Easy Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

I found this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie in an AllRecipes.com mailer/advertisement, and it had me at "pot pie".  To be honest, I've never met a pot pie that I didn't love.  I had never tried making my own mainly because there are so many good pre-made pot pie options like Marie Calendar's frozen pot pies, Costco's "handmade" refrigerated pot pies, etc.  To be super honest, pot pies just always seemed to be too tedious to make at home.  Until now... (enter angels singing a heavenly chorus)

This is so good, you could totally make it for guests and get a standing ovation (if you have guests like that...)

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 unbaked frozen pie crusts, placed in refrigerator overnight to defrost (or you can make your own crust if you're hard core)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. In large saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery.  Add warm water to cover and boil for 10-15 min (until chicken cooked through).  Remove from heat, drain, and set aside. (Note: I prepared this the day before and just refrigerated it until the next day to save some prep time)

3. In same saucepan, over medium heat, cook onion in butter until soft and translucent.  Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed.  Then slowly stir in chicken broth and milk - alternating liquids until their both all in.  Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring very frequently, until thick.  Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Place 1 pie crust in a pie plate (I kept my bottom crust in the foil pie pan that it came in, but placed that inside a glass pie plate to prevent overflow) and spoon chicken mixture from step 2 into it.  Then pour hot broth mixture from step 3 over the filling.  Cover with second pie crust, inverted on top of the pie.  Seal crust edges by pressing down around the pie with your fingers.  (You may cut away any extra crust, but I piled my pie high with filling so the entire second pie crust was needed)

5. Make several small slits in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.  Place pie plate on baking sheet to prevent overflow, then bake in preheated oven for 30-35 min or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

6. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.  Slice in and enjoy!

 Never looks as pretty as I'd like it to on the plate, but dang it tastes so good!

Let me know what you think of this recipe if you decide to give it a whirl.  It definitely deserves the 5-star review it has from AllRecipes.com.  It seems to be pretty fail-safe too.  (knock on wood for next time...)