Chicken Pot Pie

After making the pie crust, I needed to make the chicken pot pie filling. I'd never successfully made a chicken pot pie before, but I knew it needed chicken (obviously) and some mixed vegetables. I thought I'd throw some chopped onion in as well for additional flavor, and since there were already carrots and onion in the mix, I thought some celery would also go well. However, since I didn't have any, I substituted celery seed. I also threw in some oregano and bay leaves for good measure. The primary difference I made this time was that I just used gravy instead of using cornstarch and some combination of water, stock, milk, or cream as a thickener. I'm not sure why that made such a huge difference since gravy is basically drippings, corn starch, and some combination of water, milk, or cream, but it really did. Once the filling was complete, all that remained was making the crust. Although there's a wide variety of crusts available, I wanted to make an all butter pie crust, or pâté brisée, because that's what I think of as going with chicken pot pie, and I have it say, it was worth the effort! The entire apartment also smelled delicious while baking this pie!

Chicken Pot Pie

by CJ Huang

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
	1 pound			chicken, cooked and shredded
			2	onions, chopped
		1/2 teaspoon		oregano
			2	bay leaves, crushed
		2 cups		gravy	I wanted a drier pot pie so that not all the filling would come out, but if you wanted a more moist filling, you could add more gravy.
		1/2 teaspoon		celery seed	I didn't have any celery, but you could use 3 stalks (chopped) instead.
	12 ounces			mixed vegetables	I used carrots, corn, green beans, peas, and lima beans.
		1/4 teaspoon		pepper
			1	pie crust, bottom crust prebaked, top crust unbaked	I used carrots, corn, green beans, peas, and lima beans.

Methods:

1. Mix onions with gravy and cook until onions are translucent.
2. Add all remaining ingredients except pie crust and mix well over medium heat.
3. Pour filling into prebaked bottom crust, and form unbaked top crust over filling.
4. Poke some holes with a fork or cut some slits in the top crust before baking.
5. Bake at 350F until warmed through and top crust flaky.