Dairy Free Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie

The title is quite loaded and your baking dish will be as well!  This is a SUPER easy recipe that takes the cake on the "fix it and forget it" front.  Make the guts and the crust, fill it and toss it in the oven to bake.  What could be easier than that on a week night? Not much!

I saw Gordon Ramsay make this once...and I took notes.  But, I of course adjusted the original recipe to leave out dairy, but if you don't have a dairy allergy the exchanges are even, so just use butter in place of "vegan buttery spread".  For the cream I left it out completely and used dry white wine for a different tone of flavor.

Dairy Free Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie

3 1/2 T. vegan buttery spread

1 large onion, peeled & chopped

3 stalks celery, diced

1 large carrot, peeled & chopped

1 large potato, peeled (or not) & diced

1/3 c. all-purpose flour, plus extra to dust for crust rolling

2 c. chicken stock

1 c. cream or dry white wine (I used dry white wine)

Sea salt 

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, chunked

1 pkg. good-quality ready-made puff pastry

1 medium egg beaten with 1 T. water, to glaze

Melt the butter in a large, wide pan and add the onion, celery, carrot, and potato. Saute on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. **If you use the dry white wine, this is when you put it in.  Let the alcohol cook out for 4-5 minutes then add the flour to make a roux and stir well. Cook, stirring frequently, for another 2 minutes to cook out the flour.

Pour in the stock and add the cream if you are using that instead of the dry white wine, then season well with sea salt and black pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, for about 5 to 10 minutes until thickened. Add the chunks of chicken and simmer for 5 minutes or until the pieces are just cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Take the pan off the heat and let cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Roll out half of the puff pastry for the bottom of the baking dish/pie pan.  Once the pastry is lining the bottom of your baking dish, spoon the chicken filling in to just below the rim.

  

 Now, roll out the other half of the puff pastry dough.  Trim your edges just a bit and fold under as you would a regular pie.  Crimp the edges in any way you wish.  Brush the pastry with egg wash to glaze.

Bake the pie in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.

Let stand for 10-20 minutes before serving.

This recipe is SO incredibly simple but packs so much yumminess into each bite, you'll swear this pot pie took hours in the crock pot!  The layering of flavors from one step to the next is what makes this so wonderful.  Now, had I been cooking for a different crowd I would have added green peas to the mix.  But these days, much to my personal dismay, the Sprout is "anti-pea".  If you want to avoid the starch of potatoes, you could go with a root vegetable like parsnips or with a healthier potato; a sweet potato.  If you aren't a fan of celery pieces you could put them through a food processor until it is pulp or use "celery flake".  Celery flake is basically dehydrated celery that was shredded before being dehydrated.  The bright, fresh flavor boost that the celery gives is paramount to this turning out so well.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we did tonight!