Morrocan Chicken Pot Pie

For this Moroccan(ish) chickie pot pie, I doubled the spices, adding turmeric, cayenne pepper and some more veggies (carrots, green peas and chickpeas) to the original recipe I found on Epicurious. It'd be good with some diced potato in it too. Just make sure you have enough room in your 9" pie pan for the amendments. The dough recipe I used was really good and leaves us with another piece for the freezer. Next time I'm going to make individual pot pies, just cause they're fun.
I served this with some nice steamed broccoli sprinkled with lemon juice...and fought the urge to make another strawberry crisp for dessert.


Moroccan Chicken Pot Pie:
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless natural or organic chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tsp paprika
~2 tsp ground cumin
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4-1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 lemon
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup organic baby carrots cut in half, or just coarsely chopped
3/4-1 cup imported green olives, pitted, then coarsely chopped
1/3 cup golden raisins
~1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed
~1/2 cup frozen green peas
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup low-salt chicken broth (mine only had ~50mg salt per carton serving)
1 refrigerated pie crust (half of 15-ounce package) or, half of buttermilk pie crust recipe.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix chicken cubes with paprika, cumin, and cinnamon in large bowl to coat. Sprinkle chicken generously with salt and pepper. Cut lemon in half; remove seeds. Using small spoon, scoop out enough pulp and juice from between membranes to measure 2 tablespoons. Add to chicken mixture; stir to blend.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, olives, and raisins. Sauté until onion is almost tender, about 6 minutes. Add chicken mixture and stir 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over; stir 1 minute. Add broth and chickpeas and frozen green peas and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Transfer filling to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish.

Place pie crust over dish and seal dough edges to rim of dish. Using small paring knife, cut several slits in pie crust. I put an old scruffy round baking sheet in on the rack below to catch drips it was needed. Bake pot pie until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling thickly, about 22-24 minutes. Watch as the edges of the crust browned much faster than I expected.
I'll leave a thicker edge next time.


Buttermilk Pie Crust:
Bob's Red Mill Baking Book


1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 Tbs Sucanat (or sugar)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated veggie shortening, chilled and diced
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs buttermilk

Place the flours, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend. Sprinkle the butter over the mixture. Pulse until just incorporated, then add the shortening and pulse until the texture resembles crumbs.

Pour this mixture into a chilled bowl, add 1/4 cup of buttermilk, and stir with a spatula until the dough comes together, adding more buttermilk as needed (mine needed more). Divide the dough into 2 balls, flatten each piece into a disk, wrap them in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before rolling.