Chicken Pot Pie

Another comfort food for these cold winter days. I've never made this before. I actually felt like it was simpler than I expected. I got this recipe from Annie's Eats. 

Ingredients:

For the filling:
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large russett potato, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 purchased rotisserie chicken
1-2 cups frozen peas and carrots

For the sauce:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2½ cups chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream (optional)
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the crust:
16 tbsp. cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
10 oz. cream cheese, chilled
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 large egg

Directions:

Filling:
1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  

2. Add the onion and potato to the pan, and sauté for about 5 minutes.  

3. Mix in the garlic, bell pepper and mushrooms, and cook for about 15 minutes more, until the potatoes are tender.  

4. While the vegetables are cooking, remove the skin from the chicken, pull the meat off the bones and shred or chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces.  

5. Once the vegetables are finished cooking, turn off the heat and mix in the chicken and the frozen peas and carrots.  

6. Stir in the red pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sauce:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. 

2. Add the flour and whisk until smooth.  

3. Whisk in the chicken broth and cook over medium heat until it thickens to the consistency of a cream soup.  

4. Mix in the cream (if using), the hot sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.  

5. Pour the cream sauce over the chicken and veggie mixture and stir to combine well.  

6. Spoon the mixture into 6-8 individual oven-safe dishes (such as ramekins).

Crust:

1. To make the crust, cut the butter into 16 pieces.  

2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the butter and flour until crumbly. 

3. Add the cream cheese, salt and pepper.  

4. Continue pulsing just until the dough forms a ball.  

5. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  

6. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness.  

7. Cut out dough rounds to be about 1½ inches larger than the diameter of your pot pie dishes.  

8. Lay the dough rounds on top of the individual dishes.  

9. Beat the egg with a whisk, and brush the tops of the dough rounds lightly with the beaten egg.  

A special note about the crust:

I don't have a large food processor, just a mini-processor. I had to improvise this section, which was to cut the butter into small pieces and then use a potato masher or  biscuit cutter to get the butter to mix with the flour to make it crumbly. I also did this with the cream cheese. When I couldn't work with the dough very easily, I floured my counter top and worked with the dough by hand to get it to the right consistency. I should also note that cream cheese comes in 8 oz. packages, which I didn't realize until I was home so I used a little bit of half and half to moisten the dough and make it more workable. The dough was still a little dry but it tasted delicious and I liked it a lot. 

Place the pot pie dishes on a baking sheet for easy transfer in and out of the oven.  Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve immediately.