“I don’t know whether people will think this is wacky or clever or just weirdly lazy.” This is the way I’ve been making chicken pot pie for midweek meals for as long as I can remember. It’s a “free form” pie, which means you bake the pastry separately from the filling, then to serve, you just pop it on top of the filling. The reality is, whenever I make a large pie to share and dish it onto plates, the pastry becomes a crumbled mess and the filling oozes out everywhere. So I actually think this “free form” pie is neater looking, plus you have the added benefit that you can pick up the pastry pieces and munch through it using your hands, scooping piles of filling onto it. So much more fun than just using a knife and fork! The filling for this Quick Chicken Pot Pie is made from scratch and has no cream in it (most chicken pot pies do). The sauce is made with flour, milk and a bit of cheese instead of using a carton of cream. Leaving out cream is not a conscious decision I made for health reasons. It is simply that I honestly cannot tell much difference between making this with or without cream, and cream is not a regular in my weekly grocery shop whereas I always have milk, flour and cheese. “Marsala is like port and wine and it’s my secret weapon for gourmet cooking on a budget. The alcohol is cooked out so it’s perfectly fine for kids to eat.” The other thing in this Quick Chicken Pot Pie recipe that makes this a bit different is that I use a dash of marsala to flavour the sauce. Marsala is one of my “gourmet cooking on a budget” secret weapons. It’s like port and sherry, it’s thick and sweet and has a great depth of flavour. It’s really cheap to buy and lasts for ages, and it’s a great trick for adding amazing flavour to things with just a little dash of marsala. A classic way of using it is to deglaze pans with it to make sauces. You can substitute with sherry, port or even white wine, though if you use wine you’ll need to add a sprinkle of sugar (I’ve included directions in the recipe). Because this is so fast to make, I don’t usually make ahead and freeze it but it does freeze really well. Once the Quick Chicken Pot Pie filling is made, just let it cool then then freeze it. You can even pop a piece of puff pastry on top then simply bake it to reheat (thawed). I hope there are some people out there in this big wide world that don’t think I’m completely insane and think this is actually a pretty neat idea!
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