Chicken Pot Pie (Gluten-Free/Adaptable, Dairy-Free/Adaptable)

I am delighted about this recipe!!  It is really fun to have good comfort food made on deep winter nights.  It is even more fun for me to be able to lighten them up and deglutinify them without losing flavor for a GF option.  In fact, in the batch I just made, I didn't have enough chicken, so I substituted extra-firm tofu for half of the meat and I think it was great.  If you don't do meat (of course you probably wouldn't be reading this, now would you?) or if you have a vegetarian friend you are making dinner for, you could easily substitute tofu for the chicken and maybe mushroom stock for the chicken stock and be in business.  Furthermore, I decided to freeze half of this so I could try it with pie crust and biscuits while seeing how well it held up to the freezing process and it held up beautifully!
Ingredients
Serves 6-8

• 6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4inch dice
• 2-4 ribs celery, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or finely grated
• 2t fresh thyme, minced (or 1/2t dried)
• 1t vegetable oil
• salt
• 1/4 cup dry sherry*
• 3c low sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/4c cornstarch or flour (I used Gluten-Free flour)
• 1/4c half & half (I used MimicCream, I bet plain almond milk would work)
• 1c frozen green peas
• 2T minced fresh parsley
• 1 recipe of Cream or Buttermilk Biscuits or 1 double Pie Crust recipe

*I didn't have any dry sherry, so I used a 3:1 mix of a delicious Tawny Port and Dry Vermouth from my bar.  Worked great!

Directions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 425.
2. Combine carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme, oil and 1/2t salt in large pot or Dutch oven.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until veggies have softened, about 10-12 minutes.
3. Stir in the sherry, broth, bay leaves and chicken and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until chicken is no longer pink inside, about 8 minutes or so. 
4. While chicken is cooking, whisk cornstarch or flour in with the half & half or substitute of your choice.  When chicken is cooked through, add the cornstarch or flour mixture into the sauce and continue to simmer until sauce has thickened, about 1 minute or so.
5. Take filling off of heat.  Discard bay leaves and stir in the peas and parsley and salt and pepper to taste, then pour into 9x13inch pan.

***Two options to assemble and bake depending on your choice of pie crust or biscuit topping***

For Pot Pie with Biscuits:

With filling in oven safe pan, top with biscuits as shown below, then bake until biscuits are golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

For Pot Pie with Pie Crust:
Roll crust into 11x15inch size rectangle and place over the top of the filled pan, then tuck over the edges and pinch gently to make it pretty!

Pretty pie crusts clearly aren't my thing, but this gluten-free beauty was delish!

Since I dislike fresh parsley (or worse, cilantro), during the summer, I grow a bunch of it and make various pestos and freeze them in cubes.  This way, I have something tasty and nearly fresh in a pinch year-round

This meal, like all others, is best served with the Kale salad!