YIELDS:
4 servings
PREP TIME:
0 hours 30 mins
COOK TIME:
0 hours 50-60 mins
TOTAL TIME:
1 hours 30 mins
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ingredients
7 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup Marsala wine
1 Tbsp. Chicken demi-glace
3 1/2 Cups chicken stock
2 Shallots, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/4 Lb. White button mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 Tsp. Fresh thyme, chopped
2 Tsp. Fresh tarragon, chopped
1 Bay leaf
1/2 Cup Small red-skinned potatoes, finely diced
1 Lb. Chopped Cooked Chicken (breast and/or thighs – about 3 – 3 1/2 Cups)
1 Cup Frozen pearl onions
1 1/2 Cups Frozen mixed vegetables (peas, corn, carrots & beans)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 Package of phyllo dough
1/2 Stick of unsalted butter (4 Tbsp.), melted
1 Egg, beaten with a teaspoon of water
Flakey Sea Salt (Maldon is my preference)
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. To make the filling, in a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and stir and cook until the mixture smells fragrant. (about 2-3 minutes) Stir in the Marsala wine and the demi-glace. Stir until everything is well incorporated.
3. Slowly add the chicken stock, stirring until smooth and creamy. Bring the mixture to a boil then add the diced shallots, celery, mushrooms, thyme, tarragon and bay leaf and cook until the veggies are soft and translucent (about 10 minutes).
4. Add the potatoes, chicken, mixed vegetables and pearl onions and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Remove from the heat, remove the bay leaf and let cool for about 10 minutes.
5. On your countertop or on a cutting board, gently unroll the phyllo dough. Cover it with a damp towel to keep it from drying out. Melt the 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave. Working with one sheet at a time, brush each with butter. Keep the sheets you aren’t working with covered with the towel. You’ll want to stack and rotate the sheets slightly so that when finished the phyllo stack will cover your pie pan. Butter about 10 sheets of phyllo. You will have left over sheets from your one roll. Reroll the dough in parchment paper and put in the fridge for another use.
6. Fill a deep pie dish (9 x 2 1/2 inches average) with the chicken pot pie filling. Carefully lift the stack of buttered phyllo and place it on top of the pot pie. This is a rustic pie so don’t worry about wrinkles, folds or tears. Simply pull up the overhanging pastry and folding it over itself around the edges so it is all on top of the filling. The more rustic, the better.
7. Brush the phyllo with the egg wash and sprinkle with the maldon sea salt.
8. Put the pie dish on the prepped baking sheet and bake until the phyllo is crisp and browned all over, about 20 minutes. Watch it to be sure that it doesn’t burn. Timing depends on the heat of your oven.
9. To serve, spoon the pot pie onto warmed plates or into shallow bowls and sprinkle with more thyme.
NOTES: I fell in love with chicken pot pies when I was a kid. Mom would buy those individual frozen ones and we’d each get our own. I think there was one cube of chicken in each pie and really just a whole lot of crust…lol. I think I liked the idea that I had the whole thing to myself. As I got older I had some really good versions in restaurants and it became one of my favorite comfort foods. My version is an all grown up, delicious take on chicken pot pie. It is rich and filling and just packed with veggies and chicken.
While I love a traditional pastry crust, this version using phyllo dough adds a nice crunch and a little surprise to the dish. It is sooooo good. A couple of notes to make this a breeze to make.
1. Buy a rotissiere chicken and cut the chicken breasts and thigh meat into chunks OR go to your deli department where you can often find containers of already chunked chicken meat. I’ve found already packaged cooked chunks of chicken at Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Ralphs. It makes this recipe easy to make. Of course, cooking your own chicken or chicken breasts is always an option!
2. Phyllo dough needs to be thawed before using. If you read the package, it tells you to do that overnight or to leave it on the kitchen counter for 3 hours to thaw. Well, silly me, I forgot one time and decided to try thawing it in the microwave. 30-40 seconds in the original plastic wrap it comes in and it is perfect everytime. I’m not kidding…everytime. Simply put a roll of the dough, in it’s wrapper in the microwave. That’s it. I haven’t thawed phyllo dough in the fridge or on the counter in years. That alone should save you a ton of time and thought…you are welcome!!!
3. A lot of people have told me that they are intimidated by phyllo dough. “It is so thin…it rips and tears…it dries out” (I’ve heard it all.) Relax. You are putting butter on everything and perfect isn’t the goal. You can bunch this up, scrunch it, tear it and just pile it up on the edges of the pie and it will be great. It gets all brown and crispy in the oven and looks rustic and beautiful when baked. Not only that, but it bakes fast…just 20 minutes.
4. I call for mixed frozen veggies to make this easy. Four different veggies in one bag saves time. You are adding them to the frozen onions but also to the fresh shallots, mushrooms, celery and potatoes so it is a great shortcut and you haven’t lost any of the flavor. The herbs add the remaining freshness.
5. Demi glaze can be tough to find sometimes. I had to go to four stores before I found it at Pavillons in the gravy isle. It is definitely a necessary ingredient in that it adds so much condensed flavor that is hard to reproduce. If you have any trouble getting it, Amazon does carry it. Here’s the link to demi glaze.
5. One last note on the Marsala wine I used. Don’t have any? You can substitute port, madiera or sherry and get similar results. So use what you have. I just happened to have Marsala on hand and loved the taste so that is what is in my recipe.
Follow the steps I’ve laid out and this comes out perfect everytime. Enjoy.
