Low Carb Chicken Pot Pie

I know that this is an Asian food blog but the secret is that I’ve always been much more comfortable cooking Western dishes. Asian cooking for me is like being the one-armed swordsman who had to relearn his whole martial arts fighting style. Or like learning to write with my non-dominant hand. I remember in secondary school for some reason I thought it would be really fun to train myself to write with the left hand. After a couple of weeks I realized that while I was getting slightly better at it, I found myself stuttering more when I spoke. Apparently this experience was not unique because there are many anecdotal reports of left-handers stuttering more when made to use the right hand, and the stuttering disappearing when allowed to go back to using their dominant hand to write. I’m not sure if anyone has done functional MRIs for this but I’m sure it has to do with the fact that the motor area and speech area are really close together and there must be some kind of coactivation of these areas when learning a new but complex skill.

Anyway back to the fact that I find western food easier to cook, which is why Sunday dinners are usually a simple one pot dish or casserole. Somewhere last night I had a random craving for a creamy casserole, which is why I decided to make a chicken pot pie for dinner today. There are actually quite a few low carb recipes for chicken pot pie out there, such as All Day I Dream About Food’s pot pie or I Breathe I’m Hungry’s version. This is my own version which panders to my love for button mushrooms (I was notorious as a child for picking out all the mushrooms of dishes).

In contrast to the usual chicken pot pie dish, this one contains no potatoes or peas and minimal carrots (just enough to give a little natural sweetness). I had a little left over pie crust topping which is why I ended up decorating with cookie cutouts. Completely frivolous, but as I said to kid #2…why not? Anyway as a testament to the comfort foody yummy goodness of this dish, this 6 serving portion disappeared completely (there were only 4 of us for dinner) in record time. 😄

LOW CARB CHICKEN POT PIE

Servings: 6
Time: 1 1/2 hours
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
Filling

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp arrowroot flour
8 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into chunks
180 g canned button mushrooms, quartered

Pie crust

1 3/4 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
50 g cold butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Method

In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat, then saute the onions, celery and carrots until tender and fragrant, about 5-6 minutes
Add garlic and thyme and cook another 2 minutes
Add the stock and bayleaves to the pot and bring to a boil.
Stir in chicken, then cook through, simmering for another 15 minutes.
Add the cream and mushrooms and simmer.
Make a slurry of arrowroot flour with 1/2 tbsp water. Add the arrowroot flour to thicken. Add salt and black pepper and taste to adjust seasoning.
Put mixture into a glass casserole dish and remove the bay leaves.
Preheat oven to 180 deg C
For the pie crust, mix the almond flour, salt, and xanthan gum together. Put into food processor and add in pieces of the chilled butter and pulse.
Add the egg and pulse. Remove from food processor and put into a mixing bowl. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and mix with a fork. Roll dough into a ball.
Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper, then carefully place on top of casserole dish. Trim the edges and slash the center of pie crust to create air vents.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 20 – 25 minutes. Serve hot.