Sunday, November 15, 2015

Chicken Pot Pie- pretty simple and freezer friendly!

For the life of me I can't find where I got this from, so please know this is NOT mine... I just don't know who to give credit to!

Here's what whoever wrote:
INGREDIENTS
·         1 cup chopped onion
·         1 cup chopped celery
·         1 cup chopped carrot
·         ⅓ cup butter or margarine
·         ½ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
·         2 cups chicken broth
·         1 cup half and half or evaporated milk (I personally use skim or 1% milk and it’s still good!)
·         2 cups chicken, cooked, chopped
·         1 cup frozen peas, thawed
·         1 tsp. salt
·         ½ tsp. pepper
·         4 unbaked pie crusts (homemade or store-bought)
Order Ingredients

INSTRUCTIONS
TO MAKE FILLING
1.     Saute the first 3 ingredients in butter in a big skillet over medium heat until tender. Add flour; stir until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth and half & half/evap. milk; cook, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly.
2.     Stir in chicken, peas, salt, and pepper. Cool before pouring into pie crusts. VERY important!
FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS:
1.     At this point you may freeze the filling in a labeled freezxeer safe container/bag. To prepare from frozen, read instructions below.
2.     Or you may also assemble the whole pie and freeze whole.
3.     To do that, prepare crusts. Roll them out and place the bottom crusts in the pie plates and set aside the top crusts until ready to cover. Pour filling mixture into bottom crusts and cover with top crusts. Fold edges under and crimp. Poke slits in the top (you can make a nice pattern here too!)
4.     Cover with foil, label and freeze. See below for preparation instructions
TO PREPARE POT PIE FROM FRESH
1.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.     Prepare crusts. Roll them out and place the bottom crusts in the pie plates and set aside the top crusts until ready to cover. Pour filling mixture into bottom crusts and cover with top crusts. Fold edges under and crimp. Poke slits in the top (you can make a nice pattern here too!)
3.     Bake assembled pie uncovered, for 30-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
TO PREPARE POT PIE FROM FROZEN
1.     Thaw filling in refrigerator. You might need to stir or mush the filling together to combine well and reincorporate. Assemble as described above and bake accordingly. OR you may bake the whole pie from frozen.
2.     To do so, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3.     Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake 30 more minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Serves 16 (from two pies--if you're just making one pie it will just serve 8).
4.     Freezes very well separately or fully prepared in the crust. Try them both and see which way you prefer!

 Maybe Pioneer Woman?  No idea.  It was a doc on my computer we decided to finally try.  

Here's what we did differently and what we thought!

1. We baked both pies that it made fresh and just had pot pie for a million meals in a row.  It was pretty yummo so that wasn't really a problem.  It reheated just fine, which is perfect for taking lunches!
2. She said she used milk, so we used the milk we had which is Horizon's organic whole milk with DHA added.  It's pretty thick so it worked really well.
3. We used the frozen pie crusts that come 2 to a pack.  I let them thaw and then used the second one as the top.  That way we had the pan and bottom crust ready and then I could easily manipulate the other crust as a top for the pie.  
4. It didn't really specify how to cook the chicken, so we just sort of diced it and then cooked it up in butter.
5. There was ONE flavor that was just not quite right.  So far, we're thinking it was the carrots.  We used large regular carrots and next time I think we'll use the little baby carrots so that we won't get that bitter note that we felt was there.  It was really subtle but it was just not quite right. 

I do plan to freeze one the next time we make them, but I'm glad we had lots this time!  Here are a few pics I snapped on my phone as I cooked so you could see consistency along the way.  (That's always one of my things I need to see from a recipe.)

Please let me know if you make it and what you think!!


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