Pot Pie

Here is a chicken pot pie I made recently. It is such an easy all in one dinner to make. In order to make this a super quick dinner I slice all the vegetables using a mandolin. I needed a vent for the crust so I used that funny little pig cookie cutter.

Ingredients:

1 package of chicken tenderloins

half and onion, quartered and then thinly sliced

2 carrots, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, halved and thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup (or as many or as few as you like) frozen petite peas, rinsed with cold water

3 Tablespoons Butter

3 Tablespoons flour

3 cups milk

salt and pepper

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, dethawed

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper

heat a little olive oil and a sliver of butter in a large skillet or saute pan

brown chicken and let it cook through

remove and set aside and in same skillet add a little more oil and butter and saute onion, carrot and celery

season vegetables with salt and pepper

let vegetables cook for 5-7 minutes until soft, they should cook pretty quickly depending on how think they've been sliced

add garlic towards end

*now sometimes at this point I add maybe another tablespoon of butter and let it melt in and then add flour, let it cook and then the milk and make the sauce right there in the pan

OR you can make a proper white sauce in a sauce pan by melting the 3 T of butter, adding the 3 T of flour, cooking several minutes then whisking in the milk.

Bring to a boil then turn down the heat a little and let it cook and thicken

Chop the chicken tenders so they are bite sized

Have sauce, veggies, peas and chicken (including any of the chicken juices) mixed together

test for salt and pepper

pour mixture in a baking pan (9x13 or 8x8, whatever it fits in best)

lay puff pastry sheet over the mixture like a pie crust (other crust alternatives are refrigerated biscuits, biscuit batter or cornbread batter, but you will need to adjust baking temp accordingly)

Bake until the crust is brown and mixture bubbly