Little Baby Chicken Pies

(no, these are not made from little baby chickens...read on)

We floated in to Cambria Wednesday night and it’s been raining constantly since then.  More on the way, they say.  Man, it’s just dang soggy here.  So far, I have to say, I’m totally enjoying the rain.  Perhaps it feels a little nostalgic and homey.  After all, we’ve only lived in the Midwest for 3 years, so the California winter rains are familiar and just make us happy.  I must be careful in saying that, though, what with downed trees and neighbors without power.

But with all this rain we’re total shut-ins, and I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy day than making chicken pies.  I had it in mind to make a chicken pot pie for dinner, but then decided to make little baby chicken pies, and were they ever cute.  Very tasty too.  

This was a little labor intensive for a regular week-night dinner, but much time could be saved by using puff pastry or store-bought pie crust.  I used a regular-sized muffin pan, and for that I used a 4 ¾ in. bowl to cut out the pastry circles.  Then it was just a matter of fitting them in the muffin tin and filling them.  Then  I topped each pie with a little 2 in. round of pastry. 

After baking, I served them with a little extra filling as a sauce at the table. We loved these little pies.  Nuff sed.

Individual Chicken Pies

For a printable recipe, click here

Makes 10-12   3 in. pies

1 recipe double pie crust (2 9” pie crusts)

2 tablespoons butter1 tablespoon canola oil

6 chicken thighs, cut into small pieces

½ lb chicken tenders, cut into small pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

3-4 small-ish carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

Large handful fresh parsley, chopped

2 cups whole milk

2 cups chicken broth

¼ cup flour

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Bring a large sauté pan to medium-high heat.  Add the butter and canola oil.  When heated, add the carrot, celery and onion and sauté for about 5 minutes.  Add the dried thyme, chopped chicken thighs and parsley.  Cook, stirring until the thigh meat is cooked through (about 5 minutes).  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add the flour and stir until the flour is well incorporated and then continue to cook another 4 minutes.  Add the milk and chicken broth, and continue to stir and cook until the sauce begins to thicken.

In another pan sauté the chicken tenders in a little more oil until cooked through.  Add to the pan reduce to very low while you prepare the crust.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the pastry dough into circles about 4 ¾ in. in diameter and fit into the cups of a nonstick muffin tin.   Fill each with some of the filling.  There should be plenty of filling leftover to use as a sauce at the table.

Cut an equal number of 2” circles and place them on top of the filled muffin cups.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool a little before removing from the pan.  Heat the remaining filling and serve at the table alongside the pies.