A Tale of Two Pies, Pt.1: A Chicken in Every Pot Pie

Look at that picture.     LOOK AT IT.  Don’t you want to eat that?   Yeah, so did we.  Lousy food photographers over at Southern Living.

Too often chicken pot pies are just a weird chicken soup with a bit of puff pastry plastered on top.  In our mind, a proper pot pie should be encased in delicious crust. The crust is the thing, wherein we’ll catch the conscious of the chicken.



This is a very ready-made type recipe.  We aren’t above it, here at Chez Venza.  Frozen peas. Pre-cut matchstick carrots.  Frozen hash browns.  Pre-sliced mushrooms.  Pre-mixed Cajun seasoning.  Pre-made pie crust.  And the cruelest bit… a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.  We could have done all of this on our own.   But we didn’t.  Still delicious.  So delicious.  



We did, however, make our own sauce.  This is a simple roux of butter, flour, homemade chicken stock, and creole seasoning.



In a dutch oven, sauteing onions and mushrooms.



Then we add the carrots, frozen peas, frozen hashbrowns, rotisserie chicken, fresh parsley, and the sauce we made earlier.



Using a seasoned cast-iron skillet and a pre-made pastry crust, we fill the pie.  Pre-made pastry crust is easy and tasty, but it's designed for a slightly smaller vessel (i.e. a pie pan).  As a result, the bottom layer felt a little thin.  In any case, we added a top layer of crust and then baked it.



Looks just as good as the Southern Living version, right?  The crust…brown and crusty.  The filling…thick and flavorful.  A slice of this pie, with a little hot sauce on top (although my wife doesn’t think that’s necessary) and you are in heaven!