Foodie Friday -- Chicken Pot Pie

I haven't been cooking much recently, what with taking the kidlet to swim practice and the hubs working late (7 or 8 PM). The kidlet and I would leave the house at 5:05 PM on the days she has dry land prior to swim practice, and at 5:45 PM on regular swim days. We get home around 8:00. I refuse to feed my kid a heavy meal when she's going to bed in the hour or hour-and-a-half.

This last week I had thawed some pre-made pie crust {If you've EVER read my foodie blogs, I will tell you that I a) hate these crusts, and b) can't make crust if my life depended on it}. So I buy the crusts. And I had thawed a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I love these little vacuum sealed packages from Target's Archer Farms brand. Each package is either twelve ounces for 2-3 breasts, or sixteen ounces for 3-4. And let's just say these breasts are plump!

These two items had to be used or they would go bad. So I told the kidlet when I picked her up at school on Wednesday that I was making Chicken Pot Pie, and received the rousing encouragement of "meh".

So go hungry. See if I care. Erm, she had two servings of this stuff.

I didn't measure anything, so be sure to taste and adjust seasonings prior to baking it. I did use the Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie recipe as a guideline. If I could have made more filling, I would have. I wasn't going to post this recipe, until I realized that I didn't have one on my Foodie Friday blogs.

Here's my rendition.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 large stalks celery, diced (about 1 cup)
1 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
Carrots, diced (about 1 cup) All I had were mini-carrots.
Green peas--if you have them, I didn't :-(
1 Tbls butter
1 Tbls olive oil
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, raw, cut into 1-in. cubes (about 2 cups)
flour (about 1/4 cup)
Kosher salt
pepper
thyme
1 Tbls Better than Bouillon chicken base
2 cups water
splash of heavy cream (I had some left over about 1/2 cup)
1 pre-made pie crust, Pillsbury

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Melt butter with oil in large pan until hot, toss in celery, onions, and carrots. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Toss in chicken and cook, about 3-4 minutes. Add Bouillon chicken base, salt, pepper, thyme and sprinkle with flour. Stir to coat and cook for a minute or two. Add water. Stir and boil for 3-4 minutes. It will start to thicken. Taste seasonings, adjust if needed. Add splash of cream and simmer for a few minutes until thickens. Pour mixture into baking dish. Throw crust on top. Poke holes in crust. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, until crust is golden.

Hints & suggestions:

• I love the Better than Bouillon products
• I use a flat-bottomed wok for cooking. It has nice high sides that angle out to make for easy sauteing.
• Find the fattest piece of chicken and break in half to see if it's cooked (NOT pink), then continue with recipe.

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!