I made this recipe a while ago, way back before we had Titus, which essentially makes it a lifetime ago. But a fresh blast of cold weather and snow has got me thinking about comfort food. Fortunately, I posted a link to the recipe on my Facebook and could go back, back, back, before all the one-month baby pics, before the Christmas family pics, before all the birthday wishes, before the congratulatory wishes … and there was this recipe. I’ll be making it again for guests tomorrow night … not exactly fancy fare to feed guests, but delicious and hearty and, methinks, appropriate for a day when we’ll be digging out from a pile of snow and braving a high temperature of 10 degrees.
Here’s a link to the original recipe. Since it was just me and JR, I halved the recipe and made it a bit more healthy. It was still absolutely delicious and I look forward to eating it again tomorrow!
Ina Garten’s Chicken Pot Pie
1 Costco rotisserie chicken, meat picked off (you want 2-3 cups of meat; reserve the dark meat for soup or another use; I’ll use the white meat in the pot pie and use the carcass to make stock) 2 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade 1 chicken bouillon cube (I used 1 tsp “better than bouillon”) 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup yellow onions, chopped (1 med onion) 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 cup heavy cream (or half and half) (this is the amount for a full recipe, but since I reduced the butter, I used the full amount of cream) 1 cup medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes 1 cup frozen peas 3/4 cup frozen small whole onions (I couldn’t find the frozen, so I bought a package of fresh pearl onions and blanched/peeled them)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or to taste — it calls for parsley, but I don’t care for parsley and I love thyme, so I substituted)
Now, there’s a whole pastry recipe that’s full of butter, etc, but I opted for this whole wheat biscuits recipe. You could also use pre-made biscuit dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions and thyme. Mix well.
Put the filling in an oven-safe container of your choice (you could just leave it in the Dutch oven, or put it in a casserole dish, or use ovenproof individual bowls). Place rolled-out biscuits on top and bake for an hour at 350, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
This also works well as a “make-ahead” recipe. You just need to be around to pop it in the oven to bake for an hour or so, but it can sit in the fridge even with the biscuit dough on top for a couple of hours.