The Best Mushroom and Chicken Pot Pie Recipe For Thanksgiving

What is a Chicken Pot Pie?

The first thing to come to mind when you hear the words 'chicken pot pie' is probably the frozen meals you had growing up -- those little foil-wrapped, oval-shaped pies that come in boxes at the grocery store. But there's more to this delicious dish than those frozen dinners.

With a long, storied history, the chicken pot pie is a classic dish that has been eaten for centuries, and is still enjoyed today as comfort food.

Made with chicken, vegetables, and a flaky crust that will melt in your mouth, this dish has evolved over the years. Almost every generation has added its own spin to the recipe, whether in the form of a new technique for preparing, cooking and filling the ingredients, or developing a new kind of pastry crust. The result is that chicken pot pie recipes vary greatly from household to household. You can make a simple and easy chicken recipe by throwing a few ingredients together into a casserole dish, or you can go all out with your homemade crust and filling and everything in between!

Typically, a chicken pot pie is filled with chicken, potatoes, carrots, peas and corn. The filling is often flavored with basil, thyme, parsley, sage, and cilantro. The pie crust is made of flour, butter and water.

History of the Chicken Pot Pie

It's difficult to pinpoint the exact history of a dish that has been consumed for centuries. There are many theories about the origin of the chicken pot pie, which is now as American as corn on the cob. But the most popular one, interestingly, goes back to ancient Rome.

In the heyday of the Roman Empire, meat pies were served at banquets. Later in the 16th Century, the English gentry revived the ancient custom of meat pies, enjoying them as appetizers at celebrations. They consumed all sorts of pies, including lamb, pork and game like chicken and goose. But they were particularly fond of birds, so it wasn't long before cooks started making pot pies with tiny chicks stuffed to their beaks with gooseberries.

Another theory has it that the British aristocracy, bored with fancy French dishes, decided to revive the ancient meat pie.

Closer home, some historians believe that America's love affair with the chicken pot pie started in Plymouth Colony (1620-1691), after a shipwreck brought settlers to these shores. These survivors were accustomed to eating a similar dish back home. However, unable to find the same ingredients in their adoptive home, they started making their own version of the pie using local ingredients like pumpkin. Over time, cooks began to wrap the pastry around the filling, instead of baking it separately in a pie dish.

And that's how the meat pie traveled across the Atlantic into the New World, where it was tweaked to become more American. The recipes for chicken pot pie, beef pot pie, and sea pie (a dish of preserved meats developed on ships) were included in the 1796 cookbook American Cookery. Eventually, vegetables like carrots and peas became a staple ingredient of the chicken pot pie, making it more nutritious and tasty.

How to Make the Perfect Mushroom and Chicken Pot Pie- Ingredients

To make a perfect creamy mushroom and chicken pot pie for a family of six, you require

For the crust-

• Two cups all-purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (chopped into cubes)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold water.

• Five tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups skinless and boneless chicken thighs or breasts
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup medium sized cremini mushrooms (quartered)
• 2 cups roughly chopped white or red onions
• 2 cups sliced carrots (peeled and cut into half inch pieces)
• 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 cups low sodium chicken stock or thick chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 cups half-inch diced red potatoes
• 1 cup frozen or regular peas
• A quarter cup dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons parsley (fresh and chopped)
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme (chopped)
• One and a half tablespoons (22g) dijon mustard.

How to Make the Perfect Mushroom and Chicken Pot Pie- Steps

To make the crust-
Mix salt and flour in a large bowl. Take the butter out of the fridge 15 minutes before starting, cut it into cubes. Toss the butter cubes with flour and salt so they mix well. Make sure there aren't any big chunks of butter left. Next, pour four to five tablespoons of cold water, stir gently with your hands until it's mixed evenly and make a big dough. Wrap the dough tightly with a plastic sheet and let it rest in your fridge for an hour. One can also use a store bought crust dough in case of time constraints.

To make the filling-

1. Take an eight-quart Dutch oven, pour two tablespoons of oil and heat it over medium to high heat until very hot. Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper. Make two batches. Add the first batch of chicken to the Dutch oven and brown it for around five minutes on each side. Transfer the pieces to a chopping board and cut them. Now, add one tablespoon of oil in the oven, heat it, add the second batch, and repeat the process. Place the chicken together in a large bowl.
   
2. Heat one tablespoon of oil in the pot over high heat for two minutes and toss the mushrooms in it for three to four minutes until browned. Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl of chicken.
   
3. Pour the rest of the oil into the pot and heat it for two minutes over medium heat. Add onions, chopped carrots and potatoes to the pot and cook for ten minutes. Add the minced garlic and stir it for one minute. Transfer the sauteed vegetables to the same bowl.
   
4. Use the same pot to melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and cook it for four minutes. Stir it frequently to avoid burning the flour. Mix the chicken broth in small quantities so that no lumps form. Stir the mixture with a stirrer frequently and bring it to a boil over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the cream and combine well.
   
5. Now, reduce the heat to low and flip the bowl with potatoes, chicken, vegetables and any accumulated fats/juices into the pot. Add peas (thawed), salt and pepper to taste. Cook all the ingredients on a simmer and stir it frequently for around 20 to 25 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Add sherry, parsley, thyme, and mustard and mix well.
   

1. Take six ramekins (of the same size, two to three inches deep) and distribute the filling evenly among them.
   
2. Let the dough rest for thirty minutes (at room temperature). Roll the dough into a 3- to 4- mm thick rectangular sheet on a lightly floured surface. With a round cookie cutter, cut six circles from the slightly wider sheet than the bowls. Cut one small cross in the center of each circle.
   
3. The crust sheet should be placed over each ramekin or baking dish of the filling mixture and gently pressed into its sides, so it flares up.
   

How to Store Your Pot Pie

The best part about most Pot Recipes is that they are easy to store. A classic homemade chicken and mushroom pot pie tastes best when freshly baked and consumed hot. But don't worry about your leftover pot pie. Instead, allow it to cool at room temperature for around 1 to 1.5 hours before storing. Wrap your cooled pie tightly in aluminium foil and place it in a food-grade plastic bag (with almost zero air to avoid any bacterial growth) or put your pot pie in an airtight container and freeze it for up to five days. You can reheat it in the oven or the microwave and enjoy it with your family later.

A freshly baked mushroom and chicken pot pie will last up to five days in the refrigerator if Food Safety guidelines are followed and the pie is stored properly under recommended conditions.

You can store a baked pot pie wrapped tightly in aluminum foil and covered under a couple of layers of food-grade plastic sheets for months in a deep freezer. But the quality of the pie will deteriorate with time. A freshly baked pie can be frozen for two to three months, a longer freezing time than an unbaked pie. However, avoid eating a chicken pot pie that has been left out for over two hours at room temperature, as bacteria grows quickly between 40 F and 140 F.

How to Get the Perfect Pie Crust

To create a flaky pie crust, mix the cold butter and flour briskly and combine with chilled water in small batches until a dough forms. The fat in the butter coats the flour protein molecules, keeping water molecules away. It helps prevent gluten from forming (which would cause your pie crust to become tough) and results in a flaky crust. Put the dough in the refrigerator for an hour to set. Also, make sure your cooking environment is cool enough.

Cooking Tips and Tricks

1. The dough for the crust can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days or frozen for up to one month. To roll, let the frozen dough thaw overnight in the fridge or for about one hour at room temperature.
2. To refrigerate the filling, prepare the filling mixture as per the instructions above and let it cool at room temperature. Fill the mixture in a one-gallon food-grade plastic storage bag and leave at least an inch of space at the top to account for any expansion during defrosting. A properly sealed bag full of filling can be frozen for up to a month. Thaw the mixture overnight in the refrigerator before planning to bake your pot pie. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat it over low to medium heat for around 10-12 minutes. Now, use it as per the recipe.
3. Don't overwork the crust dough.
4. Give the bottom crust a good egg wash or brush it with a little oil to keep the filling from soaking into it too quickly. Let your crust rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before putting it together.
5. You can also use a foil collar to shield the pie crust edges from over-browning. Cover your crust with foil during the last 20 to 25 minutes of baking.