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Chicken Pot Pie with Grain Free Pastry

Chicken Pot Pie grain free - quirky cooking

You may have seen in my newsletter a couple of weekends ago, that I was recently in the Dandenong Ranges for the Wellness Breakthrough, along with 8 other health and wellness experts and 45 superstars ready to make some major changes in their lives! (Missed my newsletter? Subscribe here) I spoke alongside Cyndi O’Meara and Damian Kristoff about gut health, natural nutrition and how to heal the body with food.

Wellness Breakthrough Gut Health Nutrition - Jo Whitton
Getting wired for sound at The Wellness Breakthrough!
wellness couch girls - Jo Whitton
Kim Morrison, Carren Smith, me & Cyndi O’Meara – Dandenongs

During my workshops, I talked about taking favourite family recipes and changing them to make them healthier, or suitable for special diets. One of the recipes I demonstrated was Chicken Pot Pie, something that has always been a big favourite in our home.

Over the past few years I’ve been making chicken pot pie with various flours and dairy substitutes, but now that we’re on the GAPS diet I needed it to be grain free and starch free as well.

For the filling, I decided to use my delicious, Cauliflower and Leek Mash. I added more chicken broth (recipe here) to make a thick sauce, as well as some onions, garlic and herbs for more flavour. 

My family love my new grain free version of chicken pot pie, and everyone who’s tasted it is surprised there’s no grains in the crust and the filling is dairy free! There’s nothing quite like serving a hearty pie you know the whole family will enjoy – especially one that’s so naturally delicious, and so easy to create. 

There’s a couple of variations for the crust. You can use almond meal, or use seeds for a nut free version, or use a mixture of both. Just play with it and see what you prefer. Some of my family love it with all almond meal, some find that a bit rich and prefer part seeds, part almonds. The colour of the crust will be darker than the photos if you use seeds.

You can also vary the vegetables in the pie – I used ones we can have at the moment on GAPS (we can’t have starchy vegetables), but if you’re okay with starches you could add sweet potato/potato/parsnip/corn… whatever you like.

Enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie Gluten Free, Dairy Free - Quirky Cooking

 

What’s one of your favourite signature dishes you know the whole family will enjoy?

Don’t forget to check back next week as I’ll be sharing with you another dish that utilises the delicious and versatile Cauliflower and Leek Mash!

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Chicken Pot Pies

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  • Author: QuirkyJo

Ingredients

Units

Cauliflower Sauce, in bowl

1 onion, halved

2 garlic cloves

60g duck fat (or ghee/butter if you can have dairy)

800g cauliflower florets

150g leeks, white only, sliced

1 tsp dried thyme

320g chicken broth (or water + 2 Tbsp chicken or veggie stock paste)

fine sea salt & pepper to taste

In Varoma

600g raw chicken, diced (or if using cooked chicken, add later)

200g pumpkin, thin slices, 1 cm pieces

200g peas

200g carrots, diced

Pastry

300g almond meal (or a mixture of blanched almonds, sunflower, and pepita seeds, milled 10 sec/speed 8)*

2 eggs

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

30g duck fat or lard (or ghee if you’re not dairy free)

Also Need

Approx. 12 ramekins.

Instructions

1. Place all pastry ingredients into the Thermomix bowl and mix 20 sec/speed 4. Remove from bowl, wrap in greaseproof paper, and chill until filling is ready.

2. Place onion and garlic into the bowl and chop at 3 sec/speed 5. Add duck fat or ghee/butter and cook for 3 mins/Varoma/speed 1.

3. Add the remaining cauliflower sauce ingredients into the bowl, place the Varoma dish on top and add vegetables. Poke a hole in the centre for the steam to get through.

4. Place raw chicken on Varoma tray, spreading out evenly, then place in position with lid on top. (See below for pre-cooked chicken.)

5. Cook 20 mins/Varoma/speed 1. Stir vegetables and break apart chicken with the spatula, poke a hole for steam, and cook another 7 mins/Varoma/speed 1.

6. Remove Varoma and place chicken and veggies in a large mixing bowl. (If using pre-cooked chicken add now.)

7. Blend cauliflower sauce 30 sec/speed 9. Add to bowl and mix through veggies. Set aside.

8. Roll out pastry to 2mm thick on a Thermomat or silicon mat, with a piece of baking paper on top of the dough so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.

9. Cut circles to fit the tops of the ramekins with a blunt butter knife. (Cut gently on the silicon mat – don’t use a sharp knife!).

10. Fill ramekins about 3/4 full with filling, and top with the pastry circles. Place ramekins onto baking trays, and bake in a 180C oven for approx 25 mins, or until browned.

Notes

  1. * I prefer to use activated nuts and seeds – soaked and dehydrated – as they are easier to digest. If using activated nuts and seeds for the pastry, and milling them yourself, you will only need about 250g as they are lighter than raw.
  2. * You can make this NUT FREE by using all pepitas and sunflower seeds instead of almond meal.
  3. * If you don’t have time to make individual pies, you can pour the filling into a large, rectangular baking dish, roll out pastry into a rectangle to fit the dish, place on top and bake for 25-30 mins, until done.

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60 thoughts on “Chicken Pot Pie with Grain Free Pastry

  1. Helene (SuperKitchenMachine) says:

    wow oh wow! This is gorgeous in every way Jo — I can’t wait to try it — so many healthy concepts rolled up into one recipe. Thanks for your (as usual!) detailed notes, esp regarding the weight of the activated nuts. Cheers from Canada 🙂

  2. Julie Gee says:

    Hi Jo. We have just enjoyed this for dinner! Thank you for creating and sharing it! I made one large pie, but only used half of the sauce as it looked like it was going to be too runny. It turned out really well. Thanks again. 🙂

    • Jo Whitton says:

      Just cook the mash in a saucepan, simmering slowly with lid on, then blend. Steam or gently simmer the veges, and the chicken you can poach while making the broth. And just use a food processor for the pastry. 🙂

    • QuirkyJo says:

      I would suggest using the chia seed “egg” metho.. 2 Tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in 3 Tablespoons of water, and let sit for 5 min. I haven’t tried this yet, but it works in a lot of other recipes! 🙂

      • Jessica Shugart says:

        Hi Jo,
        We just had this for dinner and it was delish. I had some chia ‘gel’ left over from some bliss balls I made this afternoon and added it to the sauce, it made it a bit less runny, which we liked. I also added about two tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes purely for the extra punch of nutrients. Love this recipe. Thank you!

  3. Alison says:

    A God send x just found out I need to put my son on GAPS x bit overwhelmed at the mo. Thank you I’m really grateful xxx

    • QuirkyJo says:

      You’re welcome! This is certainly a winner at our house too! These are delicious made as a sweet pie also! You can sweeten the pastry with a couple Tablespoons of honey, and follow the same method of cutting out the pastry, but instead of putting in the savoury filling, you can put cooked apple with cinnamon and honey in the mixture. Its really good! 🙂

  4. Karin says:

    Scrumptious! My whole family enjoyed this, even though teenage boys asked if i could use store bought pastry next time they devoured their piece. I used one large round dish. Thank you for sharing this! Loving learning to use the varoma with success. We had too much sauce as well so i have sauce for another meal.

  5. Jen says:

    Hi Jo,
    I’ve been planning on making this one for a few weeks now, and need to buy ramekins (a good excuse for some more homewear shopping!). What size ramekins do you use for the pot pies?
    Thanks in advance!

      • Michelle says:

        Hi Jo
        I have just made one large pie and I am finding the pastry (half almond/ half sunflower seeds) to tear easily am am struggling to get it over the pie in one piece. Any suggestions ? Thank you.

        • QuirkyJo says:

          Make sure the pastry is chilled, take the top layer of paper off carefully, turn the bottom layer with pastry stuck to it over onto the filling, then peel back paper. 🙂

  6. Laura says:

    Would these freeze ok do you think? Hoping to make the whole batch and freeze some as it’ll be too much for us for one dinner.

  7. Kate says:

    Hi Jo. Can’t wait to try this, looks delicious!! Just wondering what part of the chicken you use. I have some thigh that I’d love to use. Would breast get a bit dry?? Thanks!

  8. Natalie says:

    Hi Jo, I have leftover cauliflower and leek mash from last night, to make it into a easy chicken pie filling tonight do you think I could just cook raw diced chicken and veggies in the mash in the Thermomix bowl??

  9. Bobbi says:

    Hello there Jo! My kids are allergic to chicken. 🙁 I was hoping to try beef instead. Do you think that will work? Im just not sure what part of beef would be best. Any recos?

    • QuirkyJo says:

      Maybe try rump steak cut into small cubes. You might want to cook it longer though so it won’t be tough.

  10. Tracey says:

    Hi Jo, Could you freeze the ramekins? Preparing for birth of baby and these would be great to have in the freezer. Could always make a big one in a disposable tray I guess.

  11. Katie Basten says:

    Hi Jo I made this tonight for the first time and absolutely loved it! Do you have any tricks to help the cauliflower not loose as much water as it does? I found the cauliflower made the sauce a bit watery? Should I add flour? Thanks Jo! Love your recipes x

  12. Sonia says:

    Hi Jo, just wondering if you could suggest how much sugar I would add to make a sweet pastry for Christmas mince pies – just beginning a GF DF programme but I don’t won’t to miss out on years of nannas little mince pies

  13. Sheryl says:

    Would gluten free plain flour work instead of almond meal in the pastry lid and would it still be 300g

    • Quirky Cooking Team says:

      Hi. This pastry would be a bit too fragile to go into the pie maker. Grain free dough from The Life Changing Food on the other hand would be perfect for this:-).

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