Tried a Marie Calendar's yesterday. Turned out great. Just for grins I tried this (kinda from scratch). Turned out really nice too. Next is going to be a beef pot pie. Again, thanks for starting this thread Beancooker.

9 chicken thighs (mine had skin and bones)
1 bottle premade herb and garlic marinade
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1/2 can chicken broth
16 oz frozen peas and carrots
4 Pillsbury non frozen pie crusts
1 egg

Put the chicken thighs in the marinade overnight (or as long as you like)

Start the smoker and smoke the thighs on 225 degrees until they reach 165 degrees. (about an 90 minutes for me)

Pull the thighs out of the smoker and pull meat off the bones

Mix the soups, peas, and chicken into a bowl

Season with what you like (Curry, Garlic, and Tarragon for me.

Add as broth incrementally until you get a consistency you like

Put 2 crusts in 2 pie tins.

Beat the egg and coat both crusts with it

Put the chicken stuff in the tin

Put the second set of crusts on the pies and seal around the edges.

Cut a large x in each pies top crust (or poke holes)

Throw both pies smoker at 325 degrees for about an hour

I just started my next fasting cycle so I have absolutely no business returning to this thread... but, like a moth to a flame, I keep returning.

This thread will be the undoing of me.

One of my sinful treats is to sometimes melt cheese on top of a pot pie because, let's face it, cheese makes everything better. In the past I've never been too particular about the type of cheese, good old fashioned sharp cheddar or colby jack did just fine... but in keeping with the theme of this thread, now I'm wondering if a Smoked Gouda or other smoky cheese might be a good topper for this delicacy.

[Broke Back Mountain voice] Smoked Buttery pot pie thread, why can't I quit you?[/Broke Back Mountain voice]

^^^^^^^^
Good idea! Yeah, cheese does make everything better. I suggest smoked Muenster. It melts as readily as American cheese, but has much more character.

https://www.nordiccreamery.com...%20Muenster%20Cheese

I had just a normal Marie Calendars pot pie last week. Taste wise it was OK. The filling was a bit runny for my taste.

Joe, I almost feel like smoking them for a few hours, might evaporate some of the liquid. I remember them as kind of runny, but now that you mention it,. they are quite nice after a couple hours of smoking.

I tried one of the large ones tonight. It took an extra 15 minutes to get the center up to 165 degrees. I liked the smoked flavor, but the crust came out soft, not like it was cooked in the oven. Didn’t like that too much.

It was good enough that I’ll try again, but next time I might raise the temperature up to 300, and see how that works.

That’s something I hadn’t considered. I live in the desert, and it’s drier here than normal. While everyone around us is getting a nice amount of monsoon showers, we have been the desert within the desert. The crust on mine was crisp and flakey, but at 225° and very low humidity, I’m sure that helped.

When I moved here I had done all my smoking at sea level in Western Washington, where it is always decently humid. I had to re-learn how to smoke meats. Shorter runs of time and in many cases, a little more heat. Being that it’s so dry and 3500’ in elevation, the meats tend to dry when smoking.

You’ll have to let me know how it comes out when you cook at a higher temp.

I never considered the humidity. We have been having 80, and 90% humidity for about 2 weeks.

I hate you all for this thread.
Also, I love you all for this thread.

Now I have to figure out where to stage the smoker in the new house.

Aside from trying the Marie Calendar offering, I figured I'd up the game. No, not homemade, but locally made. In this case at the supermarket Deli. Specifically Safeway's Chicken Pot Pie. 15oz for $4.99 and said to use big chunks of rotisserie chicken. Several sites proclaim them worthy so I added them to my weekly grocery list that my lovely neighbor picks up for me.
Web picture:


No instructions on the packaging. Did some searching and found a number of sites saying 350°F for 20 minutes in the oven to heat 'em up. Well okay but what about an air fryer? Nada. So I found a number of conversion sites which all give 325°F for 16 minutes. Gonna have it for supper so we'll see....
https://www.airfryercalculator.com/

Okay...had to go a bit longer in the air fryer to get to the requisite internal temp.

But vis-a-vis Marie Calendar... NO CONTEST!

Lots and lots of chunks of tender white meat chicken, good amount of carrots and peas, flaky tender crust, thick gravy! No extra unnecessary pastry on the sides and bottom! Only nit is that I thought the gravy could be more a bit more savory - richer.

I would assume Albertsons might also have this in addition to their sister Safeway stores.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
^^^ I've been contemplating picking up a couple and comparing for myself. Butter 'em both up. Put one in the oven at 225, and put one on the BGE at 225.

did my head to head comparison tonight. Both were cooked at 240 for 2 hours and both had internal temperature above 165. I preferred the smoked one. Pretty obvious which is which: