Chicken Pot Pie

I had a bunch of chicken broth I wanted to use up, so I was planning to make chicken soup and chicken pot pie this week; I ended up just doing the chicken pot pie.  I didn't have a recipe for it, so I looked up to see if the gravy were any different than normal gravy (not really) and went from there.

I ended up doing this as a sort of one-pot method; I do all the dishes, so I try to avoid using extras.  I did end up using two cutting boards (one vegetable, one meat), though, since I didn't have a sink free to wash the first one.

So, chicken pot pie:

• 3 skinless/boneless chicken breasts (around a pound)
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 potatoes
• 1/2 cup + 1 cup flour
• 4 tbsp + 8 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 3-4 cups of chicken broth or stock
• 1 can (16 oz.) peas, drained
• 1 can (16 oz.) corn, drained

To start I had to cook the chicken; I had intended to do so this past weekend, but, well, I got Jackjack (the new kitten), and he's been a bit exhausting.  Plus all the yardwork...  Anyway, I didn't have a lot of time, so I just popped them in the microwave on the bacon plate (for drainage) and just kept adding time till they were done through.

While I was waiting for the chicken to cook, I peeled and diced the carrots, onion, and potatoes, and put the carrots and onion in  small dutch oven (4.5 quart) with 4 tbsp. of butter to soften over low heat.  (I probably should have put the potatoes in with them at this point so they got a little softer.)  After they had started to soften, I added the half cup of flour and let it cook a bit; if it seems too dry, add another tablespoon of butter or oil.  (It should be kind of pasty.)

Turn the heat up a bit, add the potatoes if you haven't already, and add all the broth.  Turn the heat to high, and let it cook until it starts to boil, stirring constantly so the bottom doesn't burn.  It should thicken up nicely, and you can turn off the heat and add the corn and peas.  Cube the cooked chicken and add it, then stir it thoroughly.

At this point it'll look something like:

 Yes, my smaller dutch oven has a bent rim.  We don't actually know how that happened.

Once that's all assembled, you need the crust for the top.  My pie crust is really simple: that 1 cup of flour and 1 stick of butter, tossed in the food processor and let go till it starts to kind of stick together; then I add the tablespoon of cold water.  It was really a bit warm in the kitchen today to be making pie crust (the butter got a bit soft), so I had to flatten it out between two pieces of wax paper and peel it off to put on top.  A bit more flour might have eased this process.

At this point it looked like:

  After that I popped it in the oven at 375F  for about 45 minutes.  It came out like this:

The crust was meltingly flaky.  I was surprised, since this was my second time making a crust from scratch ever.  And, of course, I eat at my desk: