Individual Chicken Pot Pie Review
March 30, 2020
It seems my theme recently has been trying to recreate my favorite store bought recipes from my childhood. For this craving, I was on the hunt for the perfect Marie Calendars Chicken Pot Pie. I must say, this recipe is even better than the store bought stuff. I searched for a solid day for a recipe I thought I could get behind, and I finally settled on the Once Upon a Chef Chicken Pot Pie recipe with Jen Segal:
https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/chicken-pot-pie.html
I have made this recipe twice now, and have approached it in different ways. Both times the recipe has been amazing and got rave reviews from the gallery! The first time I made it was for a Sunday night dinner in California, with the intent of making a double batch (so I could freeze some for my sister and I for later use on a late flying night). I ended up ordering a box of 50 “5 inch” disposable aluminum pie pans for 13 dollars on amazon. The only thing I would say for these pie pans is…… If you are serving these at a dinner party, expect people to each have two of them. For the individual freezer serving size, the pans were the perfect size. Before you package them, ensure you poke the air holes in the top with a fork and set them in the freezer on a tray to set the filling. Once the filling is set, transfer them to some Ziploc freezer bags. When you go to cook the frozen pies, still stick with the 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes and make sure you don’t forget the egg wash! If you run out of eggs (which I strive to never do, so I usually run two to three dozen eggs in the fridge at all times).
As I learn from a recipe every time I make it, this week I made sure to have some larger servings for the dinner the night I make them, and then I used the “5 inch” pans for the freezer pies. If you don’t want to waste the aluminum pans, you could invest in a box of mini anchor brand clear pie pans. I would only do this if you think you will be keeping all of these yummy pies to yourself…….. I have found in this time of social distancing, the pies make excellent bartering tools! Yesterday I traded three frozen pies with my friend Kim, in exchange for a fresh homemade loaf of Rosemary olive bread (hopefully I can get her to do a guest blog post on that one soon!).
You can always substitute your favorite veggies in the filling as well. My mother wanted me to add broccoli to the filling, but its not my absolute favorite. If you do decide to add some broccoli, I would recommend blanching the broccoli, and then add it to the filling at the very end of the process. Bellow is a picture of what the filling should look like before you add it to the pies!
I hope you all enjoy exploring and adapting this recipe! These pies are addicting, and you’ll never return to Marie Callender after this!