill with chicken and veggies. Roll out the top of the pie and using a cookie cutter (if you'd like) stamp out the center for ventilation.





Once your sauce has thickened, pour it over the chicken and veggies, place the dough on the top of the pie and seal the edges with a fork.
Brush pie with melted butter and cover edges with tin foil. Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is browned and sauce is bubbly.
Let stand for 10 minutes and serve.