Chicken Pot Pie

There are many ways to make chicken pot pie, but in our house there seems to be two: our favorite way and the left-overs way.

Effectively, for us, chicken pot pie is chicken, mushrooms, root vegetables, a green vegetable, and some kind of onion all in a white wine cream sauce seasoned with herbes de provence (HDP) and salt, baked with a pastry on top with an egg wash and cracked salt.

When I have time and want to spend the money, I cook each thing separately: chicken, oyster mushrooms, parsnips, asparagus, and leeks or shallots.

Then add it all together in a pan with some broth, white wine, cream, and a roux. Add HDP and salt to taste.

Stick it all in a baking dish and then lay a crust over it and bake till the crust is how you like it. ~15mins

(My favorite crust:1c flour, 1 stick butter, and 4oz cream cheese all mixed up, chill at least an hour, and then roll out.)

But when I have leftovers to use up, our pie is made from what ever I have on hand but the concept is still the same (vegetables, onion, chicken, in what ever cream sauce - with a hint of acid - that I can manage, all under a pie crust).

For example, a recent Chicken Pie was made from left-over roasted parsnips, turnips and carrots, peas, white onion, and chicken. The sauce: broth, half and half, butter, some balsamic vinegar, HDP, and flour sprinkled in. Then I used a pie crust I had made the week before. Sometimes, when time is short, I just use a Trader Joes dessert pie crust- adds a little more sweetness than necessary but works in a pinch!