It’s unbelievably cold and rainy outside for early September! A good time for some comfort food. I’m going to make chicken pot pie—my kind of comfort food. Why? Because it is mostly chicken. I really don’t like vegetables, so I will load my pie with leftover breast meat from one of our broilers. This will be the 4th meal we’ve enjoyed from this single bird—and there’s still more left for soup or a hot dish!
First, I turn on the oven to 425°. Then, I get the ingredients ready. If I was a purist I would make my own pie crust, but it’s late and I’ll be doing good to get supper on by 7:00! Pillsbury Pie Crust, it is. These are the basic ingredients: celery, green pepper, carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken. I don’t really measure, I just make separate piles of food and estimate how much is needed to fill the pie plate.
I sauté the onions, celery and green pepper. Then I add the potatoes and carrots and steam everything until the potatoes are almost tender. For seasoning I use a little Worcestershire, salt, pepper, parsley, garlic, thyme and lemon pepper. I dump in a can of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of goat milk (or half & half) and the use cornstarch/water to thicken it into a white sauce. Once it’s thickened, I add the chicken and heat everything through.
Then I put it into the pie pan and sprinkle frozen peas on the top. When you add the peas when they are still frozen they don’t end up to be mushy green “things” in your chicken pie.
Place the other crust on top. I sprinkle sesame seeds all over the top crust. The lattice top is a made with a pie top cutter that you can get on Amazon. Or just cut some vents with a knife. Trust me—the pie tastes so good that the top isn’t going to look fancy for very long, anyway
Pop it into the oven. It’s done when the sauce bubbles through the top. Start checking at 35 min. When it’s done, let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into it (if you can last that long!) It’s really good. Especially with a glass of wine.
I love our broilers because they’re so huge and chicken is so versatile. Out of one bird, I get 2 traditional chicken dinners, a hot dish, a pot pie and enough for chicken salad sandwiches and chicken fried rice. This is why I chuckle when I see the “broilers” they sell in the store. Those scrawny birds always remind me of that scene in the old movie Crocodile Dundee…you call that a knife? Here’s a knife!
It’s time to stock up for your own winter comfort food. We have plenty of broilers ready to go to market at the end of September. Download the Fall 2020 broiler form here!
Bluebird Ridge Farm 