Yes! It Can Be Done!

Sometimes making the conscious effort to feed my family un-processed food can be annoying.  Don’t get me wrong, I am always, always pleased with the results, and I like knowing what goes into our food, but there are times where you gaze wistfully at the freezer case at the store and just wish that in good conscience, you could cheat and do an easy night for once.   Every once in a while I do just that, and I am always disappointed with whatever it is we’ve brought home.  The food is always salty (meaning high in sodium) and is just missing real flavor.  Oh, the flavor of preservatives are there alright, but I’m talking about real flavor.  The flavor of herbs and spices, the flavor or vegetables fresh from the garden.  Those flavors.

So this week, I went to the store to pick up some pie tins.  I have a lot of apples, and I thought I’d bake up some pies in aluminum pans and freeze them for later on.  While I was selecting my tins, I saw these cute mini pie tins and thought about how fun they would be to use.  I immediately thought of mini pot pies.  I have always loved those mini frozen pot pies.  High in sodium, fat, preservatives and everything bad for you, but by golly, that’s always been one thing that I miss about eating naturally as much as possible.   I wandered about the store further, and when I saw a discounted whole chicken in the meat case, I knew I simply had to try it.  I grabbed the chicken, walked back and grabbed the mini pie tins, and went home to create an at-home version of mini pot pies for the freezer.

I started with Judy’s Flaky Pie Crust. I made up a double batch, since I had no idea how many pot pies I was making. Instead of patting it out into individual portions though, I just rolled all the dough into a log and popped it in the fridge to chill.  While that was chilling, I put the chicken in the oven to roast, and then I headed out to the garden.  My trip there produced carrots, celery, and a handful of fresh herbs.

With the chicken roasted and my vegetables prepped, I followed my recipe for Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie as a guideline for my filling.  I make this so often, I seldom actually follow the recipe anymore, and I also added more veggies than originally called for.   Once my filling was assembled and I was happy with it, I began rolling out the dough by slicing off thin disks of dough from the log.  I laid out my pie tins on a baking sheet and began filling them with the bottom pie crusts.  Overall, the whole process was done assembly-line style, and while it took a little bit of time, it wasn’t excruciating.  I ladled in the filling and then added the top crusts.  The last step before baking was a few slits for steam to escape, and then I popped them in a 400ºF oven for 45 minutes.

I pulled them out to cool completely before popping into labeled freezer bags and placing in the freezer.  I had made seven pies out of my one batch of filling- although I probably had enough pie dough for 12 pies.  The real test would be pulling one of these guys out of the freezer frozen solid.  Would it work?

I placed my mini pot pie on a baking sheet and put it into a 400ºF oven.  45 minutes later I had a piping hot pot pie!  I flipped it out onto a plate and dug in.  It was fabulous!  The pie crust was perfectly done and not doughy at all.  The filling was homemade and tasty, and the whole thing was a perfect dinner for one.  While I wouldn’t call 45 minutes in the oven a quick dinner, it was an effortless dinner straight out of the freezer.  I am thrilled with the results, and I won’t hesitate to do it again.  A little time-consuming to make, yes, but totally worth every minute of it.