Chicken Pot Pie

The Date: 19 September 2011

The Occasion: Monday night dinner. I had a hankering to make some comfort food, something that would come out of the oven billowing with thick steam, hearty and rich. Also, I had some cooked chicken left from when Mom came over last weekend to help me make chicken noodle soup to assuage my flu.

The Recipe: From Taste of Home, Annual Recipes 2011. I modified it a bit, and I think next time I would customize it even more. 

How it Went:
My first modification was to swap the can of cream of mushroom soup for a second can of cream of chicken soup. I don't do mushrooms. Cream of celery would have worked too, or cream of potato (do they make that?). Either way, first ingredient is two cans of cream of something soup. Here is where I would make another modification next time. I know canned "cream of" soups make dinner prep faster and easier, but they seem like cheating to me. And also, they're loaded with sodium and probably a lot of things I can't pronounce which is never a good sign. So next time I would like to try substituting a homemade version of cream of chicken soup. This looks like a good one to try.
The soups are mixed with some milk and spices.
Then the chicken and veggies are added. Enter, my next modification. Instead of two packages of frozen mixed vegetables, I used my own fresh veggies. I've never liked how frozen veggies come out. I was supposed to use a total of 32 ounces of frozen veggies, so I estimated that a handful of baby carrots, a few stalks of celery, four smallish red potatoes, and half a pound of fresh green beans would be about right. I peeled the potatoes, snapped the ends off the beans, then chopped it all up and boiled it in a few inches of water for about 15 minutes or so. In the meantime, I chopped up my cooked chicken.
I think it's a bit misleading when a recipe calls for "cooked chicken" or "cooked rice" or anything somewhat already prepared. If you're working with raw ingredients, cooking the ingredient before beginning the actual recipe can add sometimes a half hour or more to your total prep time! I loved making this recipe with the chicken already cooked. And I recommend, if it's ever possible, preparing all your ingredients beforehand - maybe in the morning or even the night before - to make meal prep faster.
When the veggies were ready, I stirred them, and the chicken, into the soup mixture.
For the biscuit topping, I have nothing better to suggest than good, old-fashioned Bisquick and milk. Mix it as the recipe directs, then plop it in 12 equal splotches on top of the pie. I thought the biscuits might sort of rise and become one solid topping, so I wasn't too precise on my 12 splotches, but it did not end up rising enough to form a continuous crust, so it would have been better divided into distinct servings with equally spaced biscuits on top.
The meal came out really yummy and served us for two dinners and a lunch for Pete. Lots of food.

Your Turn:
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl combine

• 2 cans condensed "cream of" soup (1 chicken, the other chicken, mushroom, celery, or your choice)
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp poultry seasoning

Add

• your vegetables (either a collection of fresh-then-boiled ones, or two bags of frozen mixed veggies) 
• about 1 + 1/2 C cubed/shredded (depending on your texture preference) cooked chicken

Transfer the whole mess to a 9x13 dish, coated with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, combine

• 1 + 1/2 C Bisquick
• 2/3 C milk

Distribute in 12 equal splotches across the top of the pot pie.
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, until filling is bubbly and biscuits are golden brown.