A Birthday and a Pie

Pies and birthdays often arrive simultaneously at my house, but the pie was last week, and it was savory, not a dessert. The birthday is my Hive birthday, which was yesterday. Six years on the blockchain! It sure went by fast.

About a month ago I was in the right place at the right time to eat a slice of chicken pot pie made by a young friend of mine, Ms. W. She is not a recipe person. She just puts things together, sometimes loosely following one or two recipes, and produces wonderful dishes. A mutual friend quoted Ms.W. as saying she adds seasonings until the voices of her ancestors tell her to stop.

So when I asked for her chicken pot pie recipe, what I got was some general guidelines, as follows:

Chop boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Saute with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Add some water, diced carrots and celery and onion, and 2 bay leaves. Simmer until it makes broth. Thicken with cornstarch.

Make crust for a 2-crust pie. Plop the chicken mixture in, add top crust, make slits. Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.

I was starting to brown the chicken when I remembered to take a few pictures for a Hive post. I didn't have chicken thighs on hand, so I used breast meat.

The diced celery and carrots, plus some frozen peas.

Plenty of chopped onion!

Mixing the pie crust. I used lard.

I added a few blobs of Earth Balance spread, and made a note in the "recipe" reminding myself to remove the bay leaves before pouring the filling into the crust. A 10" pie plate was just the right size for the contents.

The finished product!

This was a very tasty pie! It was approved by all family members present, and I plan to make it again some day.

All photos taken on my Android phone.