Skinny Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe is for a healthy version of the usually full-of-fat dish, chicken pot pie.

I made the crust from scratch, but you can certainly substitute a ready-made pie crust dough to save some time (I probably would have if I had one). Bonus though- you control the amount of fat etc that goes into a homemade crust.

I have also seen pot pie recipes that call for phyllo dough, which I intend to try sometime in the future.

Anyway though. For 4 servings, you will need:

For the dough:

1.5c flour (I used wheat)
4 tbs butter, cut into 1/4″ cubes (you really have to have at least SOME fat when making a pie crust)
1 tbs vegetable or canola oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4c ice cold water
1.5 tsp salt
pinch of sugar

For the filling:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken
1 bay leaf
3 large carrots
6-8 button mushrooms, sliced
1/2c chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
10-14 oz frozen, mixed vegetables of your choice
2c chicken broth
1/3c flour
1/2 tsp celery seed (I only used this because I didn’t have any fresh celery)
1/4 tsp dried dill (use 1 tsp fresh if you have it)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Start by making the dough, because it needs time to chill in the fridge.

Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl.

Using whatever method you prefer, combine the flour mixture with the butter. Forks, pastry cutter, hands (that’s for you, Nate ^_^), and food processor all work well.

Combine until the flour resembles coarse meal. A few pea-sized chunks are OK.

Combine the remaining ingredients (lemon juice, ice water, oil) in a small bowl. Well, not really combine. Water and oil, you know. Hur hur. Nevermind. Just dump them into the bowl.

Working quickly, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Don’t worry, it won’t combine nicely. Just do your best. 😛

Dump it all out onto a work surface and divide in half. Form each half into a ball.

Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 20 minutes or more (up to overnight).

Now… directions for the filling:

Begin by heating the chicken broth in a medium saucepan over med-high heat. Add the chicken and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat to a very low simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the chicken pulls apart easily with forks.

In the meantime, heat up 2 tbs of vegetable oil over medium in a large saute pan.

(Chop your onions and carrots now if you haven’t already.)

These are the frozen mixed veggies I used, but feel free to use whatever you have. Doesn’t even have to be frozen.

Add the carrots and onions to the pan. Cook for 3 minutes.

Add the frozen veggies. I added a little extra chicken broth here (2 tbs or so) to help steam them out of their frozen state, but it probably wasn’t necessary.

Let the veggies cook while you slice the mushrooms and mince the garlic. 4 minutes.

Your chicken is probably done by now. Remove the chicken from the pan (save the broth and bay leaf for later- just set the pot aside for now) and pull it apart/shred it with forks once it’s cool enough. Set chicken aside for now.

Add the mushrooms and garlic to the veggie pan. Cook for 4 mins.

Add 1/3c flour to the veggies, and stir.

Now add the chicken broth to the veggie pan. Keep the bay leaf in for now (we’ll discard it later). Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes, or until thickened.

Now is also a good time to preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Don’t forget to remove the bay leaf from the pot after the sauce is thickened.

Now, chop up your fresh herbs, and…

Add them to the pot! Also add any dried herbs you are using, as well as salt and pepper.

Add the chicken, also.

Give it a nice stir. Pretty! Remove from heat.

Pull the dough you previously made out of the fridge and place it on a floured work surface.

Roll it out to about 1/4″ thickness and cut to measure your baking dish (see: my neat upside-down baking dish trick). If you’re using a larger dish, you’ll probably need to combine the 2 discs of dough.

Spray cooking spray on your baking dishes and spoon in enough of the chicken/veggie mixture to almost fill the dish (but not quite).

Place your cut piece of dough on top of the veggies, tucking it down into the sides if it’s too big. If the dough overlaps over the dish, it will burn.Also, cut a few vents in the top for steam to escape.

(Also, the dough is already brown because I used wheat flour. I swear it’s not baked yet.)

Place your baking dishes on a rimmed baking sheet, and place in the oven until the top of the crust is slightly browned, or it’s crisp when you poke it with a fork. For me it was around 20 minutes.