Dice your chicken like this

So, I decided to move away from pasta for this post. I’m not completely done with it - I still have another pasta post on its way, but the next 2 posts (not including this) are not going to include pasta in any way or form. After all, there’s only so much of the stuff you can eat!

I saw a pie sitting in a bakery window and thought why not? Rather than make a fruit pie, similar to the one I saw, I decided to make an old favourite of mine - Chicken Pot Pie. 

For Chicken Pot Pie, you’re going to need : 

• 100ml of olive oil
•  500 grams of chicken breast, diced
• 2 large onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery
• 1 small bag of frozen peas
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1/4~ cup of flour
• 1/2 carton of cream (small)
• A few pinches of thyme
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Pie crust to line a bowl/pie dish
• 1 egg

Brown your chicken

Despite the long list of ingredients, it’s not too difficult to make a mouth watering pie. 

Start off by slicing your chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan and toss your chicken in when the oil is nice and hot. Brown the chicken - ideally 6 minutes per side but you can stretch this a little further if you’ve cut your chicken into bigger pieces.  Be sure to season each side of chicken with salt and pepper. 

Mix it all together!

While the chicken is being browned, dice your onions, carrots and celery into cubes. Once your chicken has been browned, put it aside and toss your diced veggies into the pan along with some thyme. If you’ve got some fond (chicken bits stuck to the pan), that’s not a a problem. If anything, it’ll add more flavour to your filling. Again, season the vegetables with salt and pepper or you’ll end up with bland filling. Once you’ve mixed the vegetables with the thyme and seasoning, coat them lightly in flour and stir your vegetables to get a nice even coating. 

For your broth, you can make it from scratch, but I had neither the time nor the inclination to do that. Instead, take 2 large stock cubes (or 4 small ones) and put them in a cup of hot water. Stir thoroughly to ensure you have no lumps and that should be your broth done. Pour it into the pan with the vegetables and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Dump the filling into the pie 

While the pot is simmering, it’s time to get the pie crust ready. I, unfortunately couldn’t find any piecrust in the supermarkets. What I did find was Samosa shells, so thats what I used. I layered samosa shells on top of each other, separating each layer with a coat of egg wash.  Egg wash is simply a beaten egg that can be brushed onto the pastry layers. If you’re using Samosa shells like I did, be sure to have at least 3 layers of shell for the base and walls. 

Sealed up and ready to bake!

By now, your pie filling should have simmered for about 10 minutes. Pour your cream in, give it a mix and toss in the peas and the chicken you browned earlier. Don’t worry if your peas are frozen, they’ll thaw in the heat of the oven. Your pie filling is now complete! 

Heat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius and pour your pie filling into the piecrust/samosa monstrosity you made a few paragraphs ago. Cover the filling to seal it off and put it in the oven for half an hour. As with the base, be sure to have at least 3 layers of samosa shell all painted with egg wash between the layers.

The final product!

I’m not the biggest fan of celery, so the next time I make this, I’ll probably use a little less celery and compensate with onions and carrots, which I happen to love. However, you’re free to change the vegetables around, within reason of course. I highly doubt adding, say, tomatoes to this would end well. As always, if you’re going to make this yourself, please do let me know! I’d love to hear about other people replicating whatever I write about and adding their own twist to it!

Bonus shot!