Short-Cut Chicken Pot Pie

My family loves Chicken Pot Pie, but it is one of those meals that can be labor intensive and time consuming if you make it totally from scratch. You have to cook the chicken, cook the vegetables, make the white sauce, and make the pie crust. Most days I don't feel like spending several hours in the kitchen and having to deal with a sink load of dishes to wash. I have tried recipes that call for using condensed Cream of Chicken soup and they always taste odd to me. I have found that I can make a trade off: make the white sauce from scratch, but cut corners other places.

Such as using a grocery store Rotisserie chicken (you still have to get it off the bones, but the cooking is done for you) , frozen and refrigerated vegetables,

 and a premade, roll out pie crust. The results taste like you made it from scratch, but in about half the time (or more).

Also, you can make this recipe up to the point of filling the pie plates the night or morning before. Another time saver is that they freeze really well. This recipe makes 2 chicken pot pies. If you only need one, cover the second with saran, put into a freezer bag and put in the freezer. To cook, thaw and bake as usual. You can probably even bake from frozen, but I would suggest covering the pie with foil during the 30 minutes of baking, then remove foil and bake another 30 minutes.

You will need:
 1 Rotisserie chicken, off the bones and cut into small pieces
 1 cup of onions (I usually use yellow or white ones, but had used part of a red one in a salad so used this)
 1 cup refrigerated diced hash browns
 1 cup crinkle cut frozen carrots, cut into quarters
 1 cup frozen peas
 1 cup frozen corn
 5 Tbs flour
 5 Tbs butter
 1 c chicken broth
 1 c milk
 1-2 tsp herbs such as thyme or rosemary
 salt and pepper
 2-4 refrigerated roll out pie crusts (sometimes I like the chicken pot pie have both a bottom and top crust. I think it holds together better, but you can save calories and have just a top crust, especially if you make the white sauce thick enough)
 milk for brushing on top of the pie crusts

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 Then melt the butter over medium in a sauce pan. When melted, add the onions and sauté until translucent (about 3 minutes).

Then add the flour and stir until the onions are coated and the mixture starts to bubble.

 Next, slowly pour in the chicken broth and then the milk.

 

 Cook, stirring to combine and then turn the heat to medium-low and cook this mixture until it is thick (keep an eye on it so it does not burn). When the mixture is thick, turn off heat, add herbs, salt and pepper to taste, stir, and set aside for a few minutes while you do the next step.

 

 In a large bowl, mix together the chicken and vegetables.

 

Then pour the white sauce over the chicken and vegetable mixture and stir gently to combine.

 Next, you can cover the bowl with Saran and put in the refrigerator until ready to use or go ahead and fill the pie dishes if you are going to bake them right away.

Sometimes I like having a bottom and top crusts. If using a bottom crust, roll out crust and put into pie pan, gently dimpling the crust with your fingers. Pour the mixture into the dishes, cover with pie crusts and brush with milk.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the pie crust is a golden brown.

Yum! Loaded with chicken and vegetables. This is good stuff!