Easy Autumn Recipe: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Once upon a time, this was a food blog. The kind that involved pictures and recipes - even recipes I developed on my own. At some point over the past six years, M&G turned into something else, but thanks to this recent cold snap, I'm back on a making-up-my-own-recipes kick. And you reap the rewards.

CHICKEN POT PIE
(serves 4, total time about 1 hour, active time about 30ish minutes)

Ingredients
3 carrots, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
4 small stalks of celery, chopped
4 medium red-skinned potatoes, diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1 onion, diced (not super fine)
7 tablespoons butter
2 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons flour
3 cups rotisserie chicken, cubed into bite-sized pieces
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 sheet Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
1 egg
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Start by gathering the ingredients and getting all that chopping out of the way. You can start with the veg, then move on to the chicken and marjoram while you've got the first batch of stuff cooking. Plus, the vegetables and potatoes look pretty:

Festive fall colors! Kind of tablescape-inspirationy, no?

3. Pull the puff pastry out of the freezer and set it aside to defrost.

4. Steps 4 and 5 happen pretty much at the same time, so get ready. In one large pot - a stock pot or dutch oven - melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook until the onions are translucent and the carrots are tender - somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 minutes.

And the house smells like France!

5. At the same time, bring the chicken stock and potatoes to a boil over high heat. Turn down to a moderate boil - nothing frothy - and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

6. While everything's cooking, chop the chicken and marjoram. Don't forget to stir your pots occasionally and check on tenderness.

7. Once all the vegetables are tender, stir the flour into the carrot/onion pot, slowly. It'll be sticky. Then (also slowly), add the chicken stock, followed by the potatoes, stirring all the way. The result will be very thick and very sticky.

8. Add the chicken, cream, frozen peas and season with salt and pepper, combining thoroughly. At this point, the consistency should be gooey, so if it's too dry, add a bit of water. I added about 2/3 of a cup and this is what it looked like:

Yes, it's kind of ugly.

9.  Scoop the mixture into a pan that's roughly 9x13 (mine is a little smaller and a tiny bit deeper than the traditional):

Starting to look better now, though, right?

10. Using a rolling pin on a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry just a bit, so it will overhang your pan on each side by about 1/2-inch. Carefully lay the pastry over the mixture and press around the edges to create a seal.

11. Cut a few slits in the top of the pastry to let steam escape, then brush with an egg wash so it'll turn golden brown in the oven.

12. Place in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and crispy. Keep an eye on the pie - if the edges start turning brown, but the center still looks pale, cover the edges with foil and keep cooking.

13. Then, enjoy:

Gooey. Crispy.

Also, messy. But delicious.