Chicken pot pie

David has long-desired for me to make him chicken pot pie. It's a classic dish that seemed fairly involved whenever I watched my mother make it--there was pie dough to be made, all the different pieces to be put together. But now that I'm less terrified of and slightly more proficient at making pie dough, I thought this would be a fun dish to try. Plus, it allowed David and I to genuinely cook together--he would be responsible for the filling, and me the pie dough.

Recipe

adapted from Allrecipes.com
Makes 2 6"-pies  

¾ lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cubed
¾ cup carrot, sliced
¼ cup celery, sliced
¼ cup onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1-½ cups chicken broth
½ cup milk
¼ cup flour
¾ tsp ground black pepper
¼ cup butter
1 tsp Italian seasoning
¼ tsp salt
2 6" pie crusts, unbaked

Preheat oven to 425 F. In a saucepan over medium heat, brown chicken pieces. Add carrots and celery and sauté for a few minutes. Add chicken broth to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain (reserve chicken broth) and set aside. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions and garlic in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Slowly stir in reserved chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Stir in reserved chicken mixture. Remove from heat and set aside.

Pour chicken-gravy mixture into the bottom pie crusts. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until pasty is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Musings

A few notes on preparation: This was actually a 1.5 recipe in order to make them into two 6" pies. The original recipe was for a 9" pie. David was also somewhat enthusiastic on the pepper, putting about a teaspoon in, though in hindsight, he says that 3/4 tsp is probably sufficient.

David was enthused upon first bite, declaring it a creamy, chicken, soup-like dish in a flaky, buttery crust. All good things. He noted a touch more salt would be good and perhaps bigger chunks of chicken (maybe even the addition of dark meat) would round out the flavour. In future, playing around with the different vegetables that go into it might be fun. Celery and carrots are a classic combination for pot pie, but adding in some fennel or even potatoes might be interesting to try. All in all, it was an unqualified success, and a dish I'm sure we'll be repeating in the future.