Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

I bought a whole chicken at Sam's Club yesterday, not knowing exactly how I was going to serve it.  After tossing around some predictable ideas in my head, I landed on chicken pot pie soup.  I'd had it recently at Jason's Deli, and boy, was it yummy.  I looked up a couple of recipes online, and melded them with my own chicken pot pie filling, and this is what I came up with.  It was EXACTLY what I was going for, which seems to rarely happen.  So, I'm glad I'm taking the time now to type out the recipe so I have it for future reference.

This soup is super creamy and thick, almost like a chowder, but better.  I break up the pieces of pie crust on top, and since I made it at home, I give myself much more crust than I got at Jason's Deli. I like this more than chicken pot pie now.
*Disclaimer: I've had this at Jason's Deli since writing this post, and I must say, my version is a lot richer and does not taste exactly like Jason's Deli. I'll have to keep working on that, but in the meantime, this IS a very delicious soup.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup onion, finely chopped
• ¼ teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon celery salt
• 1 pinch of garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups 1% milk
• 1 cup half & half (can lighten things up by using all milk)
• 3 chicken bullion cubes (4 might be better--I'm trying to reduce sodium)
• 2-3 cups cooked chicken, shredded, diced, or sliced (I used the breast & thigh meat from a store-bought roasted chicken & it was FANtastic.)
• 2 cups diced cooked potato
• 1 ½ cups mixed vegetables, cooked
• 1 batch of pie crust cut into cracker-sized pieces & baked (see below)

Instructions:

In a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat, melt butter and sauté onions until soft.  Add basil, thyme,  black pepper, celery salt, & garlic powder.  Stir and sauté for a minute.  Add flour and stir for about another minute.  Gradually whisk in milk and half & half, making sure to whisk out lumps.  Add bullion cubes and continue to whisk until liquid comes to a simmer and thickens.  Stir in chicken & vegetables.  Turn heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Serve hot with pie crust pieces.

Makes 4-5 servings.

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

(Note: you can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust)

• 1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons Crisco
• 3 tablespoons ice cold water
• flour for dusting

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. With two knives or a pastry blender, cut 4 tablespoons butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Add ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball.  Flour a rectangular sheet of wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover with another rectangular sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about 1/8”.  With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough roughly into 2”x 2” squares.  You can also be creative and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

Place dough pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Prick each piece a few times with a fork.  Bake at 400°F for 11-13 minutes, or until browned on the edges.   Remove from oven. 

Serve with the soup.