Pot Pie For My Husband

One of my DH favorite dishes is what he calls Meat Pie; I say it’s just Pot Pie, either way its good stuff. He prefers chicken and veggie, were as I like mine made with leftover beef stew, if  there ever is any. Actually, anything could be made into a Pot Pie, leftover rotisserie chicken, Thanksgiving Turkey, even ground beef. This is another recipe that I really don’t have a recipe for, I just wing it mostly (I had to sit down and think about this one). DH likes me to cook the pie in my old cast-iron skillet, that’s how his mother did it, also a double crust too if you please.  The crust is always nice and crispy, never sogged out.

So why don’t we get to it…

DH’s Favorite Meat Pie

Crust

2 ½ C. Flour

2 tsp. Table Salt

2 sticks Butter, cold & diced

2-4 Tbsp. ice cold Water

Filling

3 C. diced Chicken (or any other meat you like)

½ C. Onion, diced

½ C. Carrots, diced

½ C. Celery, Diced

½ C. frozen Peas

1-1 ½ C. Chicken Gravy (homemade is better, but the jarred stuff is fine)

½ tsp. dried Thyme

Good pinch of dried Sage

S&P to Taste

 Prepare the crust first. In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt, just to combine. Add the butter and pulse until large crumbs form, the size of big peas. With the machine running, add 2 tablespoons of water at first, the dough should just start to pull away from the sides of the bowl; add more if needed. Dump the dough out, it should be a bit crumble-y you’ll need to press it together. Divide it for the top and bottom crust; you’ll want a little more dough for the bottom. Wrap each one in plastic wrap, shaping them into discs and stash in the ‘fridge for 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Now let’s make the filling while the dough rests.

In a large skillet sauté the onion, carrot and celery in some Olive Oil, until crisp-tender. Add the remaining ingredients of the filling and simmer until well heated. Roll out the bottom crust and place into a Cast-iron Skillet, folding the edge over the side of the skillet. Don’t stress this part, it doesn’t have to be perfect, if you get a hole or you’re shy at one corner, just do some patch work, no one will see it, the filling will cover it all up. Pour in the filling and place rolled out top crust with vent holes cut into it. Pinch and crimp the edges of the dough; brush with about a tablespoon of cream or half & half. Bake in a preheated 375⁰ oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the crust is GB&D (golden brown and delicious). Allow to cool for about half an hour before serving, that baby is HOT!  This skillet will feed a family of four nicely, with a salad along side. It’s very warming on one of these cold and dreary evenings.

I just thought of something, if you had some leftover potatoes from the night before, you could throw that in.  Or if all you had on hand was frozen veg, that would work too, just don’t sauté those.  Whatever you dream up will taste great, remember, a recipe is just someones idea, make it your own.

[Edit: next time, try adding some leftover cooked Potato chunks, sauteed Mushrooms, and even a bit more Gravy-we like it saucy ;)] 

Tagged: Chicken, Cooking At Home, Dinner, Gravy, Leftovers, Really Good Food, Really ONO Food, Recipes, Scratch cooking, Vegetables