Mili's Chicken Pot Pie Filling
Mili's family-favorite, using chicken breast and vegetables in a filling that is full of classic, fresh flavor.
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts cubed
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or canola oil
- 8 tablespoons butter (one stick) I only use salted butter.
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour or gluten free, alternative all purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken stock 32 ounces, or one standard box container
- 3 large carrots chopped
- 1 and 1/2 cups peas frozen
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley (a handful) cleaned and chopped
- coarse kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, granulated garlic powder seasoned to your taste
Instructions
- Prep and clean all ingredients so that they are ready to go. Use separate cutting boards for the meat, veggies, and onion and garlic-chopping. Here I'm showing a stick and a half of butter - that was a mistake - but note that this recipe calls for only use one stick.
- Cube the chicken breasts, and season with ample salt, pepper, and garlic powder and set aside.
- Chop carrots and start a little pot with boiling water so that you can blanch them. When your water comes to a boil, place the carrots. Set a timer for one minute. After the minute, drain the water and set the carrots aside.
- Clean the three garlic gloves and chop the onion in small, uniform pieces. Chop about a handful of cleaned, fresh Italian parsley. Trust me, I'm not offering the instruction because I'm Italian. Flat leaf has more fragrance and flavor and the other stuff should only be used as garnish in my opinion. You won't regret it.
- Put your stove on medium heat. Drizzle oil into a stock pot.
- Add the onions, and season with an ample amount of coarse kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Cook down until onions start to become translucent (a few minutes).
- Add the garlic and combine. I use a garlic press to do the fine-mincing for me. Another option is to chop them finely, or used prepared garlic from a jar.
- Add the pre-seasoned chicken.
- Cook together.
- Once the chicken is completely cooked, remove from the pot. You don't want it to dry out, so I suggest covering with wrap or a lid.
- Now it's time to make the roux. A roux is the thickened sauce-like base that pulls the filling together. Many use heavy cream for their chicken pot pie. I do not use cream. This process is also the starting-point of pulling all of the flavor that has been cooked into the pan. Melt the butter. Once all of it is just about totally melted, add the flour all at once.
- I then used my wooden spoon (but honestly, for best results when making a roux, you'll preferably use a whisk) to quickly combine the ingredients together, creating a paste.
- Next, pour in 32 ounces (four cups) of prepared chicken stock. I typically go organic on any ingredient that I use. If I can make it from scratch, that's amazing, but for quick-as-possible dinners, I use the boxed stuff. One box is all you need.
- You'll mix this together until the roux has completely combined. The heat of the pot and the liquid of the chicken stock are going to lift all of the flavor (seeming to appear as stains cooked into the bottom of your pot). This is called deglazing. By the time your roux has mixed in, the cooking stains from the bottom of your pot are removed, and your base is fully seasoned.
- With a couple minutes of mixing while cooking, your roux is now noticeably thick. Once it has come to a bubble-boil, your cooking is complete. The time to get your roux to a boil should take about five minutes total. Once this is complete, lower the heat from medium to low, and it is time to add in all of the prepared chicken and vegetables.
- Add the prepared chicken-onion-and-garlic mixture, frozen peas and chopped parsley. Combine.
- If you started boiling your carrots while tending to your roux, then they are ready. Pour them in and stir. Your chicken pot pie filling is complete. Remove the pot from heat. I recommend you taste it at this point. This is your opportunity to add more salt and/or fresh cracked pepper to-taste - according to your personal taste buds. You be the judge of what you prefer. This recipe as I'm showing you will not need less salt, maybe only a little more.
- Pour the prepared filling into a pie pan if you're going to add a crust on top. If you're serving with biscuits or without, this is ready to serve and eat. For the flakey-pastry pie crust recipe, please see my post by that name.
- If you are ready to top this with the flakey-pastry pie crust, have your oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.