Chicken Pot Pie or why Henry will need therapy

Saying Henry loves pie is the understatement of all 2015 and 2016.  Henry lives for pie. As soon as he gets to his Nanny's house he starts to chant "pie? pie? Pie? Pie. Pie. Pie! Pie! PIE! PIE!!!".  He once refused to eat an entire meal because he knew pie was coming for dessert.  Henry has never missed a meal.  Nanny rewarded him with two pieces of pie. She's a pushover and also a damn good pie-maker.

For the above reasons I never make pie.  It turns my child into a demon and I couldn't do it as good as Nanny anyway.  But chicken pot pie doesn't count as pie.  It's a meal, not a real pie.  It was the New Year. Plus it's Papaws recipe, not Nanny's.  It had to be made! 

We called it "Chicken Pot" all day and had no problem. I made it in secret while Steven kept him distracted. 

The day was beautiful, my child acted beautiful, and my 'chicken pot' was beautiful.  

One thing we failed to account for was it looked like PIE! Henry saw it when we sat down for dinner and his eyes filled with hope. He was ecstatic. The chanting began and we tried to play it off.  We assured him it wasn't pie like Nanny's but he could have some.  He poked it around on his tray and said "no! pie!" 

We held our ground. "This is dinner. This is all there is. This IS the pie."  He nibbled at it, smashed his sippy cup in it, you know, the usual. We asked if he was done and he said, "no! pie!".  But there was no pie. You could tell the moment it clicked. The exact second he realized there was no pie and as such, no reason to live.  

To say the least, the aftermath didn't made 2016 feel very welcoming. But the pie was good. 

Papaw's Chicken Pot Pie

Each pie serves 4, this makes enough filling for 2 pies

• 3 large or 4 small chicken breast
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• frozen mixed vegetables: peas, corn, carrots, greenbeans
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• pie crusts
• egg, beaten

Place chicken breast and bouillon in a large pot. Cover with water about 3 inches above chicken.  Boil on medium-high until chicken is tender.  Remove the chicken and shred. Reserve the broth in a separate bowl. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Add the chicken and as many vegetables as desired into the large pot over medium heat. Mix 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1 cup of the broth and pour into the pot.  Boil mixture and add chicken broth and cornstarch as needed to form a thick pie filling. 

Place a pie crust on the bottom on the pie plate, add half the mixture, and cover with another pie crust.  Paint the top of the crust with the beaten egg.  Bake until crust is golden brown, (about 30 minutes).  We usually freeze the other half of the mixture. 

Bake a dessert pie as well because this is one battle you just don't have the energy to fight.