Chicken Pot Pie

I posted Chicken Pot Pie as a Thurday meal over at the February Guide to Caring for Children, it's down at the bottom of the MENU page on Thursday. This is delicious with cranberry sauce or a side salad of braised winter greens with roasted beets and dried cranberries.

This is a simple recipe with five basic steps. Each step can be prepared ahead of time. If you go big with the chicken stock on Monday, use a whole chicken and freeze the extra, you will have stock for this dish too.

1. Make the crust and chill it.
2. Prepare a white sauce
3. Saute the meat and vegetables
4. Assemble
5. Bake

Ingredients:

Crust:

Flour, white, unbleached, unbromated 1 1/2 cups

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

1/4 cup ice water

White Sauce:

Rich chicken stock, 1 quart

1/2 cup flour, unbleached, unbromated

Butter, unsalted

! cup milk

1/3 cup cream

Filling:

Butter, unsalted

Olive oil

Chicken breast, 2 1/2 pounds

Carrots, 3 large cut in rounds

2 large or 3 medium Potatoes

1 cup Peas

Onion, 2 medium

Garlic 3-4 cloves, to taste

thyme

rosemary

sage leaves, 2

Egg Wash:

1 egg

2 Tablespoons water

1. Crust: Set up a little water with some ice cubes or stick in freezer to chill. In food processor, process flour, salt, butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Tiny chunks of butter in the flour makes a flaky crust. Add the ice water and process until the dough comes away from the side, it happens quickly so be attentive, do not form a ball. Put the dough on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper, flatten and refrigerate.
2. White sauce: heat chicken broth to boiling, add two sage leaves, on separate burner, in separate pan, melt five tablespoons of butter in small saucepan, whisk in 1/2 cup of flour, continue whisking until smooth. Add the stock, milk and cream.
3. Filling: Cut the chicken into good size, bite size pieces. Heat sauté pan, drizzle olive oil and small nob of butter, let melt, add onion, garlic, chicken and thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper, sauté. Remove from pan, lightly sauté potatoes, carrots, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary to taste, add peas at very end. 
4. Crust: Put meat and vegetable mixture in a large baking dish and allow to cool. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the crust to about one to one and a half inches greater than the top of the baking dish. Put crust on top and pinch around the edges to form a decorative edge. Cut hole in center for stem to escape. Make small slits too. Design if you wish. 
5. Make the egg wash, whisk egg and water together, lightly brush on top of crust.
6. Bake at 375 for  about 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly on top.

Enjoy!

This is my adaptation of a recipe in the Dean and Deluca Cookbook.