Chicken Pot Pie {#dairyfree #recipe}

It's been a chicken kind of week here at our house…What?!  Yes, let me tell you it was roasted chicken for dinner on Monday, chicken pot pie for Tuesday dinner, and Wednesday was chicken noodle soup.  Wham - yes, I did just say that…one chicken = three meals.  Love that!!! I do have to admit so that roasting a chicken is still fairly new to this house,  well okay not that new started roasting chickens a little over a year ago.  It never appealed to me and growing up in Germany chicken was not served that often.  True there were the very occasional visits to Wienerwald (who remembers that?) but Grill Hendl aka Rotisserie Chicken was never anything we got.  So, yes it took a while a long while for me to come around to chicken - over twenty years to be exact.  What was I thinking? What were we missing out on? Plus its super easy to make, economical - heck you can get at least three dinners out of one chicken and just so good.  Almost endless options and one of my favorites is Chicken Pot Pie; deliciously flaky crust meets creamy saucy filling…Now you know that pot pies mostly are laden with dairy and are not "safe" for the girlies or other dairy free people.  So for us it always has to be homemade and it is so delicious.  Ron and I love all of it, while Alena prefers the flaky crust, peas, as well as sauce, and Mia Rose is a crust and chicken kind of girl.  Now here it is my dairy free Chicken Pot Pie - it really so tasty even so the picture does not really reflect that ;)

Chicken Pot Pie
Crust

• 1 C  + 2 Tbs flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 C Earth Balance or other "butter"
• 5-6 TB cold water

1. Combine flour with salt and "butter" until it crumbly
2. Stir in water and bring it to ether quickly to a dough; do not knead the dough
3. Place in kitchen wrap and let rest in fridge for at least 1 hour, or briefly place it in the freezer.  The cough can also be prepared the day before you are planning to make the dish. 

Filling

• 2 Tb Olive Oil
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 medium carrot cleaned and chopped
• 2 tsp poultry seasoning
• pinch of salt
• 2 C cooked chicken meat, chopped to bite size pieces
• 1-1/2 Tb flour
• 1/2 C white wine
• 3/4 C plain almond milk 
• 1 package of frozen peas slightly defrosted - 12 oz
• Salt, pepper, lemon juice {1-2 tsp} to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion together with carrots, poultry seasoning, and salt to pan. Sauté until onions soften and vegetables are fragrant.
2. Add chicken to pan and stir it under the vegetables. 
3. Sprinkle flour over the vegetable - chicken mixture and stir everything very well
4. Add wine and mix it carefully under the mixture, stir carefully - from the bottom of the pan - to get rid of any lumps.  Bring to a simmer and let wine reduce for about 2-3 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.
5. Add "milk" and carefully mix it into the sauce.
6. Add peas and let simmer on low for another 5 minutes.  Be sure that sauce does not get too thick - if it is too thick add more "milk".
7. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste
8.  Pour filling into a prepared 8x11" baking dish 
9. Remove chilled dough from fridge or freezer.  Roll out and size it to be a little larger than your baking dish.  Carefully place on top of filling, then cut a few vents into the crust.
10. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until crust is golden.

Enjoy!