Dinner Tonight: Individual Chicken Potpies

You may recall that I already have a killer chicken pot pie recipe, one that has been a hit again and again. The only drawback to that recipe is scaled to feed at least six, sometimes twelve - which makes it great for feeding a crowd and overkill for feeding Mr. Fritz and me. So when I saw this recipe for Individual Chicken Potpies on the cover of the October issue of Everyday Food, it seemed worth attempting. I also liked that the recipes differ a bit - my original recipe uses pie crust and frozen vegetables, plus evaporated skim milk. This new recipe uses puff pastry dough, fresh vegetables (well, except for the peas, but I'll get to that in a moment), and is dairy free.


The recipe is scaled to feed four. I cut the flour, broth and chicken in half, doubled the vegetables (actually, I think I may have quadrupled the peas, since I used a whole ten-ounce box. Poor Mr. Fritz said something like, "I think mine is 'Pea Pot Pie...'" I was hoping he might not notice the influx of peas...), and used 16-ounce ramekins because I didn't have 12-ounce ramekins (plus, I needed extra room for all of those peas!). The resulting pot pies were lovely, but honestly, for amount of time involved in making them (there's sauteing and chilling and prepping and chilling and then finally baking...), I probably will not make them again until I have a long lazy afternoon in my sights. Still, I am glad I tried them tonight; they were comfort food for sure!