Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

On a cold, icy winter weekend you can find me in my happy place.  My kitchen.  I always find myself the most inspired during these times of the year.  Why, I'm not sure.  All I really know is that I'm relaxed, happy, content, warm, surrounded by family, and ready to get creative in the kitchen.

This past weekend hasn't yet been an exception to my rules.  When the local television stations start throwing around the words Ice Storm Warning, most people grab bread, milk, and snacks.  I look for comfort food to make while enveloped in bliss, standing in my kitchen.  I had visions of the yummy pot pies that I grew up on.  I knew I could recreate it, if given the perfect circumstances.  And this Ice Storm Warning was my golden opportunity.

I was looking for three main components of my pot pie masterpiece: flaky crust, flavorful chicken, and the perfect consistency.  This recipe delivers on all three.  My pot pie trifecta.

• 1 pound shredded chicken, (read on to see how I found the perfect mix)
• 2 cups thawed, frozen peas
• 2 cups thawed, diced carrots
• 1 cup thawed, pearl onions
• 2 store bought pie crusts
• butter
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 Family Sized can Cream of Chicken soup
• 1 egg, beaten

All of this really started the night before I made this for dinner.  We grabbed some fried chicken from our favorite chicken place, and we reserved 4 pieces in the fridge.  Oh, you weren't looking for a weight watcher meal, were you?  This is definitely not a slimming meal.  Let me refer you back to the words comfort food.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and place one of your rolled out pie crusts into your sprayed casserole dish.  Poke with a fork in a few places and place in the oven for 12 minutes.

Take two forks and shred the chicken, and any skin, into a large mixing bowl.  Add in your thawed vegetables, salt, pepper, and the entire can of the soup.

At this point, you need to pour in your mixture over your slightly pre-cooked pie crust.  By pre-cooking it, you can ensure no gooey bottom to your delicious pie.

Once you have it all evenly spread out over the pan, add slices of butter to the top of your mixture.  Carefully unroll your second pie crust and lay on top.

I do this same technique when I'm baking a pie.  The slices of butter between the crust and the mixture create the perfect buttery, sweet, flaky crust.  Perfection.

Cut small slits along the top, allowing steam to escape during the cooking time.  This will keep your crust beautiful when you pull it out of the oven.  Finally, brush the entire crust with your beaten egg.  The egg on top will give you the golden brown color and allow your crust to flake like snowflakes.  I sprinkled with some sea salt right before placing it into my oven at 350 for 40 - 45 minutes.

Success.  I really don't think I have created so many beautiful things, outside of this chicken pot pie.  It was pretty.  However the beauty of this chicken pot pie did not keep my husband from hesitating to dig in as soon as possible.  I can't blame him.  I had to hold back from sticking a spoon right in.

Remember the three main goals I had for this recipe?  Flavorful chicken - totally spot on by taking the easy shortcut of using the leftover fried chicken shredded in.  Perfect consistency - also killed it here because the Cream of Chicken soup are a perfect binder and balance between veggies, chicken, and sauce.  Flaky crust - hit it out of the park.  You can see in this pic above, the top of the crust edge was buttery, flaky, and added the best crunch to the entire pot pie.

You make this for your family and they will be waiting for the next big ice storm to have it again!  Follow along on Instagram by following me:  executivechefmom