{Not} Fitness Friday: Chicken Pot Pie

In my anniversary post, I referenced a chicken pot pie recipe I discovered as a newlywed. None of you asked for it.  But that’s just because you didn’t know you’d want it.  Trust me, you do.

Normally, I would not write a recipe post two Fridays in a row. However, the need to care for a feverish child completely derailed my perfectly planned week and now I find myself huffing and puffing to get it all done.  So, this was an easy post to write since I just made it a few nights ago.  Right now, I just need “uncomplicated.”

And–full disclosure–this recipe is not very healthy.   It contains a few ingredients Fitness Friday Girl would never use.  Of course, I could try healthy substitutes and probably will someday. But I haven’t yet.  And just thinking about how I should try to find healthy substitutes is a little more pressure than I can handle right now.  It’s 8:38 pm, and I just finished “angry cleaning” my master bath–if that’s any indication of my current mental state.

So, technically, it’s not a Fitness Friday post. It’s a {Not} Fitness Friday post.

So, just erase from your mind everything you think you know about Fitness Friday Girl. Because she’s not invited to this party.  I’m turning to my Newlywed Self for inspiration. The one who didn’t know about hydrogenated oils in ready-made pie crusts. The one who used canned vegetables instead of fresh or frozen.  The one who needed step-by-step instructions to learn how to cook dinner.

 

 

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

Note:  All these measurements are approximate. Add more or less of what you like.  It’s very forgiving.

4 Tbs butter, divided
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
1-1 ½ lbs chicken breast, cubed
1 can peas, drained
1 can carrots, drained
(or you can get 2 cans peas & carrots combo)
(Or you can use frozen peas & carrots, but be sure to cook them first—I once used frozen and the carrots were very hard and it was not good.)
2 hard-cooked eggs (I know…weird, but delish)
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed (This depends on if you want to put it in a round pie dish or a 9 x 13.  Obviously, use more, the bigger the baking dish)
1-2 ready-made frozen pie crusts (again–depends on the dish), thawed
1 ½ tsp salt (or as much or little as you want)
Poultry seasoning (enough to cover your chicken while it’s cooking and maybe some extra to add later)
Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Step 1.  Peel and cube your potatoes, cover them with water and a dash of salt.  Boil gently for about 15 min.  Meanwhile, cover 2 eggs with water and do the same.  And also cube your raw chicken and toss it in a hot skillet with 1-ish Tbs melted butter.  See everything cooking at the same time?

Step 2: Season your chicken well with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. This is the one I used this time. Get what you like.

Step 3: While all that is cooking, melt your remaining 3 Tbs butter in a large dutch oven over med-high heat. Add the flour and stir until clumpy and hot. (By the way, if you want to know how to make your own gravy–say for Thanksgiving?–pay attention, cuz you’ll use this same method!)

Step 4:  Slowly add a little bit of chicken broth, and keep stirring until smooth.  Then add a little more and stir until smooth.  And then a little more.  It’s really important that you stir until smooth each time, or it will get all clumpy.  Did I mention, you need to stir until smooth each time?

Keep pouring and stirring until you use all but about a half cup of the chicken broth.  We’re going to use that in a minute.  It should look like this:

 

Step 5:  Add your milk, and stir constantly over med-high heat until it’s thick.  This will take a good 5-10 minutes.  Just put on some good music and keep stirring.  Your other ingredients are cooking anyway, do you have something better to do???  Oh, maybe you should give that chicken a stir also.

Step 6:  When the chicken is browned and cooked all the way through, remove it from the skillet and set it aside.  Now pour that little bit of chicken broth in the hot pan and get up all those brown bits.  Stir this into your smooth mixture.   Add a pinch of salt and pepper here. (If this were the bottom of a turkey roasting pan on Thanksgiving, this would be the flavor for your gravy.  But it’s not Thanksgiving.  It’s {Not} Fitness Friday, And we’re Newlyweds, dangit!)

Step 7:  When potatoes are tender, remove from heat and drain.

Step 8:  Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut into small chunks.  You can use an egg slicer for this, but if you don’t have one, that’s okay–remember, we are NEWLYWEDS, right?  We are just now stocking our kitchens and we never received one at the bridal shower…just use a knife.

Step 9:  Dump your two cans of veggies into the dutch oven with your smooth gravy-like mixture.  Then your potatoes, chicken, and eggs.  Really, any order is fine.  I’m not sure why I made it sound like there was a special order to this step.  Just dump it all in.

 

Taste it here and see if it needs more seasoning.  If it does, add it.  (was it really necessary for me to tell you to add it?)

Now, depending on your preference and how many people you are feeding, you can either bake this in a round pie dish, a casserole dish or a 9 x 13 pan.  I used a 9 x 13 because there are 5 of us and I pretty much doubled everything.  But we are chanelling our inner NEWLYWED here, so maybe you went with a pie dish.  Cool!  Go with your Big Bad Newlywed Self.

Step 10:  Now, cover you eyes, Fitness Friday Girl! You do NOT want to read this next step!  Get your ready-made pie crust.  And notice on the ingredients list that it’s made with “hydrogenated vegetable oil.”  And then completely ignore it, because you are young and naive and have no idea what that even is.  If you are using a round pie dish, you can carefully lift the entire thing out of the tin pie plate and carefully place it on top of your pie mixture, pressing the edges down to the sides of the pie dish.  It will look like you made it from scratch and your new husband will be so impressed.  Be sure to cut a few slits in it, or it will ooze all over the inside of your oven.

If you are using a 9 x 13, like me, cut the pie crust into 1-inch strips and start placing them across your pie mixture.  Now, you may notice (because you may be a Newlywed, but you’re not an idiot) that the pieces are not all the same size and may not reach to the end. That’s okay–I just do a little tearing and placing where I need to, to make it all look half-way decent.  Then I go in the other direction and tear and place some more.

 

In the end, it will look like this:

 

Place into a preheated 400-degree oven for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and it is hot and bubbly.  It will look like this.

Some tips:

1. Serve with a fresh tossed salad and maybe some hot bread or dinner rolls.

2.You can make this ahead of time, but allow for extra cooking time, because it will be all cold.

3.  This does not freeze well.  The potatoes will turn to mush.

4. If your crust starts to turn dark before the inside is hot, just cover lightly with a piece of foil.

5. It’s a big crowd-pleaser when you agree to take a meal to a family who had a new baby or something.

6. Finally, don’t drive this to that family with the uncooked pie crust on top, expecting that she can bake it in her own home.  The jiggling of the car will cause the uncooked pie crust to sink into the pot pie mixture.  And then the sunken pie crust will turn into something like Dumplings from the Pit of Hell.  And it will be all ruined.  And the family you intended to bless with dinner will actually have to eat something else.  And you will be embarrassed and frustrated because you spent an hour putting it all together and 30 minutes driving to their house–and it was all for nothing.  Hypothetically speaking, of course.

 

My family loves this dinner.  Here is proof.  An empty baking dish and a little girl digging her hands in it to get the last little bit.

 

 

 

 

BUSTED!!

Now, I am done cooking, cleaning, and writing.  I’m off to enjoy a REAL anniversary weekend alone with my amazing husband.  See you all next week!