Sorry I've been away but work has been tough recently. Lots of hours and most of my "spare" time is either taking care of the mini me's toddling about or catching up on lost sleep. But today was a "lazy" day, we stayed at home and watched the kids and were able to do a few things around the house like making mini chicken pot pies.
I mean what is better than soaking carbs in gravy right? Ok here's the background.
Roast a chicken. I use a meat thermometer, basically rinse and dry the sucker, take out the innards pack to do whatever people do with those things and put the meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh making sure not to touch the bone. Let the bird air dry, salt and roast at 350 to an internal temperature of 165. Let the bird cool and then take all the meat off of the bone for later use.
Take all the bones, 4 carrots roughly chopped, one onion roughly chopped, the head of one bunch of celery, 1 tbsp of salt and a bay leaf or a couple of sage leafs and toss in a big pot. Cover all of this just barely with water and let simmer for 6 hours on the stove (covered) or in a crock pot on medium overnight.
(full disclosure my most wonderful wife did all of this while I was busy over working and it's a wonderful broth)
You end up with about a gallon of chicken stock that you can use all over the place and freeze the excess for use at any time.
I buy pie crusts because I am not the best roller and if you get them on sale they keep for ever in the freezer. I also use aluminum pie plates from the store but feel free to use whatever you want. I also like personal pies rather than the one giant family pie as it's more fun and I don't have to share my crust.
Pie innards. Chunk chicken (about a cup or two depending on how many pies you are filling, cooked carrots, peas, potatoes, celery or whatever veggies you want and GRAVY!!!.
The gravy is the easy part. In a sauce pan melt one tablespoon of butter and add one tablespoon of flour and cook for a minute or two then add 1 cup of stock. Whisk the mixture until it thickens over the heat. If it's too thick for you add more stock until you have the right texture. Turn off he heat and let this cool. Taste the mix and add salt or pepper as needed.
Assembly...
Mix the chicken and veggies and set aside. Cover the pie pans in the pastry dough (yes top and bottom crusts your family is worth the effort and the bottom crust is essential to a good pie) and fill with the chicken and veggie mix. Spoon in gravy until it's close to the top and wet the rims of pie crusts in the pans. Cover and seal the pies. Make an egg wash (one egg and 1/2 cup of milk) and brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash. Lightly sprinkle with kosher salt, poke a hole in the top of each pie and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and delicious.
That's it... let the pies rest for about 5 minute and invert on plate and take off the pie pan. If you have presentable pie pans you can just put them on a plate but I like just the pie and breaking through the bottom and ending up with a crunchy gravy brushed top.
This recipe is a bit time consuming but well worth it and if you do it right you have chicken and gravy left over for many other uses which is always a good thing.
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