Homemade Chicken Pot Pie, Strawberry Feta Salad & Strawberry Shortcake

A full homestyle cooking session featuring buttery homemade chicken pot pie, a bright strawberry feta salad, fresh strawberry shortcake, and hand-whipped cream.

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Main Dish: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Pie Crust Ingredients

• About 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• About 3/4 stick cold salted butter
• About 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Cold water, added 1 teaspoon at a time

Pot Pie Filling Ingredients

• Homemade chicken stock
• Chicken breast, salted and peppered
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Sugar snap peas
• Red potato
• Mushrooms, thinly sliced
• Garlic, optional or added to stock
• Butter
• About 1/4 cup flour, plus a little extra if needed
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Start the crust first. Press the butter into the flour and salt until the mixture looks sandy and coarse.
2. Add cold water slowly. Add water one teaspoon at a time until the dough comes together into a ball.
3. Rest the dough. Let the dough sit for 20–30 minutes so the flour absorbs moisture.
4. Prepare the vegetables. Cut carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, mushrooms, and peas into uniform bite-sized pieces.
5. Par-cook the potatoes. Boil the red potatoes in salted water for about 10 minutes, just until tender.
6. Simmer vegetables in stock. Cook carrots, celery, and onion in homemade chicken stock so they absorb flavor.
7. Cook the chicken in butter. Sear the salted and peppered chicken lightly. It does not need to be fully cooked because it will finish in the oven.
8. Build the filling. Add mushrooms, peas, potatoes, chicken, butter, flour, salt, and pepper. Stir until thickened.
9. Roll out the crust. Roll the rested dough gently on a floured surface.
10. Fill and fold. Add the pot pie filling and fold the crust over like a rustic turnover.
11. Bake. Bake at 375°F for about 30 minutes, or until bubbling and golden.
12. Rest before serving. Let the pot pie cool for 10–15 minutes before cutting.

Pot Pie Tips

• Cut vegetables close to the same size so everything cooks evenly.
• Cook carrots, onions, and celery in stock because they absorb flavor better than potatoes.
• Use a little extra flour if the filling looks too thin before baking.
• The filling will continue thickening in the oven.
• Homemade chicken stock adds deep flavor and richness.
• The fat layer that forms on chilled stock is useful cooking fat.
• Let the pie rest before eating so the filling settles.

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Side Dish: Strawberry Feta Salad

Ingredients

• Fresh strawberries
• Thinly sliced red onion
• Romaine ribs, thinly sliced
• Red wine vinegar
• Sea salt
• Fresh pepper
• Feta cheese

Instructions

1. Slice the strawberries.
2. Thinly slice red onion.
3. Slice romaine ribs for crunch.
4. Toss lettuce, strawberries, and onion with red wine vinegar.
5. Add a little sea salt and pepper.
6. Finish with crumbled feta cheese.

Tip: Strawberries, feta, red onion, and red wine vinegar create a sharp, sweet, salty, and acidic balance.

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Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

• Fresh strawberries
• About 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
• Angel food cake
• Homemade whipped cream

Instructions

1. Core and slice the strawberries.
2. Sprinkle with sugar and stir.
3. Let the strawberries sit so the sugar pulls out the juice.
4. Slice angel food cake into wedges.
5. Spoon strawberries and juice over the cake.
6. Let the cake soak up the strawberry juice.
7. Top with homemade whipped cream.

Tip: Sugaring strawberries creates a syrupy juice that soaks beautifully into angel food cake.

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Homemade Hand-Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• Whipping cream
• Optional sugar, if desired

Instructions

1. Chill a stainless steel bowl in the freezer.
2. Add whipping cream to the cold bowl.
3. Whisk by hand until soft whipped cream forms.
4. Stop before over-whipping, or it may begin turning into butter.
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tip: A cold metal bowl helps the cream whip more effectively.

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Extra Kitchen Notes

• Save carrot peels and onion skins for stock if they are clean and organic.
• Remove sugar snap pea strings before using the peas.
• Save snap pea pods for stir fry or fried rice.
• Store mushrooms uncovered or loosely aired out instead of sealed in plastic.
• Use a stable cutting surface and flatten round vegetables before chopping.
• Layering ingredients creates better flavor than throwing everything in at once.
• Homemade meals take time, but they create richer flavor and better control over ingredients.

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Full Meal Summary

This meal combines a rustic homemade chicken pot pie with a buttery crust, a bright strawberry feta salad, and a summer-style strawberry shortcake finished with hand-whipped cream. The key techniques are resting pie dough, simmering vegetables in stock, thickening the filling with flour, sugaring strawberries for natural syrup, and whipping cream by hand for a fresh dessert topping.