Vegetarian Chicken Pot Pie

I used to think that bakery should be always separate from savory food (well, except bread of course). Whenever I saw a chicken pot pie in the frozen section, I was asking myself "why?". After I tried one, I found the answer.

When we baked this Vegetarian Chicken Pot Pie at home for the first time, my hopes weren't too high. After all, it was vegetarian with no real chicken. Fortunately I was wrong again. It turned out to be a fantastic pot pie, minus the chicken blood on our hands.

We baked this pot pie in ramekins, which provides a good serving size if you are very hungry. Delphine and I usually just share one. Also, you can be flexible with the filling. e.g. you can put your favorite vegetable if you like. But we suggest you use the other listed ingredients for a closest chicken-like taste (if you have a better tasting formula, please share in the comments!). I'd also like to mention Ina Garten here since we modified her recipe on Food Network here.

Ingredients

• 1lb Gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n (we like the breading. If you cannot find this, try another vegetarian chicken meat)
• 5 cups of stock (2.5 Knorr veggie bullion cubes dissolved in 5 cups of hot water)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups yellow onions, chopped
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
• 2 small potatoes, cut in small cubes, fried briefly
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (2 cups)
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1 egg, for brushing the crust
• 4 frozen pie crusts (round)

Preparation

The Pie Crust

Instead of making from scratch, we opted for the lazy way: just buy 4 (2 packs of  2) frozen round pie crusts. Let them thaw so the are easy to work with. Out of these 4 pie crusts, we will cover the insides and tops of 6 ramekins. You may need to use a roller pin to reshape it or make it little thinner. If you do use a roller pin, I highly recommend using some flour on the bottom and top of the dough so it wouldn't stick. From the rolled pie dough, cut round pieces big enough to cover the inside ramekins. It doesn't have to be a perfect shape as the dough is soft enough to play with. Make sure the each ramekin is greased/sprayed with butter before applying and crust dough. Once you have 6 ramekins with inner walls covered with pie crust dough, put all of them in a baking pan. It is time to bake them now without putting anything else in them. Bake them at 350F for 10 minutes. Cut the rest of the dough in circles big enough to cover the ramekins plus another half inch i.e. top crust diameter =   ramekin's top diameter + 0.5 inch

The Filling

Toast the chick'n pieces for 10 minutes. Blanch the small cut potatoes, carrots, and peas for about 2 minutes. In a large pot melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the chick'n, carrots, peas, potatoes, onions and parsley. Mix well.

The Final Baking

At this point, you should have 6 ramekins with pre-baked crust inside, creamy filling, and 6 pie crust tops cut in circles. Simply fill the ramekins with the fillings, and close the top with the pie crust. Push the extra inch around the ramekin down, push the sides with a fork to make them hold on to the ramekins better (also they look better). Brush the tops with egg, poke some holes with the fork (stab each ramekin crust with a fork for 4 times). Preheat the oven at 375F. Put the baking pan with ramekins, making sure they are not touching each other. Bake for one hour, or until golden brown.