Chicken Flop Pie

Sunday was a lazy day.

Chibi and I went for a car ride.  I sipped coffee with my friend Heather.  Groceries were purchased.  Ingmarie and Laura stopped by for tea.  The weather was grey and gloomy.

It really was a perfect day for comfort food.  Specifically Chicken Pot Pie came to mind.  What’s more comforting than delicious chicken and veggies in creamy gravy and topped with puffy golden pastry?  Not much I say!

I sifted through the stack of recipe links stored in my internet Favourites and found the entry for Eat Live Run’s Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry Crust.  Perfect!  I had puff pastry in the freezer.

As I prepped each stage I just knew this pot pie was going to be just what I wanted.

When I starting making the roux it came together perfectly.  Stirring at the gravy stage I even decided that this might possibly be an EPIC pot pie.  Once all of the filling was put together the taste-test confirmed that I was definitely onto something.  Jenna was right…I kept eating spoonful after spoonful of the filling.

Finally I forced myself to pour it into the casserole dish and actually make the pie! 

And then everything went awry.  My puff pastry didn’t come in sheets like Jenna’s did…it came in little cubes, with instructions to roll it out with a rolling pin.  So I did.  It seemed fine and laid nicely on top of the filling…. that is, until I tried to cut the slits and brush on the egg wash.  The pastry then started to sink into the gravy…uh-oh.

Oh well, I still followed the baking directions…10 minutes in the oven, then removed to top with foil and finish cooking.  (First of all – trying to cover a screeching hot casserole dish with foil is a freaking nightmare!)  I could tell that the pastry was way too gravy-logged to work out, but I baked it anyway.

But, alas I was right.  The gravy-logged pastry didn’t rise and certainly didn’t bake.  After the 25 minutes under foil it came out raw and looking like it had barely seen the oven.

SAD FACE! :(

Chicken Pot Pie without the crusty topping is just really thick stew!!

All was not lost as I just tossed out the gross raw pastry and proceeded to eat a bowl of Chicken Pot Stew with some buttery toast…but it just wasn’t the same!

Next time I’ll be sure to look for the sheets of puff pastry…and I think I’ll cut the slits and brush on the egg BEFORE placing the pastry on top of the filling.  The insides of this pie are worth figuring out the outsides!

Does anyone have any puff pastry tips for me?  Did I go wrong somewhere?