Dirty Dozen: Chicken Pot Pie

All the credit for this dish goes to my good friend Juile. When I was a new mom, she took me under her wing and showed me how to can peaches, introduced me to real vegetables, and was even brave enough to swap meals with me a few times a week for over a year (I still feel guilty about that nasty chicken-wild rice-green-bean slurry. Julie, if you are reading this, I am will be sorry until my death for trying a new recipe on you without testing it first. We're still friends, right? Right?). Anyway, this dish was one of my favorites from her and I've made it a main stay in my pantry, and it is one of the dirty dozen I mentioned in my first post. I highly, highly recommend using the homemade cream soup for this. The flavor is subtle yet surprising, and I mix it up in big batches so I always have some on hand.

Chicken Pot Pie

Filling

2 medium frozen chicken breast pieces

1 Can cream of Chicken or 1/4 cup Cream Soup mix with 1 cup cold water*

2 cups water with two cubes bullion

1 bag frozen peas and carrots

½ tsp tarragon

½ tsp parsley

½ tsp sage          

½ tsp rosemary

Biscuit Topping

1½  C flour

3½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ C  melted butter

1½  C Buttermilk **

Directions
Preheat oven to 350⁰

Boil chicken in water/bullion mix until cooked through and set aside. Do not drain the water, as this is the base for your filling. If you are using the homemade soup, mix it with 1 cup cold water before whisking into the base. Stir over medium heat until mixture thickens. If you are using canned soup instead, just dump it in and stir it up.  Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces and add it along with the frozen peas and carrots to the base. Remove from heat.

Mix biscuits.

Pour filling into a greased 9x13 pan and dallop with biscuit mix. It doesn't matter if it is lumpy, as it will even out while baking, but try to distrubute evenly so the top is mostly covered.

Bake at 350⁰ for 1 hour.

**If you don’t have butter milk on hand, you can substitute using plain yogurt or 1½ C Milk mixed with 2 T lemon juice or vinegar. Let it stand for 5 minutes to thicken up before mixing in.

This recipe freezes really well. To reheat at 350⁰ until warm (about an hour).

Cream of Whatever You Want It To Be Soup

½ C  nonfat dry milk

2 T cornstarch

2 ts chicken bouillon

¼ tsp onion powder

⅛ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp basil

¼ tsp thyme

¼ tsp white pepper

9 oz cold water

Heat to boil, stir frequently. For cream of celery use ¼ cup celery, for cream of mushroom use ½ C mushrooms.

And just because this post isn't long enough, here's the measurements for a batch of ten:

Cream Soup Batch of Ten

5 C  nonfat dry milk

1½ C cornstarch

⅓ C chicken bouillon

2½ tsp onion powder

1 ¼ tsp garlic powder

2½tsp basil

2½ tsp thyme

2½ tsp white pepper

Mix ingredients and divide into 10 Ziploc bags (a heaping ½ Cup for each bag). Seal and store until you are ready to use them! When you are ready to use one, just mix with 9 oz. cold water and heat to a boil.

 

Hawaiian Haystacks

There are as many ways to build a Haystack as there are people, which is why it's such a great crowd-pleaser. Also, this is a meal in and of itself (carb. check. veggie. check. protein. check) so you don't really need any side dishes, but I do occasionally serve mine with a side of red grapes.

Ingredients:
6 cups cooked white rice
1-2 broccoli crowns
2 cans mandarin oranges
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can pineapple (fresh pineapple would be AMAZING in this dish, but it's rarely on sale)
1 cup sour cream
2 grilled chicken breasts
Sliced green onions
shredded coconut
diced tomatoes
dry chow mien noodles
Salt and pepper
Shredded cheddar

Directions:

Start your rice. I use an old Aroma rice cooker, and I'm happy with the results every time. I use the steamer insert to cook my broccoli at the same time.

While rice is cooking, grill or saute your chicken until it is no longer pink and juices run clear. Wash your hands before you move to the next step. Raw chicken has some bad juju in it and you don't want to spread it. When chicken is cool enough to touch, cut into cubes or strips.

Prep the toppings. Tomatoes are diced and green onions sliced. Open and drain fruit cans. Set out cheese, coconut, and chow mien noodles. Since I serve my haystacks buffet style, I put each topping in it's own bowl and lay it out on the counter.

The last thing you do is make the sauce. You can do this over the stove, but I prefer the microwave. Heat cream of chicken soup in a glass bowl on high for 2 to 3 minutes. Add sour cream and stir until blended.

My husband swears there is only one way to build a perfect haystack: lay down the rice, spread a few dollops of sauce over it, salt and pepper, and then layer on cheese, chicken, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, oranges, pineapple, chow mien (in that order) and then finally a sprinkle of coconut.

Chicken Fajitas

Not everyone is a pepper fan, I know. But even if you think you hate them, you need to try these Chicken Fajitas at least once before you write them off for the rest of your mortal existence.

 
Ingredients:
2-3 bell peppers, any color of your choice
1/2 red onion
2 chicken breasts
2 Tbs Fajita mix*
olive oil- enough to coat pan

Directions:

Prep vegetables. Cut the center out of the peppers, remove all seeds and cut into quarter inch strips. Slice onion into strings (slice into rings and then cut those in half). Set aside.

Even if you hate 'em, you've gotta admit they're pretty.

Next, I grill chicken on my trusty George Foreman and cut when cooled. If you don't have an easy way to grill, just cut raw chicken into strips and saute with a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat until cooked through. Drain and set aside.

In the same pan, saute onions and peppers until soft (about five minutes. You want them to be slightly firm, but not crunchy). Add in chicken. And fajita mix (2tbs mix plus1/4 cup cold water) and return to the heat. Cook until the mix thickens.

Serve on warm tortillas with sour cream and shredded cheese with a side of red grapes. Yum!

* I mix this up ahead of time in large batches so I always have some on hand. It is cheaper than packet mixes and I know it doesn't have any chemicals I can't name in it because I mixed it myself. It's a win-win.

Freedom Fruit Skewers

In a fit of patriotism, I bought a bag of Jet-Puffed Star Mallows. I didn't know what I would use them for, but what's more American than impulse shopping? That's right. Impulse shopping for sugar stuff at Wal-mart. So into the cart they went with the strawberries and cherries. And this is what became of them.

Freedom Fruit Skewers

Ingredients
Bamboo skewers
Kraft Jet-Puffed Star Mallows
Strawberries
Cherries

Directions
Prep fruit by washing, rinsing and drying. Cherries should be pitted and strawberries should be de-greenified. Set aside. The fruit juices make the mallows squishy, so hold off skewering them until right before you serve them. Start and end with a marshmallow. They are a little sticky, so they keep the fruit from slipping. The pattern I used was red star, berry, white star, cherry, blue star, berry, red star, cherry. Yes, some are red and some are blue some are old and some are new. This one has a little scar. My, what a lot of stars there are!......

Greek Chicken Stuffed Pitas

I did the previous post just so I could do this one. We ate these on the hottest day of the year. They are filling and refreshing, and if you remember to turn the oven off after you bake the pitas, you won't warm the kitchen up too much. I, sadly, did not do this. I remembered to turn off the oven light, but I guess my button-pushing brain cells were all used up by then. Yeah. Moving on.

 Greek Chicken Stuffed Pitas

Ingredients

1 6oz container of PLAIN greek yogurt
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp dried dill
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cucumbers, seeded and diced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup sliced olives
2-3 Grilled chicken breasts, cut in 1/4 inch strips
Crumbled Feta
Salad Greens
8 pitas

Directions
Grill chicken breasts. I use a greasy, ancient George Foreman. It's not pretty, but it does a really great job. I sprinkle the chicken with McCormick Montreal Grill Mates, Shut the lid and let it do it's thing until the chicken is cooked through, usually 4-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken. Slice into 1/4 inch strips.

While the chicken is cooking, make dressing by whisking together yogurt,olive oil, dill, salt and pepper until well blended. Then stir in cucumbers, tomatoes and olives. Set aside.

Now comes the fun part. Lay out a pita if you like to eat it like a Gyro, or split it open if you like it stuffed (I prefer the stuffed, probably because it's more of a challenge to get my pitas to puff the right way and I always feel triumphant when it works out).  Lay down a layer of salad greens, a scoop of the cucumber mix, a handful of chicken strips and then sprinkle with feta. Viola! I'd serve this with grapes or watermelon and a tall glass of water.

Puffy Pitas

I adapted this recipe from Farm Girl who adapted it from Bernard Clayton. My version makes a bigger pita which you can fold over taco style or slice in half and down the center if you want to stuff it. Just a warning, you will never buy pre-made pitas again. They will be ruined for you. I cannot apologize.

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup wheat gluten
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs active dry yeast
3 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 squares aluminum foil

Directions
Mix dry ingredients together and add water and olive oil. Mix until dough cleans off the side of the bowl and knead for five minutes at medium speed. I use a Kitchen Aid to do this. If you don't have one, ask Santa. If you don't believe in Santa, then you can knead by hand for six minutes.

Dump dough out onto a floured surface and form into a ball. Divide eight ways (I use a pizza cutter, but dental floss or a knife will work too) and let rest under a towel for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500.

Roll out dough until it is about six inches in diameter and place on a foil square.

Bake for 5-8 minutes until they start to puff and turn golden on top. I cook mine four at a time in two rounds.

If you are stuffing them, wait until they can be handled and then cut them in half, and then split them open.

Spaghetti Bacon Alfredo

Techically, I can't call this Fettuccine Alfredo. It's more like...Spaghetti Alfredo. Hey! This meal was an exercise in making due with what I had on hand and putting dinner on the table, fast. I'd frozen the cooked noodles from a spaghetti night a few weeks earlier, the whipping cream was begging to be used again after a tasty experience with some Indian Butter Chicken a while back, and the bacon, well, I can't waste bacon. That's criminal! So the contents of my fridge called for this creation. Spaghetti Bacon Alfredo. Tada!

Ingredients
1 stick butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs dried parsley
cooked and diced bacon
cooked & drained spaghetti noodles

Directions
Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Add whipping cream and simmer for five minutes until sauce starts to thicken (should coat the spoon. Drips are okay). Add in Parmesan and spices and stir until cheese is melted. Pour over warm spaghetti noodles and sprinkle with bacon.

Serve with a fresh salad or a side of grapes and some crusty bread.