Fall = Comfort Food =Chicken Pot Pies!

You can always tell when Fall has arrived. The sky turns a little gloomier, the wind blows a little harder and stronger. The air smells crisper and there are hints of firewood, and you find yourself craving a warm cup of hot cider or in my case, a pumpkin latte. The coming of this colder weather has had me seeking out recipes for comfort foods. Last week I made spinach and beef lasagna (oops sorry forgot to blog about that!) and this week I found a recipe for a healthy version of Chicken Pot pie.



Chicken pot pie always reminds me of my dad, he used to get Chicken pot pie from this restaurant called Tippins in St. Louis, and then when Tippins closed, he used to buy all of these frozen individual chicken pot pies and keep them in our freezer. I was never a big fan of these. Perhaps it was because I lack the virtue called patience and I think one time I was too impatient to wait for the oven to cook my individual chicken pot pie throughly and just microwaved it and it turned out in this disgusting soggy mess. That was the last time I had chicken pot pie.

You can't deny that just thinking of Chicken pot pie somehow brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to your stomach so I decided that it sounded good for a windy fall night. I found a makeover recipe for Chicken Pot pie (where they take a recipe full of fat and calories and make a lighter version) This recipe called for root vegetables. I didn't want to use root vegetables, so I did the following.

Ingredients
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cubed peeled baking potato
1/2 cup chopped carrot
3-4 stalks chopped celery
1/2 large onion diced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces), divided
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.

Bring broth to a boil in a large Dutch oven. Add potatoes and next 3 ingredients (through onions) to pan; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 6 minutes. Add chicken; cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl.

Increase heat to medium. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place all but 1 tablespoon flour in a medium bowl; gradually add milk to bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broth; cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, parsley, thyme, corn and peas, salt, and pepper. Spoon mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon flour on a work surface; roll dough into a 13 x 9-inch rectangle. Place dough over chicken mixture, pressing to seal at edges of dish. Cut small slits into dough to allow steam to escape; coat dough lightly with cooking spray. Place dish on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 16 minutes or until pastry is browned and filling is bubbly.






This recipe does take at least a hour to prep and bake. I only had a 9x9 pan so I put half of the mixture in the pan, and the rest of it in two large ramekins. Next time I will buy more ramekins and make them in those. I found that in a large pan it came out a little watery and was hard to serve. Also the puff pastry took more about 20-25 minutes to cook. The puff pastry in the ramekins cooked faster but if you are using a large pan, the puff pastry will take longer to cook.

Here is the link for the chicken pot pie with root vegetables if you would like to use root vegetables.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001654677