I didn’t exactly do anything fancy. I just boiled some potatoes, steamed some broccoli and apple slices over ’em, browned up the ground chicken in butter, then dumped the whole thing in a pre-made pie crust, covered it with shredded cheese and open-baked it at 350 degrees for half an hour. I recognize that I should have added salt and maybe pepper, but it turned out OK. But still it lacked something. I thought that the melted cheese would have given me more cohesion than I got. Thoughts?
12 thoughts on “Interesting chicken pot pie experiment.”
Comments are closed.
Ahh poo! You just made an ‘open pasty’ with cheese(heresy). You need to add some sort of thick-ish gravy (with or without cream) to get a ‘potpie’ result.
I mirthfully enjoy your endeavors, none-the-less!
I was gonna say, not really ‘pot pie’ without a top crust. Not that it couldn’t be scrumptious, mind 😉
chopped onions & celery, always
mushroom soup!
Honest, it is a magic, can’t fail ingredient for any kind of pot pie
You should add a roux made with chicken broth. You *do* know how to make a roux, as you have claimed in your subhed.
Actually, you were almost right, if you had sprinkled in a grab of flour with the chicken and butter before then loading everything in, it would have thickened up in the baking as it bubbled. In a pinch you also could have topped with some bisquick dropped biscuits for a bit of a topper (on the box recipe).
I was thinking along the lines of both YeaVerily and AndaO.
At the very least, adding roux to thicken whatever juicy goodness gets created?
Definitely needs salt, chicken itself is fairly bland and the taters need quite a bit, so I’d say add more salt than you think you need, either straight or via cream of whatever soup (chicken, shroom, celery all would work). I’d have also considered a layer of breadcrumbs to add some crunch. A good salty chicken stock would work as well…
Alternatively I might have made the crust into a big turnover with the same stuff.
It almost became a turnover. No celery handy, and cream of mushroom soup isn’t something we keep reserves of. As for a roux; not a bad thought, but a bit of a time commitment that I wasn’t really prepared to commit to.
the learning experience here is to ALWAYS have a can (or two) of cream of mushroom soup in reserve!
A roux can be as simple as melting fat and adding flour. You can toast it or not. Add your liquid, then herbs, before vegetables and meat filling. Use of a paste bullion after the liquid will get you your salt and boost your protein flavors. Other easy flavor enhancers are a tablespoon of a brown sauce, a tablespoon of tomato paste, or mushrooms.
It looks like you are unsure of herbs. Start simple and get a jar of Italian herbs, poultry herbs, and beef herbs. Your experiences will drive you towards individual herbs and spices and develop a Moe Lane flavor profile.
You’re doing the basics right, just get a bit more confident and work on the protein notes and the herbal notes.
Confused on the broccoli with apple slices step. Does the apples add a flavor when steaming broccoli? Looking for something different when I make broccoli as a side.
For broccoli I just grab some bacon grease from the jar that every one should have on their stove and do a quick sauté to al dente. Also works with Brussels sprouts.