Chicken Pot Pie, the Comfort Casserole

A soothing taste of an old favorite: Chicken Pot Pie.

A friend sent me a note about Ina Garten’s new cookbook (her twelfth), entitled Modern Comfort Food. I was thrilled by the news! As a reader of this blog, you know that I often cook Ina’s recipes.

When the note arrived, I was just putting my own dish of comfort into the oven: Chicken Pot Pie.

Prepare for Chopping

Anyone making this casserole would benefit from having a sou chef in the kitchen to help with the chopping and preparation of sauce, vegetables, chicken, dough, and egg wash.

None of these steps is hard, just time consuming. It took me the best part of the morning to get the casserole in the oven.

Now I know why so many people go for Marie Callender’s tasty, frozen version. But what else do I have to do these days besides play hide and seek with the virus?

Lots of chopping.

Folding over the last corner of the pot pie before sealing and applying the egg wash to the top

Into the oven for 30 minutes.

An Update on Mama’s Chicken Pot Pie

My mother used to make her pot pies entirely from scratch. In recent years, I’ve taken shortcuts. I use a rotisserie chicken and a Pillsbury roll-out pie crust.

I also add a bit of grated cheddar cheese and a jolt of hot sauce.

Some prefer their pot pie to set up enough to cut smoothly, while others like a thinner sauce. Just add less flour and more liquid, if you want a thinner consistency. I use just a 1/4 cup of flour rather than the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe.

In my haste to get the casserole into the oven, I nearly forgot to smear the top layer of pastry with an egg/water wash. Don’t skip this part! The egg-wash gives the top a crusty, golden color—as you can see in the photo below.