Chicken Pot Pie for the Maillard Reaction Addict’s Soul

• Ingre­di­ents!
• 1 lb. bone­less skin­less chick­en breasts
• ¹⁄₃ cup butter
• ¹⁄₂ cup sliced celery
• ¹⁄₃ cup onion, chopped
• ¹⁄₃ cup all-pur­pose flour
• ¹⁄₂ tsp. salt
• ¹⁄₄ tsp. fresh­ly ground black pepper
• ¹⁄₄ tsp. cel­ery seed
• ¹⁄₂ tsp. gar­lic powder
• 1 tsp. chick­en bouil­lon paste, or a chick­en bouil­lon cube, or 1 tsp. chick­en bouil­lon pow­der, or more to taste 
• 1 cup milk 
• 8 oz. frozen veg­gies (mix of car­rots, peas, green beans, and corn)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. milk 
• 1 pre­made pie crust, or make your own with Cthul­hu’s home­made pie crust

Directions

Chop chick­en into bite-size chunks and sea­son chick­en with salt and pep­per. Add the chick­en to a large saucepan. Bring it to a sim­mer and cook until it’s just bare­ly cooked through, then remove the chick­en to a plate.

Reserve about 1 ¾ cups of the water in a mea­sur­ing cup, and dis­card the rest. 

Option:

As a diehard Mail­lard Reac­tion addict, I active­ly avoid boil­ing meat in favor of roast­ing, grilling, or fry­ing in a skil­let when­ev­er pos­si­ble, so I pre­pare the chick­en this way instead:

We’re mak­ing gravy here to go with the chick­en and veg­gies, after all, so I pre­pare the chick­en with that in mind: I cut the breast into bite-size pieces, sea­son with salt, pep­per and papri­ka, brown it in a skil­let with a bit of oil.

I trans­fer the chick­en into a bowl, pour 1 ³⁄₄ cup water into the skil­let, and bring it to a brief boil while scrap­ing up the yum­my brown bits and greasy stuff, then trans­fer to a mea­sur­ing cup and use it when the recipe calls for the reserved water.

Add onions, cel­ery and but­ter to the saucepan and cook for a few min­utes, until soft and translu­cent. Stir in the flour, salt, pep­per, gar­lic pow­der, bul­lion and cel­ery seed. Slow­ly stir in the reserved water and milk. Sim­mer over medi­um-low heat until thick.

Add chopped chick­en and frozen veg­eta­bles. Taste and sea­son with more salt, pep­per, bouil­lon or gar­lic pow­der if needed.

Impor­tant: Put the pie fill­ing in the fridge and let it cool com­plete­ly: If you put the fill­ing in the crust while it’s still hot you’ll have your­self a sog­gy crust.

Pre­heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Spray a 9‑inch pie pan with non­stick cook­ing spray. Put the bot­tom half of your pi

Add cooled chick­en pot pie fill­ing. Roll out sec­ond pie crust and place over the top of the fill­ing. Seal edges of the two crusts togeth­er and crimp them, if desired.

Use a sharp knife to make a small slit in the top pie crust to allow steam to escape.

Whisk 1 egg with 1 table­spoon milk and brush a very thin lay­er over the top pie crust before baking.

Bake for 40–50 min­utes, or until the top crust is gold­en brown and fill­ing is bub­bly. If you find the pie crust is brown­ing too quick­ly, cov­er it with a piece of alu­minum foil. 

Allow chick­en pot pie to cool for at least 15–20 min­utes before serv­ing, to allow it to set up.

Freezing Instructions

You can freeze chick­en pot pie before or after bak­ing. Cov­er tight­ly with alu­minum foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw com­plete­ly overnight in the refrig­er­a­tor then bake as direct­ed, or pop it in the oven frozen for about 60 min­utes, then check every few min­utes until the crust is gold­en brown and the fill­ing is bubbly.