Individual Turkey or Chicken Pot Pies

Individual Turkey Pot Pies

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We certainly did!  This week we all have cleaned off our turkey's and hopefully frozen a good portion of the left over meat.  This is one of my favorite dinners that makes fantastic use of all your left over turkey.  I also make it with chicken all winter long because it is SO delicious!  The kids absolutely love this too.  The crust is especially amazing and everyone always asks for MORE crust.  It’s the perfect comfort food for kids be they little or all grown up.  Make the pastry first and let it chill while you make the filling.  It looks complicated and like there are a lot of ingredients but you just need chicken, vegetables, and some staples. You can bake this in individual oven proof bowls or in one medium sized casserole dish. This recipe serves six.

Pastry:

1 cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons cold butter, cut in small pieces

3 tablespoons ice water

1 egg yolk

In bowl of food processor, place flour and salt and combine.  Add diced butter and toss gently.  Then process until mixture resembles a coarse meal.  While food processor is running add ice water and egg yolk and process until dough comes together.  Gather dough and place on floured counter top.  Cover both sides of dough with flour and roll dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap to the size of the casserole dish .  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

 Filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 heaping cup carrots, chopped into thin rounds or into half inch diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
4 cups water
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons pepper
½ cup butter
10 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

 In a medium pot sauté onions, carrots, celery, for 20 minutes.  Add peas and corn and sauté for another few minutes before adding water, bullion, salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer.  Melt butter and stir in flour.  Add flour mixture to vegetable mixture and stir until thickened.  Stir in milk until smooth. Stir in chicken.  Pour into individual oven proof bowls or a casserole dish.  Remove pastry dough from refrigerator and place dough over filling mixture and fold edges down on top of pie.  Cut slits in the top of pastry for venting.  Make an egg wash by whisking together 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water.   Brush top of pastry with egg wash.  Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.