Puff paste has nothing to do with what goes into the pie....just make your filling and top with puff pastry....bake until the pastry is browned and the filling hot.
I made a chicken opt pie just for me last night....may eat leftovers tonight....may look for someone to go out with.
No recipe...I start with some sauteed veggies, onions celery carrots and perhaps mushrooms and a little red bell pepper...when translucent, I add enough chicken broth to just cover the veggies and simmer until tender, then I make a medium white sauce with 1 T butter 2 T flour, 1/2 tsp salt cup of milk or cream and 1 cup chicken broth....add to teh veggies and enough cubed chicken to "fill in the spaces....add about 2 T cream cheese and a T. of dry sherry.
For a 9 by 13 pan which holds 2 quarts, you will need about 5 cups of cooked veggies and meat.....lets say 1 1/2 cups veggies and 3 1/2 cups meat and about3 cups of white sauce.
When its' warm, top with pastry and pop into the oven.
Linda C

It might not have been me, (or it may have), but I recently made a pot pie using Ina Garten's French Apple Tart crust which was really good. I guess we're on the same wave length, as I had enough of the crust in the fridge, to make a pot pie.

My question was whether or not I dare to use some pork roast I pulled out of the freezer for this. Would you? Are there flavors or spices that would be good with the pork?

Here's the recipe I used, along with my little pie bird sticking up out of the middle.

Now Famous
Turkey Pot Pie

For the pastry:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan Cheese
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

Pie Bird

Beaten egg

Using the steel blade of the food processor, add the flour, sugar and salt and pulse a few times to blend ingredients. Cut the butter into small cubes; add to the flour mixture and pulse 10 or 12 times until the mix resembles small peas. Add the cold water and blend until soft dough is formed. Throw a bit of flour onto a surface and knead a few times. Pat the dough into a flat round disk and refrigerate for at least one hour.

For the Filling:
1 lb. of shredded, roasted turkey
3 carrots, peeled and diced small
1 large onion, diced
1 15 oz. can cut green beans/or frozen bag of petite peas
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
1 cup chicken broth
cup half and half
2 cups shredded white cheddar cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the diced onion and carrots onto a half sheet pan. Add 1 T. olive oil and toss with salt and pepper. Roast on convection for 25-30 @ 400 degrees F.

Spoon the roasted carrots and onions into a large bowl; stir in turkey and green beans. Melt the butter in a skillet, adding the flour when melted. Whisk together and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add chicken broth, half and half, and shredded cheese, stirring together until melted, and combine with the meat and vegetable mixture. Let cool while preparing the pastry crust.

Prepare the crust:
Take the disc out of the refrigerator 10-15 minutes before rolling the dough out. Flour the board and both sides of the dough, and roll evenly, turning the dough a quarter turn with each roll. This will form a round shape for the pie tin. Do the same for the top crust. Fold the top crust in half and cut a hole (with ½ of a shot glass), so the crust can be placed over a pie bird. Flute the edges of the crust, and brush the top of the pie with a beaten egg.

Bake the Pot Pie on a half sheet pan in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes, until golden.

In my younger years, I worked at Filene's Bakery, which was known for it's chicken pie. Unfortunately, never got the recipe, but the puff pastry top was baked separately and then placed over the individual servings. Much easier to rewarm the filling without worrying about burning the puff.

Hi May. I've made this one before.

Lady and Sons Chicken Pot Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
User Rating:

4 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
4 chicken breast halves, or 2 cups leftover cooked chicken
Seasoned salt and pepper
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (try 2 TBSP)
1 quart heavy cream
1/4 cup chicken base (try 2 tsp)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1 cup frozen green peas, cooked
1 cup chopped cooked carrots
Pinch fresh grated nutmeg, optional
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut each sheet of frozen puff pastry into 1-inch strips, 8 inches long. On a large cookie sheet, weave strips into a lattice large enough to cover each pot pie. Brush beaten egg onto each lattice square. Bake for 5 minutes, or until dough has risen and turned light golden brown. Set aside until ready to assemble pies. Leave oven on at 350 degrees F.
Filling:
Season chicken with seasoned salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through. Remove from heat and cut into chunks. Alternatively, you may use precooked chicken.
In a large saucepan, melt butter and then slowly add flour, stirring until consistency of peanut butter, but not brown like a roux. Slowly add cream and keep stirring. Add chicken base, garlic, and onion and stir until thickened. Add peas, carrots, nutmeg, if using, and cut up chicken. Remove from heat. Fill 4 individual oven-proof bowls with chicken mixture and then top each with a pre-cooked lattice square. Bake for 5 minutes or until bubbly. Any remaining pie filling may be frozen.

May,
I make the filling using chunks of chicken, whatever veggies I have on hand, spices to taste, and a thickening made with chicken broth and a little flour. Then I fill one or two cup baking dishes with the mixture, and cut the puff pastry to fit on top, lay it on top and tuck the ends under and cut a steam vent. Then it only needs cooked long enough to bake the crust since the filling is already cooked. Fast and simple and very, very good.
Sherry

great looking pot pie Stacy! I recall when you forst posted that I was struck by how pretty it was.

Since you posted that I too cook my pastry separate from the pot pie. This way I always get a nicely puffed crust with no gooey underside.

I also freeze any extra baked tops for POOFed pot pies.

Thank you very much! That's exactly what I needed. Especially the fact that I should bake the puff pastry separately. I plan to make the filling Thursday night, then I can just heat it back up while I'm baking the pastry, put it all together and stick it in the oven at the last minute.

Stacy, that pie looks wonderful! I hope mine comes out looking as good!

Stacy what a beautiful crust.

This is my favourite Chicken Pot Pie recipe. I use it more as an outline so it is a little different each time I bake it. Sometimes I top it with puff pastry, or the herbed crust and even Buttermilk Biscuits.

I do bake the puff pastry on top of the pie because I actually like the underside baked in the sauce.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Chicken Pot Pie With Herbed Crust
=================================
Pie can be topped with herbed crust or with Puff pastry

Dough
1 1/2� cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into
1 inch pieces
1/4 cup cold solid vegetable
shortening cut into bits
1/4 cup ice water
Chicken filling
4 Large chicken breasts
5 Cups chicken broth
2 Teaspoons black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 springs fresh thyme
3 Large garlic cloves
2 Small carrots cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 Small leek cut into 1/2 inch thick
pieces (about 2 cups)
1 Large sweet potato
1 or 2 stalks of celery
2 or three large baking potatoes cut
into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 Cup frozen peas
Sauce
4 Tablespoons butter
5 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1 Cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper
. Use any combination of vegetables. I have added fresh green beans cut
into 1/2 inch pieces.

Cook the chicken in a soup pot with the broth, peppercorns, bay leaves,
thyme and garlic. Bring to a boil over high head. Reduce the heat to
low and simmer very gently until the chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken from the pot and let cool. Remove meat from bones.
Strain broth to remove peppercorns and herbs. Bring strained broth to a
boil and add leeks, celery and carrot. Cook a couple of minutes and
then add sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. Remove vegetables from
broth to a bowl with the chicken and set aside.

Make sauce, by melting butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour
and then cooking stirring frequently with a whisk, until the mixture
develops a nutty smell, about 2 minutes. Slowly add half the broth to
the roux, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. Add the rest of
the broth along with the cream and chopped thyme. Increase the heat to
moderate and allow the sauce to simmer, stirring occasionally, until it
is well steeped with the flavour of thyme. Remove the pan from the
head. Add the vegetables and chicken to the sauce. Add frozen peas.
Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon filling into the pan. Cover with pastry, trucking in edge to seal
to side of pan. Reroll the dough trimmings and cut out several leaf
shapes to decorate. Make small incisions in the crust to allow steam to
escape.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until crust in golden brown, for about 50
minutes.

I am going to use the pre-baked puff pastry idea myself in the future. Here is a to-die-for recipe for chicken potpie from Ina Garten. When I made it, I just used a "red box" pie crust (I'm so NOT a baker). I baked the filling as a whole double-crusted pie. Even though I used a deep dish pie plate, I had filling leftover. I froze that. Can't remember if I've used it yet or not - I'll have to go look lol!

Ingredients:

3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 chicken bouillon cubes
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
For the pastry:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into large dice. You will have 4 to 6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions and parsley. Mix well.

For the pastry, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and butter and mix quickly with your fingers until each piece is coated with flour. Pulse 10 times, or until the fat is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water; process only enough to moisten the dough and have it just come together. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls. Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.

seagrass

aw shucks...thanks guys! That pics from back in 2006 - LOL. Guess I should make pot pie again soon?

You should definitely make it again, Stacy!

That crust is so up my alley. Did you use your pie plate (that is a plate, not a bowl, as in the directions, isn't it?) as a template to cut the woven crust into a circle? The directions seem to say you should leave it as a square and just plunk it on top of the filling, but yours doesn't look like that's what you did. I was wondering whether you cut it the same size, or a little bigger or smaller--don't know if puff pastry expands or shrinks as it bakes.

Just beautiful.

I made chicken pot pies for a Christmas luncheon. My intent was to fill individual bowls with pre-made hot filling, cover with puff pastry, and pop in the oven. That wasn't possible, so made individual rounds of cut-out puff pastry, baked separately and placed on top just before serving. Looked beautiful and the guests were impressed.
Thanks Pepperidge Farms!

Hi Maureen. If I remember correctly, I cut it to fit exactly. Besides, It never would have occurred to me that it might expand or shrink - Lol.

And yes, I made a single large pot pie in a pie plate.

Thanks, Stacy! Sometimes I overthink things. ;o)

It's such a lovely, fresh way of serving an old reliable that I wanted to make sure I got it right.

oh I definitely didn't mean to imply that! It's just widely known around here that I jump into cooking type things without really thinking them through - LOL. I wish I had cooking common sense, but I just don't. sigh.

Good luck!

I like the sticky underside, so I always cook the puff pastry on top of the chicken mixture. Crisply flaky on top and a little gooey on the underside. Yum.

Well, just to report back...

I'm ashamed to say I conked out on the pot pie. I had a late meeting at the office on Friday, and the gang was due over at 6:30 and I just didn't think there would be time to defrost and bake the puff pastry, figuring on less than 1 hour prep time Friday evening.

So I did a Mexican Chicken Casserole instead. Made it Wednesday night and all I had to do on Friday was top it with shredded cheese and pop it in the oven. Much less stressful for me.

I definitely want to do the pot pie though, so I'll probably make it the next time Movie night is at my house, as long as we can manage to schedule it on a Saturday night. So I'm keeping the notes from this thread for reference then. Thanks again!