Instead of cooking Ida's recipe for vegetable pot pie, I thought I would post the recipe for my very first chicken pot pie because it was so so so good!
When I was young, before my dad got remarried, he raised us on macaroni and cheese, frozen peas, and frozen Marie Calendar Chicken Pot Pies. I loved those pies! This is my first homemade pot pie.
I used baby red potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion.
I also chopped up plenty of garlic because I LOVE garlic.
To make the filling I melted about a tablespoon of butter,
and sauteed the veggies and the garlic with a couple of sage leaves.
I added a handful of flour,
And about a cup of chicken broth. I wanted my filling thick so I decided not to use very much stock. If you want a thinner, creamier filling just add more broth!
I added about a cup of shredded chicken,
and a dash of hot sauce. YUM! After removing the filling from the stove and allowing to cool, I removed the sage leaved before pouring the filling into the pie crust.
For the crust, I buttered a pie pan,
And rolled out my pie crust (I had some pre-made in the freezer),
Until both of crusts were nice and flat.
I place the first pie crust in the bottom of the pan and poked it with a fork to avoid bubbles,
Placed the filling in the pan and covered it with the second pie crust.
I baked it for about an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I turned out beautifully and tasted delicious! So delicious that it was gone before I had a chance to take a picture!
Thank you Deb of Kahakai Kitchen for choosing this recipe! Ida's version can be found here.
My simple chicken pot pie
Ingredients: two pre-made pie crusts, 1 cup diced small red potatoes, 1 cup diced carrots, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 3 diced garlic cloves, 2 sage leaves, 1 tbs. butter, a handful of flour, 1 cup chicken broth, salt and pepper, dash of hot sauce.
Directions:
Melt the butter over medium heat in a saute pan. Add the vegetables and garlic and saute until soft and golden. Add the flour and mix. Add the chicken broth and stir until completely mixed and thickened. Remove from heat and add the hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.
Butter a pie plate and place the first pie crust at the bottom. Poke holes with a fork to vent. Fill the pie pan with the cooled filling and top with the second pie crust. Seal the edges and poke holes in the top with a fork to vent.
Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour until the crust is golden brown and crispy and the filling is bubbly and hot. Allow to cool about ten minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
I have made risotto a many a time before. But this was the creamiest most decadent risotto I have ever made. That is probably because I have never put almost a full stick of butter in my risotto. It is probably also because I have never flavored my risotto with pancetta. I also usually try to make it with brown rice which always turns out crunchy no matter how much liquid you put or how long you cook it. Yes, this risotto was the best risotto I have ever made according to my mouth.....although maybe not to my waist!
This is my first Barefoot Bloggers post and it was chosen by Rachel of Rachel likes to cook and the recipe can be found on the Food Network. Thank you Rachel for choosing this weeks recipe.
So funny story! The day I decided to make this recipe happened to be my friend Tevra's birthday. Tevra is a vegetarian and I thought "Hey she can come to dinner!" So I invited her and told her I was making butternut squash risotto. When she accepted I was too excited about the chance to cook for someone other than my husband that I didn't even think about the fact that this risotto has pancetta and chicken broth in it! As I was adding the chicken broth to the rice and letting it cook slowly it suddenly occurred to me that chicken broth was not vegetarian! "Hmm....maybe she won't notice....I thought." And then I looked down at the little pits of pancetta and had an epiphany. This risotto is definitely not vegetarian! Oh NO! Tevra was due at our front door any minute by this time. Luckily, I had some extra leftover white rice in the fridge. So I frantically tossed the left over rice in a new pan with some butter and onions. Then I added some white wine and tumeric and stirred until the rice had absorbed all the liquid and become nice and creamy (Yes I used tumeric in both dishes instead of saffron, I am just too cheap to justify spending that much for an herb!) I added the butternut squash and parmesan cheese to my vegetarian "risotto" and it turned out great. In fact you couldn't even tell which dish was vegetarian and which wasn't they looked and tasted almost exactly the same! I was worried that the vegetarian version would taste to much like alcohol because I only used wine as the liquid but it didn't at all. The alcohol burned off and left a nice fruity taste to the rice that was very mild! (of course that might have been because I added A LOT of parmesan cheese!
So the moral of this story is: 1) know what you are cooking before inviting your vegetarian friends to dinner! And 2) if your too lazy to spend the amount of time it takes to make risotto, just used precooked rice, add some onions, wine, spices, veggies, meat, and lots of parmesan cheese. It's good! But there is nothing that compares to homemade risotto...with lots of butter!
