Chicken Pot Pie!

I posted this picture....

.....of the pot pies that I made last night on all of my social networks and had everyone drooling.  Many asked me for the recipe so I will share the recipe with you and the changes that I made to it.

Last night I actually had something else planned for dinner but I had half of a rotisserie chicken left over from the enchiladas I made the night before....  I didn't want the chicken to go to waste but I also didn't want to buy anything extra to make a separate meal and I instantly thought of a pot pie and figured I had everything on hand.  I don't have a recipe, so I turned to Pinterest with no luck... then I went to the Food Network and found this recipe by The Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten.  What I liked most about this recipe is that it didn't call for a bottom crust...  I'm not a fan of the bottom crust in pot pies, it never gets done all the way and is always soggy.  Plus this is WAY easier.

I didn't use the crust that was suggested in the pot pie recipe, pie crust (for me) can be delicate to make and I have perfected this recipe from Betty Crocker so that it works every time for me.  I sub in cold butter instead of shortening so that I can use it immediately and not have to refrigerate it.  For the pot pies, I made the double pie crust recipe (see Step 3).

With the leftover chicken, I made my own chicken stock.  To explain it simply, I remove all of the usable meat, cover the carcass with water in a stock pot fitted with a strainer and boil for 1-1.5 hours.  I remove the strainer and carcass and simmer for 1-1.5 hours to thicken and condense the flavor.  For this recipe I also added 2 chicken bullion cubes while simmering.  (I used 5c. for the pot pies and had over 5c. leftover that divide between 2 containers and froze for future use).

Since I used a cooked chicken, I skipped the 1st part of the recipe that tells you how to cook the chicken.  Another change I made was with the carrots, I figured the purpose of the blanching process was to make the carrots "al dente" but frankly I like my carrots super soft.  So after I melted the butter, I added my onions and carrots at the same time.  I also completely forgot to add the heavy cream, even though I had it.  I thought the pot pie still turned out great without it, so that helps the calories and makes it better for those that are lactose intolerant!

I have these really nice soup bowls that I bought specifically for French Onion Soup that worked perfectly for this recipe.  Once they were filled and I had the dough rolled out, I just eye-balled what I thought would be enough dough and cut sections out of the dough with a butter knife.  After I added the crust to each bowl, I brushed with egg wash and instead of seasoning with salt and pepper, I freshly grated Parmesan cheese directly onto the crust.  I would have preferred Gruyere, but I didn't have any on hand.  

Baked in the oven for an hour and they turned out great.  I was surprised that they were so tasty.  I usually cook with lots of herbs and spices and this recipe didn't have much of that in there, so I had some fresh sage ready to add in case it needed a little something and surprisingly it didn't.  I will also note  that I personally don't like curly leaf parsley in soups and alike, so for this recipe I used flat leaf (that just happens to be growing in my garden).

On another note.... I have a few vegetarian friends that would like this recipe without the meat...  If it were me, I would substitute cooked potatoes for the chicken and used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.  I might also add both corn and peas for flavor.

Hope everyone likes this recipe!  Let me know how it turns out!