Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers

For Little Chef D’s birthday Grandma gave her some cooking supplies. Grandma did think it was a little strange to give such a young girl a gift like this, but Little Chef D was over joyed! One of the things in that bag were a variety of sizes of turnover molds.

The fun part is these can be used for both sweet and savory dishes. Since lately we have been experimenting with Melissa d’Arabian recipes we decided to try her Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers.
This recipe is not the simplest. It does have a variety of steps with different skill levels. The first part is to cut an onion, one carrot and one celery. Little Chef D has had enough practice she is able to complete this task with me overseeing, but not holding her hands.  I still do not take my eyes off her while she is cutting, and she does hear a frequent; “Move your fingers back.”

The second task is to saute the onions, carrots and celery in a saute pan with some herbs and other seasonings. Stock is added. We opted to use all stock instead of wine and stock.

After a few minutes the peas and chicken are added. The chicken can be any type; shredded, cubed, pulled from a rotisserie chicken, left over chicken. I even think this would be great for a post thanksgiving meal to use up the turkey.

You will need to use one sheet of frozen puff pastry. I now keep this in my freezer at all times because we love Baked Cinnamon Sugar Churros. Carefully cut the sheet into 4 squares and slightly roll them out even more.

At this point Little Chef D carefully placed the pastry sheet on top of the mold and added some of the chicken mixture to one side. With her finger she wet the edges with water. (The part that would stick together and crimp).

She folded the mold over and pushed down. I held my breath hoping she didn’t fill it too much and hoping it would not explode out the folded edge. See how it is starting to bulge out!

She carefully cut away any excess dough, then gave them an egg wash and cut a small slit it the tops to allow steam to escape.

When they came out of the oven they were golden brown and looked delicious. These were VERY well received by all the Little Chefs! I especially enjoyed the puff pastry because it was so flaky. Little Chef Dad thought the thyme that was over powering. Now that we know the process and we will definitely use the puff pastry as the dough we can fill these with any number of combinations!

Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers
Source: Melissa d’Arabian

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 Tablespoon flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups cubed or shredded cooked chicken
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter
in a large saute pan over medium heat. Cook the onions, carrots, and celery with salt and pepper, to taste, until the carrots soften, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for an additional minute, stirring frequently. Add the flour and cook off the raw flavor, about 1 minute more. Whisk in the stock and Dijon mustard. Add the peas and chicken and cook on a very low simmer until the sauce thickens up into a gravy, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. On a lightly floured surface, unfold the pastry dough and cut into 4 even squares (cut once horizontally and once vertically). Gently roll out each square, increasing the size of the square by about 20 percent.. Place the squares on a baking sheet and spoon the chicken mixture in the center. Fold the squares diagonally to create triangles. Pinch the edges together to create turnovers (use a little water if needed to bind). Press the edges with a fork to create a decorative border. Whisk the egg with a splash of water and brush the turnovers with the egg wash. Cut a small slit in the top to allow the steam to escape during baking. Bake the turnover until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving as the insides will be very hot.