Chicken Pot Pie

Tonight I made chicken pot pie, which I've never done before. I asked my mom to make me a pot pie a couple months ago and to send it up with my dad when he was going to help us move, but he didn't come up. When I was little, my mom's pot pie was probably the most bad ass thing ever. Far more awesome than roast beef, which i despised (but now crave..that'll be a project in a couple of weeks). It was always creamy, and perfectly seasoned, and if you were lucky, which rarely happened, there would be some for leftovers the next day, though dad usuallly snagged these for his lunch at work. 

Let it be known that I did cheat on this crust. Pie crust is not  my forte. Luckily enough for me though, in home ec in high school, I wound up having pneumonia during the pie unit, and got to make up my work at home and my mom, who is awesome, made my crust for me and noone was the wiser. Since mom doesn't live close enough to handle my crust for me now, I wound up picking up 2 boxes of the Pillsbury refrigerated pre-made pie dough. Ironically enough, unrolling that crap probably took me just as long as it would have to make my own. 

In the interests of health and not wanting my dinner to go straight to my ass, I made a few minor adjustments to a random recipe that I found months ago, somewhere that I don't really remember. The end result is tasty and I'm working on seconds. I would have taken a picture, but if you don't know what pie looks like already....(on to the recipe)

1 large bag chicken breast tenders, thawed (yes, the sack o' chicken. The economy sized one)

1 large potato, cubed into bite sized pieces

1/2 yellow onion, cut into small pieces

1 bag mixed vegetables (I went for the carrot, corn, green beans, peas mix, making sure of course there were no Lima beans in sight)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup fat free half & half

2 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth

2 boxes pre-made pie crusts, or if you can manage it, make your own

garlic powder, paprika, parsley, fresh ground black pepper, salt.

*Start by preheating the oven to 350. 

*Get all your little pieces of chicken nice and neat on a rimmed cookie sheet. I rubbed my sheet down with olive oil to prevent the chicken from sticking to it. 

*Season your chicken with garlic powder, paprika, parsely, and the black pepper. 

*Pop the chicken in the oven until no longer pink in the middle, around 20 minutes. I couldn't tell you the time for sure because I was busy doing such domestic tasks as dishes and reorganizing the cupboards to fit today's trappings from our H-Mart adventure.

*While your chicken is going, throw your olive oil into a pot with the onion, mixed vegetables, and potato. Saute for about 15 minutes or until potatoes start to soften. You don't want to cook them too much, because you'll  lose nutrients and texture.

*Gradually add the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables. 

*Follow by adding the half & half and broth. Simmer until sauce becomes thick. 

*While your sauce is simmering, cut up your chicken tenders. I saved some of mine to make a delicious chicken salad for lunch to take to work on Monday. 

*Add the tenders to the sauce and vegetable mix. Kick up the oven temperature to 400.

*Grease a 13x9" baking dish or pan and arrange to of the crusts to cover the bottom and sides. Dump in your filling and arrange the other crusts to cover the top of the dish. You can cut off any excess and make delicious crust bites with cinnamon and sugar.

*Take out some aggression and use a knife to stab some vents in the top of the pie to allow steam out.

*Throw your pot pie in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until crust is golden and crispy and your filling is bubbling.

*Enjoy!!

And enjoy I did, having seconds with a Rum & Diet Pepsi. Quite a delicious and warming meal for a chilly winter night.