Chicken pot pie: served for Mrs. Picky

By Liv

Who doesn't love chicken pot pie? In order to make this appealing to Mrs. Picky Eater (aka Stella), I borrowed this recipe from Ina Garten and changed it up — substituting some things for her gluten and egg-free diet — and then made a special "small" pie just for her by filling a small oven-proof coffee mug with the filling and omitting the top crust.

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 gluten-free flour
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* 2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
* 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (2 cups)
* 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

For the pastry:

* Store-bought pie crusts.

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.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Fill two pie plates with the mixture and spoon the remaining mixture in to as many oven-proof rammekins or coffee cups that you can. (I do not cover Stella's with the pie crust, but if your child isn't gluten-intolerant, you can.) Cover the two pies with pie crust and cut a nice design on top for venting purposes.

Place on a baking sheet and bake the rammekins for 15 minutes, the pies for 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.

Bon appetit!