I made not just ANY pot pie!

Not only did I make chicken pot pie...I made mini chicken pot pies! What else is so awesome about that, you ask? They were Southwestern-style mini pot pies. I'm sure it's been done before but I must say that this was pretty dee-lish.
Please don't be mad, you traditional pot pie lovers! My intention wasn't to replace the original recipes. I didn't have the traditional chicken pot pie ingredients on hand but with the chilly fall weather, I wanted to use the oven to help heat up the house. That's how I ended up with Southwestern chicken mini pot pies. Here's how I made it happen. At the end of this post, I will tell you what I will do different next time. Keep in mind, this was my first time ever making any pies, mini pot pies, and pie crust...so you can substitute any way you'd like!  Enjoy!

Yields: one dozen mini pot pies

Crust: 
I made the crust from this recipe.
I doubled the recipe (but I should have tripled it to have some extra breathing room to make the pies fuller)

Filling:
I boneless skinless chicken breast (I would've used 2 if I had 2)
1 bag of frozen Southwestern style vegetable blend
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 TB sour cream
1-2 TB half and half
1/3-1/2 cup of fresh chopped onion

First I got my chicken breast and sliced it in half, filet-style. So one chicken breast equals two filets (I cut off any excess fatty pieces before I did this):

Next, I lightly sprayed the chicken breast filets and seasoned them with a blend of seasonings.

Here's where you can get creative. I normally don't buy seasoning mixes but you can either use any taco or fajita seasoning or you can make your own (to make my own, I use garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, cracked pepper, and salt). Next, I added a little oil to a wok and let it heat over medium-high heat (higher than medium) before I added the chicken filets. You HAVE to let the oil get hot before you add the chicken to the pan. If it doesn't sizzle when you add the chicken, it's not hot enough. With chicken and fish, I (personally) always cook each side for 4 minutes. With that trick, I've always ended up with fully cooked, super juicy chicken and fully cooked non-fishy fish. It's never failed for me when I use the 4 minute rule. Don't wash your pan because you are going to re-use it later.

 Once that's done, you end up with pretty chicken that looks kinda like this. It was so juicy when I cut into it:

Next, you chop it up! Chop it to whatever size you'd prefer to sink your teeth into when you take a bite of your amazing pot pie! I also chopped some fresh onion (optional) because onion is just so delicious.

This is the part where I add more seasonings but you can add more at any point or not add any at all. I varies for me. Sometimes I add more to the chicken, sometimes I add more to the entire finished mix of whatever I'm making. In this particular case, I added more seasoning to my chicken because I didn't want to have to mix up the veggies too much to toss the seasoning because it tends to make the veggies all mushy, especially beans and corn. Set it aside.

Cook your frozen Southwestern blend veggies according to the package and set aside. Next, I made a creamy broth (in place of the cream of chicken soup you'd normally use in a traditional recipe). I made a half cup of chicken broth, added approx. 2 TB of sour cream and approx 1 1/2 TB of half and half (I would have used heavy cream if I had it).

Now, you have everything ready for the filling! Preheat your pan (that you used for chicken) on medium heat with a teenie bit of oil (spray, preferably to use less). If you decided to go with extra onion like I did, add that to your pan first and let it soak up the drippings from the chicken. Next, you can add your veggie mix:

Let it all simmer together for a few minutes, maybe 5-10. Don't mess with it too much, otherwise it'll get all funky. Now it's time to make it all creamy! Add your chicken broth creamy mix and it'll look kinda gross, but it's good! I ended up sprinkling about 1 TB of corn starch to thicken it a little.

The filling is the most important part! So this is when you should taste it with a spoon or a chip (even better!) to make sure it's delish all by itself! If it's not, this is the time to spice it up some more.
Pie crust dough is really difficult to work with. It crumbles up a lot and doesn't really stick well. I didn't know that since it was my first time ever working with it. Most recipes I found online for pot pies always called for a pre-made rolled pie dough. But anywho, I made it from scratch and it was annoying. This is when you'd want to preheat your oven to 350 F. I made the filling and dough earlier in the day and when I got ready to start making the actual pies, that is when I preheated my oven. I molded the dough into the cupcake tins (didn't add spray) and filled them to the top like this:

Topping them with the pie crust dough was the hardest part because like I said, the dough falls apart so easily. So I wet my hands with warm water to work with the dough. If it got too sticky, I'd add more dough to my hand. I made little balls (size of my palm) and flattened them and just placed them over the top of each little pie like this:

My mini pies weren't pretty. Which sucks because I wanted them to look super cute! Maybe next time. Here's what they ended up looking like (I sprinkled them with pepper jack cheese and let the cheese toast in the oven. Then I topped them with sour cream, avocado, and chopped onion). I cut one open so you can see the inside after it was done:

I think he liked it, so that's good :)

Hey, what'd you think?

So, even though it was good, there is always something I'd do different when trying a new recipe. Here is what I would do differently!
- Add more chicken! There wasn't enough chicken in the mix. It was the last piece I had on hand but next time I will plan to add more chicken.
- Make it creamier! I think next time I will add 3/4-1 cup of chicken broth and heavy cream and more sour cream to the broth mix. Again, I just used what I had in the kitchen. It was still good but it could have been creamier.
-  Spread the pie crust over onto the top of each cupcake tin. If I had done this, I would have been able to add more filling that flowed higher than the tins and it would have been more delicious and more cupcake-like. It would have given me a chance to pinch the borders to look much cuter, which would've made me happy :)

I'll be fun to get creative with the filling every time I make mini pot pies. Maybe next time I will do a cheesy potato ground beef mix, yum!

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you did to personalize it!