Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

After getting inspired from reading this: http://adventuresofhannahandcharlie.blogspot.com/2009/10/chicken-pot-pie.html, I decided to try my first ever pot pie. It took a long time to make, but it was much better than the store bought variety. I cooked a chicken the day before, deboned it, and shredded it up. The next day, I added some fresh green beans, carrots, and parsnips and let them cook in the broth. I added a little flour to try to thicken it up a little. When they were done I added frozen peas and the chicken to warm. Then I tried to prepare the crust which was a mess! I used the recipe that my favorite cook book recommended. It was:
1 1/4 flour
1/2 t salt
10 T butter, cold and cut into chunks
1 egg yolk
3 T ice water, more if necessary
(I doubled this to make a larger pot pie.)

Put flour, and salt in food processor for a couple seconds. Add butter and process until uniform. Add egg yolk and process a couple more seconds. Put in bowl and add ice water, mix with hands and form a ball. Wrap in plastic and freeze ten minutes. Sprinkle countertop with flour and roll with rolling pin....so I did this. When I took it out of the freezer it was rock hard. It did get a little more managable as it warmed. But it started cracking and I couldn't roll it out well. Eventually when I had it flattened to the thickeness I wanted, I put the pieces in the pan and used my fingers to connect the pieces and form the shape I wanted. This part took a long time, and was almost impossible to get the top pieces to connect. That turned out to be ok, since my inside mixture was not very thick, and the holes let the water evaporate as it cooked.

The end result was very tasty! I think next time I will try a different crust recipe and see if that makes a difference. I think I will leave out the parsnips too. This was the first time I had ever used them, and I wasn't crazy about them. I will definately make this again!