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One of the things I love to order when we are out at pubs here is a pot pie. Steak and Ale pies tend to have the most flavor and veggies so they are my go-to pie, but chicken pot pies are great too! And today? Craving pot pies but feeling too crummy to go out to a pub with a teething little Mei, so we made some ourselves at home. Luckily, we were able to get some great puff pastry to put on top of it too!!

I absolutely adore puff pastry!! The best is when you get an individual pot pie with a nice thick puff pastry crust on it,… all your own! I have to lift it aside and have a bit between bites of pie, saving one big bite for last. Yup. That’s how I roll! Making your own pot pie with puff pastry at home is like putting a kid in a candy store! You get as much as you want, and you can just eat all the puff pastry after awhile, leaving the pie for those that arent as interested in the pastry but the actual pie itself… can you believe that are people like that out there???! And my husband is one of them.

So the only faux paux about using this particular puff pastry for the first time is that there is no telling how thick you should roll it and how wide you need to make it, since they all tend to shrink a bit, so I made sure the sides of each pastry circle were touching the ones next to it and it was fairly thin, about 1/4 inch. And it turned out to puff up about an inch and a half, turning a lovely golden brown with a quick egg wash on top and smelling fantastic! But it did shrink quite a bit, by almost  half!! So the next time, if we have to do this in a big casserole dish like I wound up doing this time, we will make sure that the crust just goes across the entire dish, tucked in on the sides of the dish itself so that it wont shrink too much and still cover the pie.

We did make four mini pies and put a puff pastry round atop each of them and they  wound up looking like the little drums that Stefan made for his chicken pot pie on Top Chef Season 5, and this reminded me quite a bit of that challenge. Here is my number one problem in the kitchen; if I try to scale back my dishes and only make enough food for like 2-3 or 2-4 people? I wind up making enough food for like TEN. I think it’s because I feel like there aren’t enough veggies or meat and so I over compensate, because I’m used to cooking for 6, and we like our leftovers for school lunches and work lunches the next day, and even when I went to college, I just kept up the same habits! I would make five or six lunches in a tupperware to take to work with me  in the fridge, one night a week, so I wouldnt have to cook a big meal (alone, for myself) but once a week, leaving lots of time for studying or driving or working extra shifts. But now? Sometimes the husband unit doesnt want leftovers or I am pregnant and what tastes good the night I make it doesnt taste good or look appealing at all by morning, so he is trying to get me to scale back the amount I make at one time. I basically fail every time! LOL! And here? I totally failed! I was only going to make enough for about 4-6 decent portions and wound up with a whole lot more than that! And of course, I have no appetite for it now! But it was DELICIOUS after it came out of the oven, and I ate a few of the puff pastry drums off the other portions! It’s the best part!!

I did put plenty of different veggies in this one, and neglected to make as much of the cream sauce, so once I warmed it up the next day, it was quite a bit less saucy – so for future reference, I would make this a bit looser and add more chicken broth and cream, but other than that? It was spot on! And because I shoved spoonful after spoonful down the husband unit’s throat, it was perfectly seasoned, not salty and just spoonful after spoonful of deliciousness! My secret weapon? Emeril Lagasse!

He just adds some umph! sometimes that is just necessary and elevates the flavor of our meals just enough to make you fall in love. All over again!

Ingredients:

    4 TBS butter
    4 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped
    1 large onion, chopped
    4 carrots, sliced
    1/2 lb portabello mushrooms, medium sliced
    1 C all-purpose flour
    2-4 C chicken stock
    2 C milk or heavy cream
    2 lbs cooked chicken (I poached mine in white wine with honey, peppercorns, coriander and fresh thyme sprigs), cut into/shredded into bite size pieces
    1 C dry white wine
    1 C peas (I used frozen)
    2 ears or 1 C of corn (fresh or frozen) shucked
    1 egg
    1 tsp water
    1 package of puff pastry

First, melt the butter in a stock pot. Then add the onions, celery, carrots, corn, peas, mushrooms and cook until tender, about 10-15 minutes.

In another frying pan, put a couple teaspoons of honey, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, a dash of peppercorns and coriander pods and fill it half way with a dry white wine. Bring the mixture to a boil, and mix until the honey has dissolved then put the chicken breast fillets in, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until the chicken has cooked through.

Put the flour into the vegetable mixture and stir until the vegetables are coated and let it cook for a minute, then add the chicken stock, milk/heavy cream and reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes.

Then shred the chicken, once it has cooked through and add it to the vegetable mixture. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. I also added quite a bit of Emeril’s Creole BAM!! then fill a pie dish or casserole pan with the mixture then place the puff pastry over the top of the mixture however you like. If you have covered it cmpletely, cut some one inch slits on the top, the mix the egg and water in a small bowl and brush it over the pastry and place the pot pie onto a baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated 400F oven until the crust is golden brown, about 25 minutes.