Deep Dish Chicken Pie

Nice meal for the approaching fall. Start with boiling some chicken (full chicken or 3 chicken breasts). Once chicken is ready, separate into pieces and keep the broth.

Add the vegetables (2 carrots, 4 stalks of celery, one onion, beans or red peppers) to 1 cup of the chicken broth. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Take the vegetables out of the broth. Mix 3/4 cup half-and-half with 1/3 cup flour. Add to the broth along with another 1 cup half-and-half. Cook on medium heat until thickens. Mix the vegetables, chicken, chopped mushrooms and the white sauce and pour into a pie baking dish.

Make the pastry: 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 cup plus 2 Tbls butter. Mix together until crumbles. Then add 1/2 cup water to the mix, 1 Tbls at a time, and mix until they resemble a dough. Take three quarters of the dough and roll on a floured surface into a flat circle and cover the baking dish with it. 

Use the remainder of the dough for fun stuff. Tonight I made the initial of my guest on top of the dough and used the left over dough, mixed with icing sugar, to make cookies.

Brush the dough with 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water. Bake in 325 oven for 60 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before serving.

As you see, 3 people devoured the full pie in one sitting.