• Bring 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of milk to a simmer in a medium sized saucepan to create a poaching liquid. Place 1 lb or approximately 2 chicken breasts into the pot and let simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.
• While the chicken is poaching, make the pie crust using the instructions below. Roll the bottom crust and place it in the pie plate. Roll out the top pie crust and leave it between two pieces of parchment.
• Once the pie crust is made, clean and dice 1 cup of yellow onion, 1 cup of carrots, and 1 cup of celery and set aside.
• Once the chicken is fully cooked and tender, remove chicken breasts from the poaching liquid.
• Reserve 2 cups of the poaching liquid.
• Shred poached chicken with a couple of forks or roughly chop the chicken into bite sized pieces.
• Dump the remaining poaching liquid from the pot and put back on the stove for the next steps. Heat the pot on medium heat. Add olive oil to the pan, and saute diced onion, celery, and carrots. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ½ teaspoon dry thyme, and ½ teaspoon chili powder.
• Once the onions are translucent, add the shredded chicken and frozen peas to the pot. Mix together and heat on low until the peas are warm.
• Place the pot pie filling into the bottom crust you’ve prepared.
• In the same pot used to make the filling, add ⅓ cup of butter. Let it melt on low heat and add ⅓ cup of all purpose flour. Use a wooden spoon to bring the butter and flour together and let cook for a minute or two to make a rue.
• Add the reserved poaching liquid to the rue and stir together working out any lumps. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ½ teaspoon dry thyme, and ½ teaspoon chili powder.
• Bring the pot to a low simmer and the rue and poaching liquid becomes a thin gravy.
• Pour the gravy over the filling in the pie crust. Give the pie plate a little shake to make sure the gravy gets evenly distributed.
• Place the top crust on gently. Trim away any dough that is hanging over the edge of the pie plate. At the edges, gently turn the top crust over the bottom, making a ring around the entire pie plate. This will seal your crusts together and prevent leaking. Use your fingers to create a nice design around the edge.
• Use a knife to cut a slit in the center of the crust to let hot air escape and prevent spill over.
• You want to make sure that your crust is fully cooked both top and bottom and achieve a nice golden brown color and no soggy bottom. Preheat your oven to 425°. Cook pie in the middle of the oven of 425° for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350° without opening your oven. Cook the pie for 45 minutes more.
• Place pie on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then cut into 8 slices and serve.

Pie Crust

• To make pie crust, measure 1 ⅓ Cups shortening and put into a large bowl. Add three cups of flour and a teaspoon of salt. Use a pastry cutter or two butter knives held between your fingers to mix this together. Rock the pastry cutter back and forth around the bowl, or drag the butter knives through the mixture over and over until the shortening and flour are well combined and you have pieces no bigger than a pea.
• Next, separate four egg yolks and beat together with 6 tablespoons of cool water. Add the eggs and water to the flour and shortening. From this point, I use my hands. Fold everything together, integrating the eggs and water into the flour and shortening. Mix it gently until there is no loose flour left. Stop before the dough is truly smooth to prevent overworking.
• Separate the pastry into three equal parts. Take one of the three dough balls and work it a bit more with your hands. Shape it into a ball and then lay it between two pieces of parchment.
• Use your hand to flatten the dough a bit. Use a rolling pin to roll the crust out. I do this by starting in the center each time and then rolling to the edge turning my hands a quarter turn each time to form a circle. Well, something approximating a circle.
• Slowly, peel back your top layer of parchment. Then place that piece of parchment back on the crust. Flip the crust and both layers of parchment over so that the top paper is on the bottom, and the bottom paper is on the top. Slowly peel the top layer of parchment off again. It sometimes helps to gently rub your hand around the crust before doing this just so it slightly sticks to the bottom parchment. I really mean gently rub, and only slightly sticks. If you put too much force into it, you are right back where you started from.
• Slowly, peel back your top layer of parchment. Then place that piece of parchment back on the crust. Flip the crust and both layers of parchment over so that the top paper is on the bottom, and the bottom paper is on the top. Slowly peel the top layer of parchment off again. It sometimes helps to gently rub your hand around the crust before doing this just so it slightly sticks to the bottom parchment.
• Put the filling in the pie plate.
• Repeat the rolling process with a second ball of dough and new parchment.
• Place the top crust on gently. Trim away any dough that is hanging over the edge of the pie plate. At the edges, gently turn the top crust over the bottom, making a ring around the entire pie plate. This will seal your crusts together and prevent leaking. Use your fingers to create a nice design around the edge.