(mini) Chicken Pot Pie

Ever since my February issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived, I have been craving the chicken pot pie that is pictured throughout. When Tim brought it up last weekend (Martha is in the bathroom, so everyone reads it), I knew it was time to try it out! However, I didn't want to stick to Martha's recipe and not give anyone else a chance, so I did some searching online for the perfect recipe. And then.... I didn't follow any of them. I sort of used Martha's in terms of proportions of ingredients and cook time, but the ingredients more resembled Ina Garten's (who is a goddess, by the way.)  Either way-- it was great. Here's what I did:

1 quarter of a yellow onion (in the fridge) finely diced
1 celery stalk finely chopped
1 red potato, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and diagonally sliced
1 chicken breast, cubed
1/4 cup (or so) frozen peas
glug of olive oil
1 cup (ish) chicken stock
glug of sherry
1/3 cup (ish) 2 % milk (because that's what I had)
2 (ish) teaspoons corn starch
puff pastry
egg (for egg wash)
salt, pepper, thyme, and sage to taste

First I preheated the oven to 425. While it was warming up, I put the onion, celery, and olive oil in a bit pot over medium heat and sauteed until everything was translucent. Then, I added the potatoes and carrots and sauteed for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally. I also added Thyme (just ground), salt, and a few shakes of pepper at this point. Then, just as the potato and carrot were becoming tender, I added a glug of Sherry and let it cook down (about 3 minutes). At that point I added the cubed chicken and chicken broth (and put a lid on until it boiled). After boiling for several minutes I added the peas, the milk and the corn starch (I first whisked it with some water so it wouldn't chunk up). Then I let it boil again and thicken up.

Then I spooned the mixture into two mini pie-pans. A big pie pan would do, as would a bunch of ramekins. But for dinner with my honey, the two little minis were perfect! I put a piece of puff pastry over both-- with enough extra dough to spill over the edge. I did a quick egg wash and cut a slit in the top of each and popped them into the oven for around 15 minutes (mostly I just kept an eye on them, and when the top was golden brown I knew it was done!)

personal pans of deliciousness

The chicken pot pies were DE-LISH! Now I am actually tempted to follow some of the recipes I've been looking at exactly to figure out the best possible version. The dish got good marks all around-- not too difficult and not too unhealthy. Nice and filling on a frigid winter night!

On the side, I served a salad of bibb lettuce, walnuts, chopped fennel, and a dijon vinaigrette.

VERY good Wednesday night dinner.