Chicken Pot Pie

My husband loves chicken pot pie. I like it in that it's easy to pre-cook and I can use leftover chicken or less expensive cuts of chicken (i.e. thighs) and he does not notice. The past few times I've made it though, it just seemed to be so much WORK- too much chopping, too many pans dirtied. I went as far as declaring I would no longer make it myself (I won't say from scratch since I wasn't rolling out pastry or anything). I decided I would just buy the frozen premade pies and be done with it.

I never quite got around to buying those premade things. I went to the grocery store yesterday and brought home some other chicken for dinner. My husband saw it, and promptly scarfed it for LUNCH. Can I tell you how much I HATE when he does that???? Lunch around here is leftovers or a sandwhich or something from the cupboard- nothing fancy and certainly NOT what I am planning for dinner! I played it cool though and didn't say anything- food is for eating, the time isn't really ALL that important, right? Except now I had no dinner plan... I checked out the fridge- I had some leftover baked chicken from Sunday night and hubs had just commented on chicken pot pie...

I did a little Swag Bucks search and found this Rachael Ray recipe. I combined that with the Alton Brown Good Eats recipe I usually use and came up with the below recipe. It was EASY, quick, involoved no chopping and dirtied exactly one pot and one casserole dish. WOO HOO!!!!! It was also yummy and comforting. So here is my new and improved Chicken Pot Pie recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie

4 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Flour
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1/2 Cup milk (I used 2% with no problem)
Salt and Pepper
1- 1/2 tsp Brown Mustard
Sprinkle of Poultry Seasoning
2 cups cooked chicken (or turkey)
1-1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (the kind with peas, carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry or tube Pillsbury Crecent Rolls

Heat a small skillet over medium heat with 4 tablespoons butter. When the butter has melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the stock and milk and season with salt and pepper. Cook the sauce, whisking often, for a couple of minutes until is has thickened up, then stir in the mustard and poultry seasoning and remove pan from heat. Add in the chicken and frozen vegetables. Stir to combine. Spread into casserole dish.

You can make it up to this point, then pop it in the fridge to cook later. That's what I did- I made it while the baby napped, then heated it back up in the oven at dinner time. When I worked outside the house, I used to make my pot pie to this point, then leave it overnight. My husband would finish it when he got home.

When you are ready to cook the pie, get your puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw for about 30 minutes on the counter top until it softens up. Also get your casserole out of the fridge so that it can come closer to room temp before you pop it in the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a small buscuit cutter, cut out circles of puff pastry and place on top the chicken pot pie. If you are using crescent rolls, just unroll and place on top of the pie. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. You might want to alter that for the crescent rolls- this was the timing for the puff pastry though.

My husband is a big fan of the puff pastry on top the pie. I think that it's expensive and not all that much more special than crescent rolls. I had some left over, so that's why we used it last night. I think that in the future, I will get crescent rolls. I've tried making it with a homemade drop buscuit crust and he wasn't a fan of that, but your family might be. I hope that you find this recipe as easy and yummy as I did!