get a fucking tastebud

Chicken Pot Pies with Herb Crust

Pot pies are perfect for laid back dinner parties. Which is good because I only gave myself two hours to make the dinner and dessert and clean my whole apartment. So no one cared that my table was still piled with cookbooks when they got there. This is essentially a Martha Stewart recipe.

1/2 small bag new red potatoes, quartered
good handful small pearl onions
couple tbsps of olive oil
1 carrot, chopped
10 mid sized mushrooms, quartered
2 tbsp flour

2 c chicken stock
1 c milk
1 roasted chicken, skin removed and meat shredded
handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
couple dashes of Worcestershire
coarse salt and pepper 

• Start by making your pie dough. Pulse the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and mix until a coarse meal forms. Pour in the water and mix until it just comes together. If it is too dry, add more a tbsp at a time.
• Turn out dough, wrap and plastic and throw in the fridge.

• Preheat the oven to 375°.
• In a big ol’ pot, cook the potatoes and onions in the olive oil for a couple minutes. Throw in the other vegetables and cook for a few more. 
• Season with some salt and pepper and sprinkle with flour. Stir throughly and let it cook a couple minutes.
• Pour in the stock & milk, shredded chicken, parsley, thyme, Worcestershire and zest. Reduce heat and let simmer and thicken up, maybe 10 minutes.
• Spoon into individual ramekins, just under the lip. This makes enough for 8.

• Back to the crust: Remove from the fridge and roll out to 1/4” thick on a lightly floured surface. 
• Sprinkle the fresh herbs on top and roll out to 1/8”. Cut into squares just big enough to cover the tops of the ramekins.
• Top the ramekins with a square and seal around the edges. Cut a couple steam vents in top. Give a quick chill in the fridge, about 10 minutes.
• Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and toss in the oven for 40 minutes.  
• Remove from the oven when golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. 

If you give yourself a bit more time, you can do a prettier job of the crust (make it round; ruffled edges; cut out leaves; etc.), but seeing as they got there while I was rolling it out, this is much more Just Get ‘Er Done. I also made a lemon tart for dessert, but pretty much every imaginable thing went wrong so it is probably better that I stop talking about it now.

Made on Saturday, October 22, 2011.
Enjoyed by Katie, Lisa and Jordan. Jess was there, too (welcome home!), but she didn’t indulge.