Puff Pastry Tops a Chicken Pot Pie

 

There's a restaurant in Graton...the Willow Wood Market...that makes a delicious chicken pot pie with a pie top that I think is puff pastry. I've been known to make a delicious chicken pot pie myself, but I usually top it with a pie dough crust. A few nights ago I decided to try the puff pastry topper.

First I made the chicken filling part. Since I had already grilled chicken thighs, it was just a matter of chopping a few veggies like onions, celery, garlic, and mushrooms, and sautéing them to get things started. If you can make a white sauce from scratch then you'll have no trouble with that part. A key thing to remember is to add all the liquid at once and then stir like mad. The stirring allows the liquid to combine with the partly cooked flour/oil bits so that it all can turn into a thickened, silky sauce. When you first add the liquid it looks like lumps in a thin liquid, but keep stirring...a lot!...and you, too, will end up with a nice sauce to hold your bite-sized chicken pieces and the rest of the veggies. Don't forget to season the sauce and taste to make sure you have enough salt and pepper. I even added a bit more thyme to mine since it didn't seem to have enough herby flavor. 

The rest of the filling ingredients is up to you. I like the combination of cooked Yukon potato chunks, frozen mixed veggies, and some roasted red pepper (and extra frozen green peas!), but you could also use fresh or frozen green beans, asparagus cut into bite sized pieces, blanched broccoli florets, or even sautéed greens. Just keep the proportions similar. Rice could be substituted for the potatoes, too, or you could use boiled chunks of red potatoes or Idaho potatoes. See what you have on hand, then go with it to make this your own!

So we're down to the topper. Already made pie dough from the refrigerator section of the market is the easiest. You can make your own puff pastry or rough puff, but I found frozen puff pastry to be just fine for other projects, so decided to try that.

It was defrosted so I could unfold it, but I didn't roll it out any. I cut out a circle that would fit just inside of the baking dish. If I were to do it again, I would bake it until puffed on a baking sheet, then transfer to the baking dish with the chicken mixture to finish browning (as shown in the directions below!). The reason is that I put the raw puff pastry right on top of the hot chicken filling in the baking dish and returned it to the oven right away. The temperature was 425 degrees F and it should have puffed up fairly quickly. Instead I think that the filling kept it from puffing very far by making the bottom of the pastry too wet. It was still browned and lovely, but not as airy, nor crisp, as I would like. This is one reason why baking continues to fascinate me...I keep learning. The instructions below are how I should have done it!

Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry Topper

1-2 yellow Finn potatoes, washed and cubed

3/4 cups chicken broth

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, sliced

2oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon, or to taste, minced garlic

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper

about another 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup milk I used evaporated milk, undiluted)

2  - 2 1/2 cups cooked, cubed chicken (I used grilled skinless thighs)

1 cup frozen peas

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 tablespoons roasted red pepper, cut into small pieces

1 sheet (half package) frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water

In a medium pot with a lid, add the chicken broth to the cubed potatoes. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with the point of a sharp knife.

Meanwhile,  prepare the onion, celery, carrots and mushrooms. When potatoes are cooked, drain them, reserving the cooking liquid for another use.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt the butter in the pot the potatoes were cooked in. Add the onion, celery, mushrooms and garlic. Over medium heat, cook, stirring often, for 5-8 minutes or until onion is translucent. Be careful to not have the garlic burn. If this has been an issue for you in the past, add the garlic after the first 4-5 minutes.

Add the flour, poultry seasoning, dried thyme and salt and pepper to taste to the sautéed veggies. Stir for 1 minute to allow the flour to cook a bit.

In a large measuring cup, add chicken broth to the 1 3/4 cups mark (OK to use the potato cooking broth as part of this, or to just use fresh broth). Add the milk. Over medium heat, stir this mixture, all at once, into the veggie/flour mixture and continue stirring over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly. It's OK if mixture bubbles a bit once it has thickened.

Add the cubed chicken and stir to combine.

In a microwave safe container, cook the peas and mixed vegetables for 1-2 minutes to warm. Add warmed peas and mixed vegetables to the pot with the chicken and sautéed veggies. Add the cooked and drained potatoes and the roasted red pepper pieces. Stir to combine everything, then spoon mixture into a greased 9" x 13" casserole or 9" round deep baking dish.

Cut the sheet of puff pastry into 9 rectangles, or one 9-inch circle if using round baking dish. Place pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet. Leave at least an inch between them (if using squares). Use a small pastry brush to paint the top of the puff pastry with the egg wash, being careful not to have the egg run down the sides. If using the 9-inch round, cut a 1-2-inch slash in the top in 4 places with a sharp knife to let steam escape.

Bake puff pastry in preheated oven. When pastry has puffed but is not yet brown, put the casserole into the oven to heat (put it on a lower shelf if you can).

When puff pastry rectangles are puffed and golden brown, remove them from the oven. Remove the casserole from the oven. Place the rectangles on top of the casserole mixture. Serve at once.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Italian Hunters Chicken Stew

Just imagine yourself out in the woods, someplace in Italy. It's a frigid January evening and you and your hunting companions have bagged yourselves a brace of some kind of wild fowl. While you were kneeling behind shrubbery under an oak tree, you noticed that there were mushrooms and later, in a meadow, wild parsley growing. Various members of the group had brought some tomatoes, an onion, some olive oil, salt and pepper and a pot with lid. Of course all of you had sharp knives.

After the fire had gotten going and the most intrepid of you had cleaned and cut up the poultry, the designated cook for the evening put together a delicious hunters stew using what was available. Maybe it was the company, maybe it was the alcoholic beverage consumed as you waited for the chicken to stew, maybe it was the fresh air and freedom, but you were certain that you had never tasted a better stew!

Fortunately, we don't have to cook out of doors to have a delicious Hunter's Chicken Stew. We can make it in the kitchen and the simple ingredients allow us to put it all together fairly quickly and then into the oven for about 40 minutes to stew.

You start by browning the chicken in a tiny bit of olive oil. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but a cut up whole chicken or a mixture of parts, with skin or without work well, too.

After you remove the browned chicken from the pan, you sort of stir-fry the thinly sliced onions quickly. Once those are removed, you add a bit more olive oil and brown the mushrooms. A can of diced tomatoes and juice get added. The acid in the tomato juice allows you to scrape up the browned bits sticking to the bottom of the pan, adding great flavor to the stew juices.

Everything goes back into the pan after you've added salt and pepper to taste. Then you sprinkle on a good amount of Italian parsley, cover the pan and into the oven it goes. Much easier than the time the hunters had! When it's finished, you have a wonderful pan of tender, falling-of-the-bone (if you used chicken with bones) flavorful chicken, plus a savory pan sauce to enjoy.

Serve this up with something that will soak up the juices...polenta, mashed potatoes, rice, or chunks of crusty bread. A green salad on the side is about all you need to have a wonderful meal. Still have things to do? That's O.K....you can leave the pan in the turned-off oven for up to an hour more before serving.

Chicken Cacciatore
Based on a recipe from Women’s Day 12-14-82

1 chicken, cut up (I used 7 chicken thighs)
1 large onion, sliced thin
4 oz. fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 16 oz. can tomatoes, cut up
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

salt & pepper to taste & olive oil for the bottom of the pan & an oven-proof pan

Sprinkle chicken with salt. In a large, heavy ovenproof skillet, over medium heat, brown chicken in hot oil. (I use just enough oil to coat the pan bottom to keep the chicken from sticking. If you have a large, heavy ovenproof non-stick skillet, you don’t even need the oil.)
Add the onion; cook about 3 minutes, stirring, until the onion is crispy-tender. Remove and put with the browned chicken. Add another tablespoon olive oil and the sliced mushrooms. Stir to coat, cover, turn heat to low, and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove pan from the heat. Stir in the tomatoes and pepper. Add back the chicken and onions. Sprinkle with the parsley. Cover the pan.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F. oven for about 40 minutes, or until tender.
Serve, or stand in turned off oven up to 1 hour.
Serves 4-6.