Imagine chunks of chicken and vegetables in a smooth herb sauce. Add to that vision a golden, flaky crust. It’s the all time great comfort food: chicken pot pie.
Don’t look to your freezer case for the perfect pot pie. What you’ll get there is about as soggy as the weather outside. And, as delicious as it is, it’s a home-style dish that restaurants rarely feature. This is one dinner you’ll have to make to appreciate.
The traditional recipe, with a pastry crust and filling, is more time consuming and requires more effort than many cooks can afford on weeknights, so I created a delicious version using filo dough. You’ll find this paper-thin dough in the freezer case of your supermarket.
Filo dough is a wonder: you can thaw it, remove a couple of sheets for the pot pie and refreeze the remainder. (Use the leftovers and follow the same technique for fruit tarts.) Just fold, butter and shape the dough into a cup. It’s crisp and light.
The filling is as easy as… pie, of course. Full flavored chicken thighs are browned in butter, combined with leek and dill and baked in the crust until bubbly.
Recipe and article by Bev Bennett, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Ingredients: [‘sugar snap peas’, ‘butter’, ‘butter’, ‘leek’, ‘boneless skinless chicken thighs’, ‘flour’, ‘hot chicken broth’, ‘fresh dill’, ‘salt’, ‘pepper’, ‘phyllo dough’]
Quantity of Ingredients: [“6 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and sliced into 1-inch lengths or 1 cup sugar snap pea”,”3 tablespoons butter”,”1 teaspoon butter”,”1 leek, trimmed and washed, cut white part only into small dice “,”4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces “,”2 tablespoons flour”,”1 cup hot chicken broth”,”1/2 tablespoon minced fresh dill”,” salt”,” pepper”,”2 sheets phyllo dough”]
Number of Servings: 2
Steps: [‘Blanch sugar snap peas in boiling water 1 minute. Drain well and set aside.’, ‘Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium pan. Add leek to butter and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add chicken pieces and cook just to get rid of pink color, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.’, ‘Add hot broth and cook and stir until thickened. Stir in dill, sugar snap peas and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 5 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside while preparing filo crust.’, ‘Melt remaining 4 teaspoons butter. Using 1 filo sheet at a time, fold in half widthwise and brush with butter. Fold again to 6 by 8 inch rectangle. Brush again with butter. Fit filo into mini-soufflé dish or cup that measures 4 inches across. Arrange filo in dish to create as large a space as possible for filling. Press dough against edges of dish. Repeat process with remaining sheet of dough.’, ‘Spoon chicken mixture into both dishes, patting it down to get as much chicken into each dish as possible. Place dishes on small baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until filo is golden and chicken is tender and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Makes 2 servings.’]