This started off as an experiment with one of the “Mother Sauces” of French cuisine, the veloute sauce. A veloute sauce is made with equal parts butter and flour, a light chicken or fish stock, and salt and pepper. We amped up the veloute with thyme and cayenne pepper, added our leftover chicken, mushrooms, and veggies, and baked it in a homemade pie crust for a surprisingly easy weeknight treat. We like it with a dry white wine.

Spicy Chicken Pot Pie

Make the pie crusts, then refrigerate until needed.

Poached chicken thighs, onions, garlic, and carrots.

Saute.

Making the roux.

Add the stock. And frozen veggies.

Add the chicken too.

Roll out your crusts. These came out really big!

Fold and fork.

Glaze with egg wash for that perfect golden brown finish.

Spicy Chicken Pot Pies

Spicy Mushroom Chicken Potpie

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 sections of Easy Savory Pie Crust*
• olive oil
• 2 small onions, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups Chicken Stock (warm, or at least at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 & 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 2 cups cooked chicken, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 cup of steamed mixed frozen veggies (I use a blend of organic peas, carrots, green beans, and lima beans)
• 1 whole egg, beaten

Directions

Make the Easy Savory Pie Crust at least 1 hour before you start. Keep it chilled until about 5 minutes before you need to roll it out.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Start the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Sautee slowly until the onions become soft and translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture, then add the butter. Lightly whisk until the butter and flour are fully combined. The pan will start to dry out. This is your roux. Do not let it burn. When the roux starts to just take on a little color, stream in the stock and whisk until the roux and stock are combined. Add the mushrooms, thyme, and cayenne and stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the chicken and steamed veggies, and take the pan off the heat while you roll out the pie crusts.

Roll out 2 sections of pie dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick to fit a 1 & 1/5 quart baking dish. It is OK if the crust doesn’t fit perfectly (mine didn’t) because you are going to seal the crust to itself or to the pan.

Lay the one of the crusts on the bottom of your dish, lightly pressing it into the corners and up the sides of the dish. Pour in the chicken mixture. Lay the second crust over the top, pinching it together with the bottom crust along the edges. Brush the top and edges with the egg wash and make three 3/4 inch slits in the top with a sharp knife.

Bake for about one hour until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling inside. Let the pie cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before carving out 4 servings.

* If you like a thinner pie crust, try using just 1 section of the pie crust recipe for both the top and bottom crusts as I did in my Sausage Pot Pie recipe!