I was feeling like making something warm and comforting for dinner tonight. Chicken Pot Pie came to mind and luckily Fraser was napping so I was able to put together the pastry and make the dinner a little more on the healthy side!
It doesn't take a lot more time to make things healthier or to make your food from scratch. And often if you have the supplies on hand, almost any recipe can be made better for you!
So I decided to make this pastry using coconut oil instead of shortening. It worked out great, the dough was easy to work with and held together well too.
Here is the process...
First make the pastry
Ingredients
2 cups flour
Half a teaspoon of salt
One cup coconut oil or shortening
One egg
2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl cut the coconut oil into the flour with a pastry blender.
Then beat the egg, water and vinegar together.
Pour the egg, water and vinegar mixture evenly over the flour mixture. Mix until moistened.
Divide dough in half and shape into 2 balls, cover and chill for 15 minutes or until you're done cooking the rest of the filling.
While the dough is chilling in the fridge take the time to make your filling.
Filing Ingredients
Two chicken breasts
Two cloves of garlic
One medium size shallot
Two medium size yams peeled and cubed
1/2 cup frozen peas
Heat olive oil in large frying pan.
Cook the chicken breast in the frying pan until brown with a little bit of salt and pepper to season it.
Once the chicken breasts are nice and brown you can transfer them to the toaster oven on a tray to finish cooking through.
While the chicken breasts are cooking in the toaster oven put a little bit more oil in the frying pan and then add your shallots and garlic until just golden brown and then add the yams; cook until they're tender with a lid on the pan.
Cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream
1/4 teaspoon of thyme
Himalayan sea salt and pepper to taste
While the yams are cooking you can get a small pot and melt a tablespoon of butter in it.
Add in the flour and whisk until it comes together.
Then add to that mixture one and a half cups of chicken or vegetable stock and stir until combined.
To That you will add about a half a cup of cream or whole milk and seasonings.
Stir on medium heat until thick and bubbling.
Once the yams are tender, add in frozen peas and cook until soft. Then mix in the cream soup and let bubble while you roll out the pastry.
Put it all together now!
Remove pastry from the fridge and roll out onto a floured surface. Cut into 1 inch wide strips.
Spoon filling into your baking dish.
Lay strips on top the filling in a criss cross pattern.
Fill in the holes with a third layer of strips to avoid excessive bubbling from the gaps.
Now either transfer right to the oven to bake until pastry is golden brown or cover and put into the fridge until dinner time.
This isn't an easy peasy dinner to throw together but it doesn't take very long and the effort is well worth it.
No cream of crap soup or frozen pastry used and this is a healthy wholesome dinner you can feel good about serving to your family.
Plus with the left over pastry I made a few quick mason Jar Apple Pies!
Dinner is ready to go and the house is smelling wonderful!
