P is for PIE!

I love pie more than cake, or ice cream, or brownies, or even a chocolate bar.  Pie is my favorite dessert.

Recently, however, I made a chicken pie that my husband and I ate in two sittings.  He ate a quarter of this pie the first night.

I combined several recipes for chicken pot pie and made a simple version.  I'm all about simple.

It starts with a store-bought pie crust (like the Pillsbury rolled crusts) and cooked/shredded chicken (I used some leftover rotisserie chicken from Walmart, which was delish.)  Rolled pie crusts come two in a package.  Perfect.   You can make your own pie crust if you prefer, but I never have luck with that.  If you can make a good pie crust, you get an A+ from the Ballpark.

Roll out one crust in a pie pan, like so...

Don't worry about uneven edges.  You're going to scrunch it with the top crust anyway.

In a large sauce pan or dutch oven, saute:

2 T. olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 stalks celery sliced (include some leaves, if you love the celery flavor)

When veggies are just soft (remember they'll bake some more in the oven), sprinkle over the veggies 4 heaping T. flour.  Stir the veggies until the flour is absorbed.  Slowly stir in 1 C. milk (I use skim) and 1 C. chicken or vegetable broth (I use the stuff in the box, but you can certainly use homemade.)  Stir gently until mixture bubbles and thickens.

Stir in some frozen peas, as many as you like.  I added a couple handfuls.  Stir in 1 t. dried thyme and 1 t. dried basil.  And salt and pepper to taste. 

Stir and simmer a little more until mixture is smooth and looks like this...

Dump in your chicken, as much as you like.  I used about 1 and 1/2 cups.  Stir it all together.  

The more solids you have, the thicker the broth will be; fewer veggies and chicken, the thinner the broth will be.

Spoon this creamy filling into your pie shell.

Cover with the top crust.  On the edges, fold the top dough over the lower dough.  Press them together as you go.  You want to seal in the pie juice.

Gently go around the pie pan again, pressing the edges against the pan, giving an extra seal and creating a pretty trim. 

Make a few slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.

Bake according to the pie crust directions on the box.  Keep in mind the innards of the pie are already cooked; you're just baking the crust.  Keep an eye on it and remove it when it's a dark golden.

Let the pie rest at least 15 minutes before slicing.  Otherwise, the juices will run out.  As the pie sits, the juices thicken a bit.

This is even better the next day.  If you have any leftover the next day.

P is for PIE!!!!!