Pot Pies at Bakesale Betty

This afternoon I returned from my business trip to Pasadena in Southern California. So of course I was too tired to think about making dinner. Instead, I walked down the street to the popular corner bakery, Bakesale Betty in the Temescal neighborhood in Oakland.

I've mentioned in the past how I enjoy this bakery's humongous scones. But lately they've been more popular for their fried chicken sandwiches, which of course I haven't tried because I don't eat fried foods. They're also known for their seasonal strawberry shortcakes ($4.50), which you can still get right now.

Despite the temptation, I didn't get a strawberry shortcake for dinner. Instead, I decided to try Bakesale Betty's new chicken pot pies. They sell a large regular-sized pie for $25, but being the Single Guy, I opted for the individual-sized portion sold for $6.

The pies are sold uncooked, and you have to take them home and bake them to get fresh, piping hot pot pies for dinner (or lunch, I guess).

Here's my little chicken pot pie after I brought it back home. I know I said I didn't want to cook dinner, but how easy is it to just preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then stick this pie in the oven? The pot pie actually came wrapped in plastic wrap, which I removed. The instructions said to bake it for 40 minutes (55 minutes if you ended up freezing it) on a cookie sheet.

The pie, actually, looked kind of small when I bought it. So when I walked home, I stopped by Safeway to get some mixed spring greens to make a salad with homemade pear vinaigrette. (I am so tired of all the overly dressed salads that I had at the hotel and restaurant in Pasadena. What's up with drowning your salads, SoCal people?!)

Here's my chicken pot pie after 40 minutes. Now, before baking I contemplated brushing an egg wash (egg yolk or whites with water) on the crust and sprinkle some sea salt on top. But because Bakesale Betty didn't specifically recommend those instructions, I wanted to bake it exactly like how most consumers would probably do it. (I don't think most people would think to bother adding an egg wash and sea salt on top.) What happens is that the crust didn't really bake to a nice golden brown color, which I'm sure the egg wash would have totally helped achieve that. Instead, it looked a bit pale, and the extra salt sprinkled on top would have helped because ...

... when I ate the filling, it tasted slightly on the bland side. The filling definitely had big chunks of chicken, and you can tell it's fresh chicken meat. There weren't much other ingredients other than some carrots and probably celery. I was expecting some bright green peas, but I guess since Bakesale Betty uses only fresh ingredients, they probably didn't want to spend the time shucking fresh peas. (I would have used frozen, but I know most fresh food people don't like that.) If I had sprinkled the salt on the crust, it would have definitely help enhance the flavor of the filling. Instead it was OK, nothing amazing but not awful. Having the light salad help make this a proper dinner for me.

Would I make it a regular trip to buy the chicken pot pies? Probably not. If I'm in the area, and out of ideas for lunch or dinner, I make do it again (the next time definitely doing the egg wash and salt). But I wouldn't make a special trip just for them like what I do for their scones.