Chicken pot pie with phyllo

Chicken pot pie with phyllo is a healthier version of the original pot pie. I’ve took the idea from the Jamie Oliver show, into which he did a nice salmon pie with phyllo, then I’ve figured, why not cut the fatty crust of the normal pot pie into this flaky healthier version with phyllo. The usual flaky dough is “heavy in butter”, most people buy those premade, so they don’t get to see the gigantic amount of butter it contains. Yes it’s good, and yes it’s flaky but I’ve found this alternative way with phyllo which is way healthier and suitable for lactose intolerant people, since phyllo is simply flour and water thin sheets. Sure you won’t do you own phyllo, you buy it predone in the freezer department, it’s practically impossible to make those paper thin dough sheets homemade.

Strangely, all my life long, I’ve heard people tell me to never use that “phyllo” because it’s full of butter… I don’t know why there is such a confusion between flaky dough and phyllo, but I assure you that phyllo sheets are, way healthier, easier and gives that extra flaky texture we want in a pot pie. The amount of fat between the sheet you have full control on, to make it extra light, I, personally, use a fine spray of olive oil and it result in about 30ml maximum of oil in my whole dough, which is less than most salad dressings…

By the way the Greeks invented the original pot pie, it was called “Artocreas” and guess what they were using for a dough? Of course, their traditional and beloved phyllo dough. So… actually in this case, I am closer to the origin of the dish then the traditional pot pie.

Great news for lactose intolerant people; since phyllo is basically paper thin sheet of flour and water, you can add simply olive oil in between the sheets. Also the creamy chicken filling isn’t made with any butter or milk, it’s olive oil and vegetable stock, which results into a creamy interior as well.

You’ll thank me for saving you tons of calories on this one.

Let’s cook!

Makes a 4-6 portions | Preparation: 1 hour | Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

2 chicken breast (or leftovers of chicken) cut into small cubes
2 leeks sliced
2 carrots into small cubes
260g of Phyllo sheets (I have pack of 12 sheets)
250g (1 cup) of frozen green peas
125ml of cold chicken broth (or milk)
60g of flour
50ml extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp tarragon *optional
2 tbsp of grated old cheddar *optional

Directions

Take the frozen phyllo sheets out of the freezer, one hour before use. Bring the oven at 180°C (350F).

Start by cutting your chicken and veggies into cubes, season with salt and pepper the chicken
In a big, deep enough, pan cook the chicken cubes in olive oil to high heat *if you don’t use already cooked chicken, if you do jump to step 4
When barely white, add the carrots and leeks
Add the salt, pepper, tarragon
Let the veggies softens about 3 minutes
Add the frozen peas
When the peas are warm, add an extra 50ml of olive oil and the flour on top of the chicken mix
Mix well and cook the mix with flour, at medium high heat, for 2 minutes, until the flour cooked a bit
Add the cold vegetable broth (or milk) and mix until the flour is well incorporated
Reserve in a bowl the chicken mix
Add the cheddar *optional and season well at this point
While the mix cool down, add the sheets of phyllo (which you took out of the freeze 1 hour prior) to a big (long and large enough for coverring the pan you’ll use to make the pie) baking paper, parchemin paper
Add them so you can make a big rectangle, I use 3 sheets of phyllo (the size of a standard sheet of paper) and make a big sheets with them, overlapping each other slightly, then spray olive oil (or use a brush)
Repeat the step 13 until all the sheets are stacked. It should make 4 layers of phyllo.
When the phyllo base is done, add it back to the deep pan or a baking plate of 30cm and push down the phyllo into it, add the chicken filling, close it up so no holes are left on top and give it a last spray of oil and salt, cover with the baking paper
Bring the pan to medium-high heat and cook the bottom of the pie for 1 minute (just to set the bottom crust)
Add a metal spoon on top of the baking paper *to keep the paper from rising
Add the pan or plate in the oven at 180°C (350F) for 30 minutes
Take out when the top of the pie is light brown
Let cool 5 minutes before serving