My First Chicken Pot Pie = Success!

I love chicken pot pie and I'm totally fine with the little frozen ones in their tiny cute little tin foil pans...they're usually Swanson branded in Canada at least and found in the frozen section.
Personal-sized portions, toss in the hot oven for awhile and you have yourself a pot pie without all of the work.

But I'm quickly learning that home-made is so much tastier if I have the time and can plan ahead!!
If you follow me on Instagram (*cough cough - it'd be great if you did!) - you'll see that I post photos about food pretty much on a daily basis.

Anyway, something I just had a crazy craving for today was chicken pot pie.
Actually with the cold and dreary weather lately - any kind of pot pie is welcome!!

So I began to look up recipes online last night.  I didn't want to have to go the grocery store if I didn't have to and I remembered having a couple pieces of thigh/drumsticks in the freezer that could be used up.

So when I woke up at 7:30 (yay kids) this morning, I immediately boiled a kettle of water, tossed:

• 1 vegetable bouillon jelly blob
• 1 herbs bouillon jelly blob
• 1 chicken bouillon jelly blob

into my slow cooker and the chicken pieces (didn't thaw them) and the kettle of boiled water.  I put the lid on and put it on high for about 3 hours.

I prepped the crust dough and wrapped in plastic wrap - tossed that in the fridge.

Then I decided I wanted it to have some flavour - so I tossed in a couple frozen sweet Italian sausages from Craig Beckley.  After about a total of 4 hours - the meats were cooked and I had a broth ready to use for the pot pie!

In a pot on the stove, I put some extra virgin olive oil (should've used butter but oh well!)  and added:

• ½ medium peeled and chopped finely onion
• 1 carrot peeled and finely chopped (I would've added more but apparently ran out.)
• 1 medium potato peeled and chopped up into small bite-sized pieces.
• Couple handfuls of frozen green beans.
• Some frozen peas (added the frozen veg near the end)

I shredded the chicken up with a couple forks - the meat was so tender I didn't need a knife to separate it from the bone.
I also removed the sausage from the casing (made a cut down the length and be careful because it may squirt grease!) and crumbled that up.
Both meats went into the pot on the stove.

Also I rolled the pie crust dough out as thinly and big as possible because I was using a rectangular glass dish.

I had turned my oven on to 200*C...

I stirred it around quite a bit on medium-high temperature and then added some flour.  It wasn't all-purpose or bread flour but some sort of gluten-free Italian stuff I got ages ago...but regular flour is fine too!
I stirred it and then added 2 cups (2 Moomin mugs .8dl) of the broth from the slow cooker.

It was looking alright but I thought it could be a bit thicker...and of course baking in the oven will thicken it too!
But I saw some people recommended cream of mushroom soup or cooking cream.
Since I didn't have either and my husband doesn't like mushrooms - I opted for Greek yoghurt.  2 big blobs of it (blob - more than a heaping tablespoon :) ) and stirred it altogether.

For spices - I used:

• dried parsley
• pepper mix
• Chicken & Steak spice mix
• Rosemary
• pinch of salt

Oh and I used a mandolin to sliver some biltong I had also recently ordered from Craig - it's a South African delicacy of dried and spiced steak.

I poured that lot from the stove into my glass dish (my oven was heated up and ready to go!) and covered the mixture with the pie dough.
I just stuffed the edges into the glass dish - trying to not burn my fingers and used a sharp paring knife to cut some slits into the top (so it doesn't explode in my oven) and 45 minutes later - had chicken pot pie.

I think next time - I'll add an egg wash or brush the top with melted butter (I forgot) and perhaps 30-35 minutes will be better and the crust won't be SO golden brown...it could've been a bit flakier but still - I'm not complaining!
And the fact that SH liked it, ate two decent sized portions and said it was alright enough for me to make again in the future - REALLY happy!

I haven't had pot pie in the last 5 years that I've lived in Finland and I'm just tickled pink that I successfully made one by myself!
BIMU

PS I'll update with photos next time I make it  or just check out my Instagram! :)