Pot pies a great comfort food, especially during the cold winter months. They’re also tasty and nutritious. The hearty, one-dish meal has another advantage: It’s a good way to stretch your food dollar.
If you purchase a large value pack of frozen chicken breast tenderloins, you can use one pound to make a pot pie meal for your family and still have several pounds left to grill, put in stir-fries or make chicken and dumplings. Better yet, you can make a pot pie with chicken leftover from another meal.
Pot pies are also versatile since you can use a variety of vegetables to make them. You also can change the crust, either making a typical pie crust or using crescent rolls to make small, individual pot pie crusts. You can even just top your pot pie ingredients with phyllo dough, which is my favorite.
The following pot pie recipe, which calls for a topping of phyllo dough, is wonderful eaten fresh out of the oven or made ahead of time, frozen and baked later. It’s great with a fresh salad and iced tea!
CHICKEN POT PIE
1 pound boneless chicken beasts, cut into cubes
2 1/2 cups water
2 chicken bouillon cubes, crumbled
1 cup potatoes, diced
2 cups peas and carrots from frozen package
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
5 ounces evaporated milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
Salt and pepper to taste
6 sheets of phyllo dough
Butter-flavored cooking spray
Place chicken cubes, potatoes, water, and bouillon cubes in medium-size sauce pan. Bring to boil, and then lower heat, cooking gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Set aside 1 cup broth.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 9-inch, deep-dish pie pan with cooking spray.
Microwave carrots and peas for 2 minutes and drain.
Heat oil in medium nonstick pan. Add onions and cook until soft. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in milk and reserved broth. Return to heat and cook, stirring until mixture boils and thickens. Add carrots and peas, chicken and chicken soup and potatoes.
Pour mixture into prepared pie pan. Layer sheets of phyllo dough over the top of the chicken mixture. Trim edges and press down firmly to seal. Lightly coat with butter-flavored cooking spray.
Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees and then lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes more. Makes 6-8 servings.
Brotherton offers website readers one stellar recipe a week in the “My Leader Yummy” feature.
Looking for a recipe you can’t find? Email me at kbrotherton42@gmail.com and I’ll see if I have it.
