Chicken Pot Pie (Paleo)

What?!  A Recipe?!  Kate gave up writing recipes, didn't she?  Well, I did.  But sometimes, you just stumble upon something so perfect and a recipe just appears.  Those times, it would simply be selfish not to share.  This time, it was pot pie.  I've been making pot pie fairly often since going paleo and I nailed the filling from the start.  It's perfectly creamy magic.  But, I've struggled finding the perfect paleo crust.

When I was following the AIP, I used the crust by Kiersten at Vibrant Life Army Wife, which is totally delicious, but so much work.  And I'm lazy.  And I suck at baking.  And that thing is fragile before baking (don't get me wrong, if you can't have eggs or nuts, its a totally awesome crust and you should try it!), so I needed something easy.  I've seen almond flour based crusts elsewhere, but they just didn't seem quite right.  So I threw this together and BOOM!  Flaky, buttery pie crust!




Pot Pie Filling

Small/medium head cauliflower, roughly chopped
3-5 carrots (depending on size)
1 cup peas (I used a 10oz bag frozen, so it's flexible)
1.5 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup chicken broth
4tbsp cooking fat
S&P

Boil the cauliflower until soft.
Meanwhile, chop the carrots small. Once the cauliflower is done, strain it and put the empty pot back on the stove on medium heat with a tbsp of cooking fat. Add the chopped carrots and sauté for about 5 minutes.
Purée the cauliflower with a couple tbsp of fat (I used leftover chicken drippings, which was magical), the broth and s&p to taste. Depending on the size of your cauliflower, you may need more or less broth to get your ideal consistency (you want like really thick, creamy soup).
Toss in the peas with the carrots to defrost.
Add the chopped chicken and cauli purée to the pot and mix well. Allow the chicken to come to temp and taste test. Add more s&p (or whatever else!) to taste. The carrots may still be crunchy, but have no fear, they'll soften up in the final bake.
Pour the mix into your pie pan/ramekins/bowls/etc. With a pie pan, you may have too much filling, but it's also delicious on its own!

Notes about the filling:  It's pretty flexible, if you don't like any of the veggies options, simply swap them out!  This would be great with diced potatoes or parsnips, probably even rutabaga.  Without the peas and black pepper, this filling can be totally AIP and is delicious even crustless, like a chowder.


Pie Crust

Yes, I use a wine bottle as a rolling pin.  It's recycling!

1 heaping cup almond flour
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
1 large egg
1+ tbsp melted butter/ghee (coconut oil or palm shortening would probably work)

Couple pinches of salt (didn't measure, sorry!)

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients (starting with a tbsp of fat) with spoon or hands. If it's still too dry, add more fat a 1/2tbsp at a time.
The dough will be clumped into little bits if you're using a spoon. Dump onto a piece of parchment/wax paper or silpat. Top with another sheet of paper and roll out flat, it will stick together as you do.
Remove the top layer of paper and carefully flip over onto filled pot pie.
Brush with melted cooking fat and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. 

Let sit for 5-10 and then dig in!

Notes about the crust:  I did not test anything other than ghee for the fat, so I'd love to hear anyone's experience with coconut oil or palm shortening!  The arrowroot is KEY for the flaky texture.  I accidentally made the second batch without and it was much more like a soft cracker.  Not bad, but not pie crust.

Each of these "individual" servings turned out to be two full meals each.  Whoops!