Okay, for once I’m gonna shut up about other random stuff and just talk about food. FOOOOOOD. Like

THIS.

CHICKEN.

POT.

PIE.

It’s true that you’ll find thousands of chicken pot pie recipes out there on the internet and in every self-respecting cookbook, but this, my friends, is a pot pie to be reckoned with. This past Christmas, when our family was holed up in a cabin in chilly Show Low, AZ (yes, it does get chilly and even snow in parts of Arizona) I decided we were allowed to indulge in comfort food galore. Over the three days of our stay, we had creamy ham and potato chowder with homemade biscuits, herbed turkey meatballs with cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, and this chicken pot pie. (I guess you’re a pretty dyed-in-the-wool foodie when you remember every meal you ate on a trip seven months later.) It was an interesting challenge to make do with whatever was on hand in an unfamiliar kitchen, as well as shop at unfamiliar stores. (An aside: if you ever want to feel truly sad for humanity, go to Wal-Mart at 5pm Christmas Eve.) In the spirit of making do, I cobbled together parts of several existing recipes for chicken pot pie I found online and ended up with this version. Despite having to use a temperamental gas stove, an old-fashioned temperature-dial oven, and haphazard kitchen tools, it came out like the pot pie of my dreams. Flaky crust, rich herbed gravy, sautéed vegetables with just a hint of caramelization, and of course chicken combined for comfort food heaven.

I do realize that it is July now–not exactly pot pie season–but comfort food (and the need for it) takes no summer breaks. Sometimes you just crave something savory, warm, and gooey. For those days, this is the ticket.

Chicken Pot Pie
(A Love Letter to Food original recipe)

Ingredients:

2 9-inch unbaked pie crusts
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large Russet or sweet potato, peeled and diced 1/4 inch thick
1 c. carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 small/medium onion, diced
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3/4 tsp. dried ground thyme
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1 1/2 c. chicken broth (homemade if possible!)
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. shredded cooked chicken
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add potato and sauté about 5 minutes. Add carrots, celery, and onion and cook another 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are soft and carrots and onions just begin to brown. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add flour and whisk to combine. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly add chicken broth and milk. Increase heat to medium and continue to whisk/stir constantly until sauce becomes thick. (The whisk should leave a very defined trail in the sauce when it’s thick enough.) Remove from heat. Add chicken and vegetables to sauce and stir to combine.

4. Place 1 pie crust in pie dish. Pour hot chicken-vegetable mixture in, smoothing the top. Cover with second pie crust and seal the edges. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.

5. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Makes one 9-inch pie.

For a long time, I was skeptical of making, ordering, or in general eating shepherd’s pie. To the best of my knowledge I have never met a person who herds sheep, so it’s not like I have a prejudice against shepherds. And trust me, I love pie. So neither of those things were the problem. Believe it or not, my reservations about this one-dish wonder came from eating it at my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. Like everything else on their menu, it sounded delicious: “Ground Beef, Mushrooms, Carrots, Peas, Zucchini, and Onions in a Delicious Sauce Covered with a Mashed Potato-Parmesan Cheese Crust.” (Yes, I am quoting from their menu. No, I do not have it memorized….not all of it, anyway.) But for whatever reason, at least the one time I ordered it, it was Gross with a capital G. The veggies were hard to the point of being crunchy and something was definitely off in the sauce. I guess since then I figured that if even the wonder-working Cheesecake Factory couldn’t pull off a good shepherd’s pie, I certainly couldn’t expect to. (Then again, it has been a staple of English cuisine since at least the 1790s…though I’m not entirely certain whether that’s a pro or a con.)

Still, I am a big-time sucker for any one-dish meal that packs meat, vegetables, and a starch in one 9 x 13 (or 8 x 8 or 11 x 7) Pyrex dish. Freezable, portable, and compact can all be great qualities in a dinner, especially under certain circumstances, like taking a meal to someone recuperating from surgery, or your next ice cave spelunking trip. So despite my bad meal at Cheesecake Factory, and the fact that my shepherding experience is limited to shooing sheep out of the way so I can exit the petting zoo, at some point I decided to give shepherd’s pie another try. I’m happy to report that I have now made this several times and the vegetables are not crunchy, nor is there anything funky about the sauce. In fact, the combination of juicy turkey and hearty veggies on bottom and creamy mashed potatoes on top is delicious! Great comfort food, made just a little healthier by swapping the traditional ground beef or lamb for turkey. Give it a try and you may decide it’s a good thing this British casserole has endured for over two centuries.

Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
(Inspired by Skinnytaste)

Ingredients:

4 c. prepared mashed potatoes*
1 lb. lean ground turkey
2 tsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
10 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
2 Tbsp. flour
1 c. chicken broth
2 tsp. tomato paste
1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
3/4 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
paprika, salt, and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large sauté pan, brown the turkey and season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside to drain on paper towels.

3. In the same pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add celery and cook another 3-4 minutes. Add flour and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, frozen vegetables, and cooked turkey, and mix well. Simmer on low 5-10 minutes.

4. Spread the meat mixture evenly on the bottom of an 11 x 7 baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes, then sprinkle with paprika and Cheddar.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let cool at least 5 minutes before serving.

*These can be leftover, made from frozen (like Trader Joe’s excellent version), or made fresh by boiling 1 1/2 lbs of peeled potatoes for 20 minutes and mashing with 1/4 c. butter and several tablespoons of milk (season with salt and pepper to taste).