Chicken Pot Pie w/ Spring Vegetables (Asparagus and Peas)

This picture was an after thought (because I recently blogged a CHKN Pot Pie). What you see in this picture is all that was left of a 9 x 13 pan shortly after placing it on the table. This recipe was a huge hit with the kids. I served this comfort food classic for Sunday dinner tonight and the kids and adults alike kept coming back for more! One of my nieces doesn't care for celery much so when she found out that I had replaced it with Asparagus she loved it right away. It really hit the spot. The Asparagus was a great find super cheap at Wal-mart. I am usually to frugal to buy it because I think it is to expensive, but not this time!

This recipe comes from my "The New Best Recipe" book (p.351). I think that it gets way to wordy and involved so I have simplified it and posted it as such. You can make the filling and the topping of choice before hand. You just need to warm the filling be for adding your top to it. (I think that it helps cook the bottom layer of the doughs).

1 recipe of the Savory Pie Dough Topping or Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuit Topping (recipes below)
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast and/or thighs (cut into small bite size pieces)
2 cups (1 can) low-sodium chicken broth
1 medium-large onion, chopped finely
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick (I added 6-8 carrots)
2 small celery ribs (or 18 thin asparagus spears cut into 1-inch pieces replaces it if you go that option)
salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 Tablespoons dry sherry (I just used Sherry Cooking wine)
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed (Increase to 1 cup if using the asparagus)
3 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves (optional- I didn't have any on hand so I left it out)

1. Make the pie dough or biscuit topping and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In a small amount of oil in a large skillet saute the onions and chicken pieces; cook until chicken is no longer pink. Then add the carrots, asparagus, and peas. cooking until tender about 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile you can cook the sauce in a separate pan. (This really speeds up the process!) Melt the butter over med-high heat, then add the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken broth, the milk, and any accumulated juices from your chicken and vegetable pan, sherry, and the thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer until the sauce fully thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour the sauce over the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Add the parsley. (The mixture can be covered and refrigerated overnight; reheat before topping with the pastry.) Pour mixture into 9 x 13 baking dish or six small 12-oz ovenproof dishes. Top with desired pastry. Bake until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling, 30 minutes for larger pies and 20 to 25 minutes for the smaller pies. Serve Hot.


I think you could use any of your favorite pastries here and it would work nicely.
FLUFFY BUTTERMILK BISCUIT TOPPING-enough for 1 recipe of Chicken Pot Pie
1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (4oz) plain cake flour (I used all-purpose here. The book says to use cake flour when you want your pastry to be light and fluffy. I don't even think I can get cake flour in little Lovell, WY)
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, plus 1 to 2 Tablespoons if needed.

Pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add the butter pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.
Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and add the buttermilk. Stir with a fork until dough gathers into moist clumps. (If the clumps are still dry, add more buttermilk, a Tablespoon at a time, up to 2 Tablespoons in all). Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and form in to a rough ball. Roll out the dough until it is 1/2-inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-3-inch pastry cutter, stamp out 8 rounds of dough. IF making individual pies, cut the dough slightly smaller than the circumference of each dish. (Dough rounds can be refrigerated on a lightly floured baking sheet covered with plastic wrap for up to 2 hours.)
Arrange dough rounds over the warm filling and proceed with the recipe for Chicken Pot Pie.

*Okay so I made my biscuits and refrigerated them for a lot longer than two hours and they turned out fine. I did however not rewarmed my filling as suggested and I wish I had done so. The bottoms of my biscuits were a tad bit doughy and I think had the filling been warmer they would have steamed all the way through.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

I have many a recipe for Black Bean Salsa's. This one taste great and it doesn't have a lot of vinegars or spices so it makes it easier to throw together quickly. I will have to post some of my other well loved Black Bean Salsa's as summer gets closer--seems to be the time we eat it more often with our ripe tomatoes out of the garden.

1 (15 oz) can Black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (11oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 teaspoon minced fresh Jalapeno pepper (optional)
1 avocado, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 Red bell pepper, chopped (my mother-in-law added some green bells too and it tasted great)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or substitute 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes, squeezed)
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients except avocado and chips. Cover and chill for at least two hours. Add avocado just before serving. Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

White Chicken Chili's

I got this recipe from my friend Aubrey Walker. She brought it to me one evening when the house was turned upside down while we were putting in the kitchen with some awesome Refrigerator Biscuits (also found on the blog). Every time I have this I think, "Oh this is so good!" Cameron thinks it's spicy hot--so if you have kids you might want to play with the spices to your liking. I am going to post Aubrey's original recipe and then tell you what changes I made in notes following it. Aubrey said this freezes well.

1 lb cooked Chicken cubed (I diced mine into small bite size slightly larger than a bean)
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 medium onion chopped
1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil (I used olive oil or Canola oil)

Saute those together until the meat is cooked through. Then add:

2 cans Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
16 oz Chicken broth ( I used 24 oz and I think that you could EASILY stretch this recipe for the budget by adding more here)
2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chili's
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin--don't double if you make a double batch
1 teaspoon ground oregano (I used 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ceyanne pepper--don't double (I used close to 1/8 tsp.)

Bring to a boil and reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Then add

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream (I forgot to add both of these! Crazy as I had both on hand and that is why I chose the recipe for dinner--duh! But I liked it without it too. It makes the chili more HEART healthy and lower in fat! Can't complain right!!)

After adding the sour cream and cream don't allow to boil again just heat it through. Dish up and enjoy! (If you choose not to add the creams this recipe would freeze well. We also added the sour cream later trying to turn down the heat for Cameron.)

**I think that adding the cream and sour cream tones down the heat, but for us I think 1/8 teaspoon ceyanne pepper is good for starters.
***The picture above is what it looks like without the creamy ingredients.

Last night we had a RS Enrichment night--Theme Use your Beans (food storage night)

This recipe is Betty Hubbell's and was really good. It is different than the first recipe of Aubrey's in taste. It has a nice cheese flavor to it. (It was nice to taste them within a few days of each other. I enjoyed them both.

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

4 Chicken breast cooked in 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
4 or 5 cups cooked Great Northern Beans
4 cups Chicken broth
2 onions chopped
4 cloves of garlic
2 to 4 cans chopped chilies
2 teaspoons Cumin
1/2-1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 cup chopped fresh Cilantro

Simmer 1-3 hours. Thirty minutes before serving add:
1 cup Half and Half
3 cups shredded Monterey cheese

Do NOT BOIL after adding Half and Half and cheese. Keep warm. She said this Chili freezes well too.

Refrigerator Biscuits

These are the biscuits Aubrey Walker serves with her White Chicken Chili! Delicious!! She got the recipe from Essential Mormon Celebrations by Julie Badger Jensen. Sorry I don't have a picture of this, but it looks like the typical Baking Powder Biscuit.

1 (.25 oz) pkg dry yeast (equivalent to 1 1/2 tsp.)
1/2 cup warm water
5 cups flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or shortening (No wonder they are scrumpteous!)
2 cups buttermilk

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives. In a seperate bowl, combine buttermilk and dissolved yeast mixture; add to dry mixture, stirring only until moistened. Put dough in a large plastic container. Cover and refridgerate for serveral hours before baking. Dough can be stored in refigerator for up to one week. When ready to bake, carefully roll out dough to 1/2" thickness on a well floured surgace. Cut desired shape (When Aubrey brought these to us they were hearts so this is now called "Heart Bread" by Cameron and Quin.). Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 3 dozen biscuits. (Aubrey said that she prefers to cook them all the day she makes them. She doesn't like the way they taste after being refigerated beyond the first day.)

Caramelized Chicken with Cranberry Conserve

This recipe is from Southern Living Christmas Cookbook, p. 114. It was fun for a change and very rich.
Prep: 15 minutes, cook 22 minutes, other 1 hour

3 Tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate thawed
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoon dry sherry
1 garlic clove, minced
4 skinned and boned chicken breasts
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablesppon dark sesame oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 to 2 Tablespoons sesame seeds toasted, (optional)
1 to 2 Tablespoons minced green onions, (optional)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large zip top freeze bad; add chicken. Seal bag and chill at least 1 hour. Remove chicken from marinade, reserve marinade.

Cook sugar and sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, 4 minutes. Add chicken, and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Add reserve marinade, onion, and cranberries; cook, stirring and turning chicken often, 10 minutes or until done. Remove chicken, and let stand 5 minutes. Slice and serve with cranberry mixture. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions, if desired.
Yeilds 4 to 6 servings demending on the size and amount of Chicken you use. I personally think the sauce on this one is so rich you could make a single batch of the sauce and double the chicken. It has been a couple of months since I made this so I am having a brain freeze on anything else I might suggest (I have to do better on blogging them the week I make them. This one was cooked at my sister-in-laws when I didn't have a kitchen. Thanks to Echo for letting us camp in their kitchen and do a combined dinner frequently during our remodel job.)

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

My little family enjoyed this recipe. Quin loves mushrooms! He often wants to buy them at the store when he gets to tag along and help me shop, so this was a treat for him. The original recipe calls for Turkey cutlets, but I rarely have turkey on hand so I substituted chicken tenders instead. I have made it with both and it comes out to be a personal preferance of poultry if you ask me.

4 (4 oz) turkey or Chicken cutlets
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup butter or margarine, divided
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

Coat cutlets in 1/4 cup flour seasoned with garlic salt and pepper.
Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add cutlet. Cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes per side; drain. Transfer cutlet to serving platter cover and keep warm.
Heat remaining butter in skillet add mushrooms. Saute for 5 minutes. Stir in remaining flour; cook until bubbly, about 4 minutes.
Stir broth into skillet. Cook, stirring continually, until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Drizzle sauce over cutlets and serve.

A perfect side dish for this meal is green beans or a toss salad.

Ramen Noodle Stir-Fry

This recipe came to us by way of the Shambaugh family cookbook-Jack's aunts.  This isn't a to die for recipe, but the kids like it because of "Ramen Noodles" and I like it because stir-fries are always quick when you need a meal in a hurry. 

1 (3 oz) pkg. Oriental Ramen Noodle mix

2 teaspoons Cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce (reduced sodium)

1 teaspoon rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil (or another cooking oil you have one hand.)

4 cups Broccoli floweretts or any mix of vegetables (I personally love the the Costco-Kirkland brand stir-fry mix!!)

Chicken Breast or Lean Beef, cut into bite-size pieces (optional)

Break noodles into pieces; reserve seasoning packet. Place noodles in a 1 quart microwave safe casserole dish. Add one cup warm water. Microwave on High for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes or until noodles are softened, stirring twice , drain.

Sauce: in a small bowl combine the seasoning packet, 2/3 cup cold water, corn starch, soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper. Set aside.

In a large skillet or WOK heat oil over med-high heat. Stir-fry vegetables 3-4 minutes or until crispy-tender. Cook, stirring until bubbly, then cook one minute more.

You can also stir-fry chicken breast or lean beef first and then add with the noodles and sauce.

*The picture shows a side of mini egg rolls found in the freezer section of the grocery store.