There’s a chill in the air, trees are putting on their fall finery, sunrise is later- sunset is earlier. It’s the time of year when you wear a sweater in the morning and hot coco is sounding better and better. It’s the time of year when comfort food is on the menu, and what could be more comforting than a hot Chicken Pot Pie? Rich gravy, steaming vegetables, flaky crust, succulent chicken- wow, I’m making myself hungry, so let’s get started. This recipe is one that has 3 different ways to prepare it: complex, moderate, and super easy. We will focus on the middle ground, but I will tell you where the easy button is.

Pie Crust

•2 cups AP flour

•½ cup butter flavored shortening

•¼ cup butter

•½ teaspoon salt

•Cold water

To make a super flakey crust, we are going to do what is called a laminate dough. This is the method used to do a pastry dough, but we won’t go quite that far.

Dave Frank

This requires a pastry knife to really do well, you know – the weird looking thing with 5 curved blades and a handle, looks like the letter D! These are available at nearly any store; our local specialty kitchen stores are more than happy to hook you up. Place your flour and salt in a medium bowl, add the shortening and butter- you want to use small bits at a time-and chop it up with the pastry knife. The goal here is to end up with pea sized pieces of your fats, each coated with flour-but be careful not to go too fine with the size, you want to see the pieces. Now is the most important step, place the bowl in the freezer for 20 minutes or so. Now, using your fingers, mix in cold water a little at a time, gently stirring it in until it clumps up. Don’t over mix it- you want it to barely stick together in a ball. Now wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, we will start on the sauce.

Supreme sauce

•¼ cup butter

•1/2 cup flour

•Stock-   2 Tablespoons chicken base (better than bullion brand)-   2 cups hot water

This is a sauce based on one of our mother sauces-velouté sauce. We start by melting butter in a medium saucepan and whisking in the flour to create a roux. You want to cook the roux over low heat, whisking frequently. Once it develops a light tan color (you will notice a wonderful nutty smell) start adding in the chicken stock, whisking constantly. It will thicken a lot at first, but as you add the stock it will achieve a nice gravy consistency. If it is still a little thick you can add a dollop of heavy cream or sour cream.

Time to laminate the dough! Take the chilled dough and put on a floured surface. Press the dough out by hand (don’t over work is our constant mantra) until it is about a 1 inch thick oval. Take some of your butter flavored Crisco and spread a thin layer on top of the dough. Now fold it in half so the shortening is inside and repeat the process. You should have a 2 inch thick, flat square Return to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Now for our filling.

Filling

•2 cups diced roast chicken

•12 ounces mixed vegetables

•½ cup sautéed mushrooms

•¼ teaspoon poultry seasoning

Here is where the primary difference on difficulty is. I use a steamer bag of mixed veggie with peas, carrots, green beans, and corn. I like this because the pieces are all small enough, and it is a nice variety. Now you can choose the harder route and hand cut and cook all your veggies. You can choose whatever veggies you like, you can use potato, parsnips, heck- you can use okra if it gets you excited! It’s a free country and all, so go nuts!

I sauté the mushrooms in a tablespoon of butter, then add the chicken and veggies. I really like the roast chickens available at the market, just pull the meat off the bones and rough chop it. Now combine the gravy and the vegetables and remove from the heat.

Let’s fetch the dough and get ready for the next step. Take the chilled dough and using a knife cut into 6 pieces. Each piece will have the layers going top to bottom. Press each one straight down into a strip approximately 6 inches long by 3 inches wide, lightly coat with softened butter or shortening and stack them up. Now cut straight down into 4 pieces. Press out and roll with a rolling pin until it is twice the size of your baking dishes. I use the oval boat shaped one for this dish.  Spray the dishes with nonstick spray and lay the dough in the dish. Add filling equally, spread across all 4 dishes, and fold the edges in. Whisk one egg in a small bowl and brush all the edges where they overlap. Place in an oven preheated to 375 and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Pro tip- I keep an extra dish on hand so that once the edges are sealed, I can put the new dish on top of the filled dish and flip it over, putting the sealed edges on the bottom of the dish! This gives a clean appearance and prevents leaking at the seams!