Chicken Pot Pie

 Above photo is from Genius Kitchen, but it looks exactly like my chicken pot pie!

For our guests last night, I planned a 'comfort food' meal which we all enjoyed so much. I thought others might enjoy trying these recipes. I'll start with the main course:

PRIZE-WINNING CHICKEN POT PIE

1 3-lb. chicken OR 3 lb. chicken breast (I usually just use 3 large bone- in chicken breasts)
1 onion
2 stalks celery
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen peas and carrots, cooked
1 c. frozen baby onions, cooked
2 large potatoes, cooked and cut in cubes
1/3 c. margarine
1/3 c. flour
3 c. reserved chicken broth
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Pastry for 9” 1-crust pie

Place chicken, 1 onion, and celery in a large pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour until meat is tender. (Tip: When using the bone-in chicken breast, I often just throw them in frozen and the cooking time is still plenty for them to get done--I usually simmer for the full hour.) Note: This time, I cooked the chicken breasts a day ahead in the crockpot -- didn't add water, celery or onion, just sprinkled with Montreal Chicken seasoning and cooked on several hours on High.

Strain off broth into a bowl and place in refrigerator until needed. Remove meat from bones in large chunks. Discard bones, onion, and celery.

Place meat in a 13”x9” pan with cooked peas and carrots, baby onions and potatoes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In medium saucepan, melt butter. Add flour; stir until bubbly. Gradually stir in 3 c. reserved broth (with as much fat as possible skimmed off) and cook, stirring, until thickened. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Pour gravy over meat and vegetables in pan.
Top with pastry which has been rolled out to fit top of pan. Cut several slits in pastry.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes at 350º.

The following recipe is for a 1-crust pie and is the recipe I always use for pie pastry. Many people don't think they would like a pie crust made with oil. But we love it and it's much easier as well as healthier -- I use canola oil.

MOM’S OIL PIE CRUST
1 1/3 c. flour
1 t. salt
1/3 c. oil
3-5 T. milk
Stir together flour and salt in a small to medium. bowl. Measure oil into glass measuring cup, add milk to oil. Pour milk and oil into the flour/salt mixture. Combine with a fork till it forms a nice ball of dough.

Take a wet dishcloth and wash off a section of your counter. Lay a large piece of wax paper on the wet area (so it’ll stick). Put the dough on the wax paper and lay another piece of wax paper on top. Roll out the dough to desired size and shape between the 2 pieces of wax paper. This works really well and saves you having to flour the counter!

Along with the chicken pie last night, I served squash, cole slaw, and cranberry sauce. For dessert we had apple-cranberry crisp with homemade caramel-pecan ice cream. Later on (maybe even today) I'll share the cole slaw and dessert recipes.