Football Fare with a Touch of Class

I know I’ve blogged about my skillet chicken pot pies in the past, but after a little tweaking, I think the recipe has improved over the years and I’d like to take a moment to share some of my updates and changes.  Skillet pot pies have become somewhat of a football staple in our house.  Important games typically warrant chicken and puffed pastry.  I’m a huge fan of good “pub food” and I think it’s a huge improvement over the typical wings and chips you associate with game day fare.  [No insult meant to wings and chips – unless there’s Velveeta involved, then insult is fully intended.]

Skillet Chicken Pot Pies

1 lb chicken tenderloins, cleaned and diced into 1” pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, finely diced

2 cloves freshly minced garlic

2 ribs of celery, finely diced

1 tablespoons dried smoked perri perri pepper (ground)

1 tablespoon Ambrosia Garden Blend (or Italian Herb Blend)

½ cup freshly pressed carrot juice (you can also use bottled if you don't have a juicer)

½ cup lager (I used Sam Adams)

1 ½ cups chicken stock

¼ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 sheet of frozen puffed pastry, thawed

1 tablespoon milk

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- In a large skillet,  season the chicken with salt, pepper and perri perri pepper flakes and sear off the chicken until it’s about ¾ of the way cooked

- Transfer the chicken to your skillets (or any shallow baking dish)

- Add olive oil to the pan and sweat the shallot, garlic and celery for 8-10 minutes or until translucent

- Transfer the shallot mixture to the skillets (or baking dish) over the chicken

- Deglaze the skillet with lager and carrot juice, allow to reduce by 10% in volume

- Add chicken stock, her blend, salt and pepper and bring to a boil

- Once the liquid is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and gently sprinkle the cornstarch across the top of the mixture to avoid clumping

- Whisk in the cornstarch and add the cream

- Allow the liquid to continue to reduce in volume by another 10%

- Pour over the chicken in your skillets (or baking dish)

- Slice the puffed pastry into strips and lay across the top

- Brush each strip with a bit of milk and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown