Day 152: Ham and Chicken Pocket Pie

Yesterday was my very first ever attempt at making pie crust.  Usually I just buy pie crust, but I figured I'm a reasonably good cook, I can make a pie crust.  Forget that I've never seen one made and have no idea what consistency the dough should be.  I'm sure I made a ton of mistakes, but it tasted good and was pretty flaky.  I think I had the dough too stiff because it didn't roll out very well.  I need to find some youtube videos and figure out how to make it right.  I really would like to make some fruit pies in the DO this summer. 

I found this recipe here.  It was something I'd never tried before and looked interesting.  It also let me start cooking pie crusts in the DO, which is something I've wanted to try for a while.  I don't like the name of this dish very well, but I couldn't come up with anything else.  So here it is...

Ham and Chicken Pocket Pie
12" dutch oven

2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 cup pre-cooked Ham, diced
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup green onions, diced
16oz (2 blocks) soften cream cheese
1/2-1 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp pepper
2 store bought pie crusts  (I used homemade pie crust because I wasn't sure the store bought ones would fit in a 12" DO)

Mix chicken, ham, spinach, onion, cream cheese, celery seed and pepper in a bowl.

Lightly grease your 12" DO, I used Crisco shortening. Form one of the pie crusts into the bottom of your dish. Place chicken mixture evenly over the pie crust. Using your pizza cutter slice the second crust into 1/2 inch slices then criss-cross over chicken mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. I used 2 rings on top and 1 ring on the bottom or 19 coals on top and 10 on the bottom.  Be careful not to burn the crust. Serves 8

The Finished Product

 

 
The Review
 
I was surprised by how good this was.  It had a nice flavor.  This is by no means diet food, but I think it qualifies as comfort food.  Even with my sorry pie crust, we liked this dish.  Most of my kids asked me to make it again.  It was quite a bit of work, but we'll have it again.  Next time I won't put in so much cream cheese, maybe only 12 ounces.  Thankfully, I didn't burn the bottom crust!  This isn't something we'll have on a regular basis, but I will definitely make it a couple of times a year.  Grade B.