Chicken Pot Pie

My husband loves chicken pot pie. I like it in that it's easy to pre-cook and I can use leftover chicken or less expensive cuts of chicken (i.e. thighs) and he does not notice. The past few times I've made it though, it just seemed to be so much WORK- too much chopping, too many pans dirtied. I went as far as declaring I would no longer make it myself (I won't say from scratch since I wasn't rolling out pastry or anything). I decided I would just buy the frozen premade pies and be done with it.

I never quite got around to buying those premade things. I went to the grocery store yesterday and brought home some other chicken for dinner. My husband saw it, and promptly scarfed it for LUNCH. Can I tell you how much I HATE when he does that???? Lunch around here is leftovers or a sandwhich or something from the cupboard- nothing fancy and certainly NOT what I am planning for dinner! I played it cool though and didn't say anything- food is for eating, the time isn't really ALL that important, right? Except now I had no dinner plan... I checked out the fridge- I had some leftover baked chicken from Sunday night and hubs had just commented on chicken pot pie...

I did a little Swag Bucks search and found this Rachael Ray recipe. I combined that with the Alton Brown Good Eats recipe I usually use and came up with the below recipe. It was EASY, quick, involoved no chopping and dirtied exactly one pot and one casserole dish. WOO HOO!!!!! It was also yummy and comforting. So here is my new and improved Chicken Pot Pie recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie

4 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Flour
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1/2 Cup milk (I used 2% with no problem)
Salt and Pepper
1- 1/2 tsp Brown Mustard
Sprinkle of Poultry Seasoning
2 cups cooked chicken (or turkey)
1-1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (the kind with peas, carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry or tube Pillsbury Crecent Rolls

Heat a small skillet over medium heat with 4 tablespoons butter. When the butter has melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the stock and milk and season with salt and pepper. Cook the sauce, whisking often, for a couple of minutes until is has thickened up, then stir in the mustard and poultry seasoning and remove pan from heat. Add in the chicken and frozen vegetables. Stir to combine. Spread into casserole dish.

You can make it up to this point, then pop it in the fridge to cook later. That's what I did- I made it while the baby napped, then heated it back up in the oven at dinner time. When I worked outside the house, I used to make my pot pie to this point, then leave it overnight. My husband would finish it when he got home.

When you are ready to cook the pie, get your puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw for about 30 minutes on the counter top until it softens up. Also get your casserole out of the fridge so that it can come closer to room temp before you pop it in the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a small buscuit cutter, cut out circles of puff pastry and place on top the chicken pot pie. If you are using crescent rolls, just unroll and place on top of the pie. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. You might want to alter that for the crescent rolls- this was the timing for the puff pastry though.

My husband is a big fan of the puff pastry on top the pie. I think that it's expensive and not all that much more special than crescent rolls. I had some left over, so that's why we used it last night. I think that in the future, I will get crescent rolls. I've tried making it with a homemade drop buscuit crust and he wasn't a fan of that, but your family might be. I hope that you find this recipe as easy and yummy as I did!

WFMW- Pre Cook Your Dinner

When I was a work outside the home mom, I very frequently made dinner the night before. Whatever we were cooking would get made after my son was tucked into bed. My husband would finish preparing dinner (or just heat it up) when he got home the following evening. I generally stuck to things like casseroles or skillet meals that didn't suffer from the delay in cooking. The crock pot was also a huge help- if I made something in the crock pot, he didn't even have to cook anything- it was there ready for him.

I thought that this practice was a thing of the past when I became a SAHM. After all, I would have all day to cook delicious, healthy, maybe even gourmet meals for my little family! HA! After the first dinner disaster that left the kitchen messy, me annoyed that things didn't work so well and the baby cranky because he didn't get enough attention, I realized that I was not done with my practice of pre-cooking my meals! I no longer make things the night before, but as soon as the little man is in his bed for his afternoon nap, I am chopping, measuring and mixing whatever I need for dinner that night. Here are some of my pre-cooking tips:

• Put water for pasta on the stove. I don't cook the pasta in the afternoon, but I will prepare the pot so all I have to do it turn the water on to boil and throw in the pasta. This seems like such a small thing, but when you have a baby literally climbing up your legs, every little bit helps!
  
• For casseroles like chicken pot pie or lasagna, I will get everything assembled up to the point it goes into the oven, then let it hang out in the fridge for the afternoon. I add a few minutes to the cooking time since it's starting out cold.
  
• It's amazing how easy cooking even a complicated dish becomes when everything is measured, chopped and ready to go! If I am chopping onion for a dish, I chop the entire thing even if I don't need it all. The leftovers go in the fridge for another night.
• Potatoes for mashed potatoes can be peeled and diced, then placed in a pot of cold water for a few hours. When you are ready to cook them, just turn on the burner and go.
• Peel, chop or otherwise prepare your vegetables ahead of time, then just steam or roast them right before dinner.
  
• When I make something in the crockpot, I try to make a double batch and freeze the other half. When it comes time to reheat, it goes from the freezer back into the crock pot on low for the afternoon. It's ready for dinner whenever we are.

How do you make dinnertime easier at your house?

As always, for more great Works for Me Wendnesday tips, visit We Are That Family!

Menu Plan Monday

It's been a weird weekend since everyone is off today- does not quite feel like Monday! I hope that you are all enjoying your long weekends! Here is our plan for the week:

Monday: Leftovers! We have meatloaf and a pasta dish from this weekend. We grilled out yesterday, so that's out of the way!

Tuesday: Something with the chicken thighs on sale at Publix. I am thinking of trying CrockPot 20-40 Clove Garlic Chicken or CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken. The Brown Sugar Chicken gets rave reviews on-line. I made it with chicken breasts and it was not great. It was dry, which is weird for something that comes from the CrockPot. I am willing to give it a second change with the thighs, though, since they have more fat. The garlic was also too big, so if I do this one, I will be mincing the garlic.

Wednesday: London Broil- On sale at Publix last week for $2.49! I managed to find a small one and covered it in marinade and put it into a zip lock bag in the freezer, so it's waiting for me. Because it's small, we should not have left overs.

Thursday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches from the freezer, homemade coleslaw

Friday: Spaghetti with meat sauce (since Ragu and pasta are on sale at Publix this week!)

Saturday: Turkey Dinner complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce. I will use the leftovers next week for Turkey Pot Pie and Turkey Enchiladas, most likely. Details on the why of this in coming posts...

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!