Thursday, April 9, 2009

Chicken Pot Pie (for freezer cooking)

I had a request for this recipe today, so here it is:

This is a freezer cooking recipe, and it works really really well. It makes two pies and can easily be doubled for a freezer cooking/swap day:

2 packages pre-made pie crusts (4 crusts total)
2 chicken breasts
2 cups chicken broth plus some more for later in the process
splash of white wine if you have it on hand
corn starch
Penzy's Bouquet Garni (or your favorite herb mix)
salt/pepper
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 onion
2 potatoes
frozen corn
frozen green beans

Cook chicken in chicken broth and wine
At the same time, chop potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery.
Line 2 pie tins with pie crusts. I used 8.5" pie tins for this.
When chicken is cooked thoroughly, remove from the broth and reserve the broth. Chop or shred the chicken, and add the chicken and chopped vegetables to the pie crusts. Add frozen corn and green beans to fill out the pies.
Now take a look at how much broth remains. If you don't think you have enough for 2 pies, add some chicken broth and wine to give you enough. I don't douse my pies in gravy but I like to have at least 1/3 cup per pie. Mix corn starch with cold water and add it to the broth. Add some bouquet garni, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Distribute evenly across both pies, and add a little more seasoning to the pies. 
Top with the remaining pie crusts and cut air holes. Cover with foil, label, and freeze.

To heat for dinner, remove the pie the morning that you'll be eating it and keep in the refrigerator. Remove foil and restructure it to cover the edges of the pie crust so they don't burn. Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours. If you remove the pie the night before you can bake it at 350 for an hour instead. 


4 comments:

  1. Om nom nom. I love chicken pot pie, and this sounds like it's probably a lot healthier than most versions!

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  2. Kristen,

    Yes, really the most unhealthy thing is the crust, with the potatoes and corn starch coming in 2nd and 3rd. But there's only about a teaspoon of corn starch, and one potato in a whole pie to share.

    And I've never had a healthy pie crust that was tasty anyway :-P

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  3. Trying this today. I'll let you know how it turns out!

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  4. OK, one pie in the fridge for tonight, one in the freezer for later.

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