Sunday, March 8, 2015

Chicken Pot Pie

I  started watching a program on PBS about baking,  I was not shocked to realize how little I knew about baking, but I was overwhelmed watching this program and learning how different the English did things in the kitchen.  I had not noticed this in other cooking shows but this one really caught my interest.

I have always felt when I made a chicken pot pie I was doing something wrong.  I totally remember the little pot pies which were frozen and seemed to have 3 small pieces of carrot, 5 green peas, a chunk of something I would consider mystery meat, lots of yellowish liquid and only a top crust.  Mr. Bootsie always felt that a chicken pot pie should have a top and bottom crust.  I have tried to make this and it always turned out a mess.  Too much liquid and taking one slice out, the pie ran out of the crust which was just  discouraging for me.  Mr. Bootsie would say, "It tastes good, just doesn't look like you want it to look.  You can try again,  I am more than happy to keep eating your mistakes."

While watching "The Great British Baking Show", they did a savory pie, out came the spring form pans,  6 inch.  What the heck are they doing?  I had never thought about this.  Then came the talk of a different type of pie crust.  So off I went to do some reading.  Pie crust for pot pies should be 1/3 of an inch thick.  Interesting, I am pondering this, what about the liquid in my filling?  I already knew the answer to this one, as I always add to much liquid.  This I can fix, I think.

There was pot pie filling in the freezer and I decided it was time for me give all of this a try.  First I made my crust using an egg in the pastry.  The bottom crus wast put in the spring form pan and there was plenty of excess to work with.  I thicken the filling and had very little liquid, into the bottom crust this went.  The top crust was rolled out, I cut a circle just a little larger than 6 inches, located the center using a chicken cookie cutter from my childhood I made my cut and then the crust was placed on top of the filling.  The bottom crust was trimmed and was placed over the top crust, this worked and it was time to seal the crust together.  With the trimming I was surprised at how very easy this process was.  Into the oven and 45 minutes later out came a chicken pot pie which made me smile.


I was so pleased when the spring form pan was taken away, my crust was strong enough to hold the savory pie.  I had extra gravy because we do like a moist pot pie.  Now I have found there are 4 inch spring form pans, these will make a personal pot pie.  Taking the time to learn how to do this has added a new meal to our menu and I found out quickly it was enjoyed by all.

During the winter the pace is different, and this year with all the weather I had time to learn how to make a pot pie.

No comments:

Post a Comment