Comfort Food

Our dog Buoy ate my loofah this morning.  Do you think that counts as having her teeth brushed?

As I told you in a previous post, My Husband has been working EXTREMELY long hours...almost 80 hours a week like some stockbroker or ER doc.  I decided to surprise him and make one of his favorite dishes for dinner: chicken pot pie.  I altered a recipe I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and it was quite a success (if I do say so myself).  I was actually surprised at the recipe’s simplicity, since chicken pot pie seems complicated to me.  Don’t tell your guests how easy it was, just bask in the glow of being a domestic diva J

LARK'S COMFORT CHICKEN POT PIE

Ingredients:

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast – cubed
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• Splash of olive oil
• 1 14oz can clear chicken broth
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 3/4 cups chicken stock
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, garlic and celery.  Add can of chicken broth and then enough water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In another saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter and olive oil until soft and translucent.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Slowly stir in chicken stock and milk.  Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.  Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan or other deep glass dish (I used an 8”x4” Corningware dish).  Gently press one pie crust to fill the dish (I’ve never gone wrong with Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts.  Sometimes it’s the only thing in my pies people compliment J). 
5. Place pie pan or dish in oven for a few minutes until the bottom crust gets slightly golden.  This will prevent the pastry from being soggy.  Remove from oven.
6. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust.  Pour hot liquid mixture over.  Make several small slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.  Cover with top crust, fold edges in and seal.  Thicker edges will prevent burning.  If you’re using a pie pan, make sure you cover the edges with tin foil or a pie guard (available at most home stores) as soon as they turn golden brown (usually with about 15 minutes left to bake).  Press edges with fork to get those traditional pie grooves.
7. Scramble the egg in a separate dish.  Using a marinating brush, brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.  This will really make the top crust crunchy and awesome.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cool for ten minutes before serving.

So My Husband was really pleased to come home to that.  Plus, the recipe serves 4-6 people (depending on portion size) so he doesn’t mind having the leftovers tonight.  Since I caught the cold he had last weekend, I’m enjoying a cooking-free evening.