A hearty pot pie
Ingredients:
2 cups cubed potato
2 cups chopped/shredded chicken
4 stalks celery
1/2 white onion
2 cups (tightly packed) thin sliced cabbage
Fresh thyme to taste
1 stick butter
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup retained potato water
1/2 cup flour
2 premade pie crusts, refridgerated
Eggwhite from 1 egg, beaten
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.
Steps
Preheat oven to 425. Unroll bottom pie crust and fit into the pie pan. Prebake for 10 minutes, then set aside.
Put potatoes in a pot and cover with about 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until tender.
Melt butter over med-low heat in a large skillet. Increase heat to medium and add onion, celery, and cabbage. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Sautee until tender.
Sprinkle over flour and mix to incorporate. Stir in thyme. Cook mixture for 2 minutes over medium heat to remove raw flour flavor.
Gradually stir in chicken broth and potato water until the mixture takes on a gravy-like consistency. Bring mixture to a low boil.
Stir in chicken and potatoes, remove from heat.
Add mixture to prebaked crust. Seal with the top crust, trim excess, and crimp. Brush the crust with beaten eggwash. Cut small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bake 35-40 min until top is golden brown. Let sit 15 min before cutting.
Reheating:
Preheat to 300 F. Cover with foil and heat 20 min covered. Uncover, increase heat to 350 F and cook for 10 minutes more.
Commentary:
I was looking for a way to avoid adding milk. I wouldn't be opposed to adding it into this recipe, but I hate buying milk, because even when I buy the tiny bottles, 2/3rds ends up spoiling and going down the drain. I figured the starch from the potato water would make a decent substitute. I'm not sure if it did anything, but it made me feel better.
I could potentially bump the cabbage up to 3 cups, or add in a cup of leeks. I've only used napa cabbage so far, since it lends really well to being thinly sliced, and I like the color. I assume regular green cabbage should do the job fine, though I'm sure I'll test this at some point.
I feel like this would lend well to converting to a vegetarian recipe by using veg stock for the gravy, adding leeks, and overall upping the portions to fill in for the lack of chicken.
Overall, I'm really satisfied with this. I've always liked the idea of pot pies, but I hate the obligatory peas and carrots combo. I feel like this keeps a nice, high veg content with a much more palatable spread.