Recipe: Thomas Keller's ad hoc chicken pot pie

This evening's pot pie (1/2/12)

 

UPDATED 1-2-13

Original Post on 3/3/12
Success!!!  This evening, I made Thomas Keller's recipe for chicken potpie (he doesn't capitalize the name of his recipes in his ad hoc at home cookbook, and he has "potpie" as one word), and the 2 hours of cooking was totally worth it.  If you like chicken pot pie, you MUST try this recipe.  It's the best chicken pot pie I've ever had.  The crust (which is perfectly flaky and buttery) and the bechamel sauce make the dish.

Notes:

• I didn't have any shredded chicken on hand and so cut up 2 chicken breasts and sauteed them.
• Blog contributor 'the woman who ate everything' gave me a tip to add frozen peas to the dish which was a wonderful idea. 
• Cooking each vegetable separately was a pain. 
• UPDATE:  Cook all of the vegetables in the same pot.  Start with the potatoes, carrots and onions and simmer for about 8 minutes.  Then add the celery and peas, and cook for 2 minutes.
• UPDATE:  Put 4 bay leaves, 4 thyme sprigs and about 32 peppercorns in a cheesecloth sachet so it's easy to discard.
• I didn't need to move the dish to the middle rack to finish baking it (per the recipe).
• UPDATE:  The full 50 minutes may not be needed for baking.  This evening, it was done in 40 minutes.
• If you're making this on your own (without any help) for the first time, allot 3 hours (1 1/2 - 2 hours for prep and an hour for baking).  This is a recipe where it'd be nice to have a helper.

If you want to try this recipe and don't have Keller's cookbook, I found the recipe on another blogger's site:
http://www.friendsfoodfamily.com/friends-food-family/2011/02/thomas-kellers-chicken-pot-pie.html