Individual Chicken Pot Pies Recipe

I love homemade chicken soup and I love pie crust, so I came up with a chicken pot pie recipe for my family. I created a simple chicken soup recipe that when thickened, makes a great filling for the pie. Years ago I found this Flaky Pie Crust recipe on Vegan Pantry's website and I use it exclusively for all of my pot pies and fruit pies. This recipe takes about 2 hours from beginning to end (1 hour prep, 1 hour baking), but believe me, it's worth it. We absolutely love chicken pot pie night at our house.

Individual Chicken Pot Pies Recipe

1 large carrot or 2 medium carrots
1/4 head of a small green cabbage

2 tbsp olive oil
Pepper
3-1/2 cups water
3 bay leaves
2 tsp of Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base(Kosher if you can find it)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup frozen peas (optional)
2 heaping tbsp unbleached flour whisked with 1/3 cup water for slurry

1/2 recipe of Flaky Pie Crust (I use 1 cup of just unbleached flour for it, not both types of flour)

4 Pyrex Original 10-oz. Custard Cups

To prepare the vegetables and the chicken breasts:

Wash and dry all of the vegetables. Peel and slice or dice the carrots. Slice the small chunk of cabbage into strips and chop it into small 1 inch pieces. Cut the chicken breasts in half so they fit in your pot easier.

To make the pot pie filling:

In a large pot over High heat, add the olive oil, cabbage and carrots. Pepper to taste. Saute the vegetables for about 10 minutes to get them slightly browned. Add the water, Better than Bouillon, and bay leaves. When boiling, add the chicken breasts. Get the soup back to a boil, turn the heat down to Low, cover the pot with a lid, and simmer the chicken breasts for 15 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and cut the cooked chicken into bite-sized cubes. Return the cubed chicken to the pot. (Add the frozen peas [optional].) In a small bowl combine the flour and water to make a slurry, using a small whisk to get all of the lumps out, and mix it in the soup. Raise the heat to Medium High and let the soup simmer for a few more minutes to thicken up, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat when done and remove the bay leaves.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the pie crust:

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Lightly flour your work-space. Roll each piece into a ball and then use a rolling pin to roll the crust into a circle large enough to overlap the tops of the custard cups and cover the pies.

To make the pot pies:

Spray the custard cups with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each with pot pie filling to within 1/2 inch from the top. Lay the pie crust round on top of the filling, flip over the edges, and press the dough to the sides of the custard cup to seal the crust. Cut a small slit in the top of each pie. Place the pies on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for 1 hour. Makes 4 individual chicken pot pies with left-over filling.

With the left-over filling, you can eat it by itself as a soup another time, or just re-heat it and serve it with the pot pies on the side for those who want more filling while they're eating their pies. When I make pot pies, I make 3 pot pies, and serve the left-over filling on the side.