Happy Sunday! In my last post I went through a long list of exciting things going on for us right now, but in the midst of all that good stuff we still managed to find time to try a new recipe this weekend. Yay! We technically tried our new recipe yesterday evening after getting home from a much-needed grocery shop, but who’s keeping track of the rules, here, anyway?
While cleaning out the fridge in preparation for a grocery run, I noticed that we had an extra frozen pie crust that looked a little lonely there in the freezer. I quickly racked my brain for meals I could make that would involve a pie crust, AND use up the two also-lonely chicken breasts we had, and the answer was clear… Chicken Pot Pie! You’d be surprised at how many chicken pot pie recipes there are on AllRecipes.com alone; I virtually thumbed through ten or fifteen before settling on one. I picked it because it used a pie crust set up (sorta), but since I didn’t have a double pie crust with a top layer, I decided I’d use some Bisquik mix to create a pour-over top crust like I remember doing in an old chicken pot pie recipe several years ago.
At the grocery store, keeping this top crust in mind, I grabbed a package of Bisquik garlic cheese biscuit mix – just add water! I figured this would be a nice touch and I’d pour it all over the top of the pot pie to create a tasty top crust. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don’t. But that’s why we try new recipes and try new things – to learn!
We followed the Chicken Pot Pie III recipe with the exception of one substitution and the top crust; I boiled the two chicken breasts and combined cubed chicken with some mixed frozen veggies we blanched. The new ingredient for me was that this recipe called for a can of condensed cream of POTATO soup along with half a can of cream of celery. I’ve never seen cream of potato used in the filling of chicken pot pie, and in the end, I think this was the one ingredient that made ALL the difference. It was like the can of cream of potato soup was magic. I will admit I substituted cream of chicken for cream of celery, but mostly because I don’t like the flavor of cream of celery so much. So in our chicken pot pie we used one whole can of condensed cream of potato soup and a half can of condensed cream of chicken. Seriously, the combination was magical, and I’m convinced that cream of potato soup in chicken pot pie is genius. I don’t know if cream of potato is common in chicken pot pie recipes elsewhere or not, but it was new to me and now will be a permanent ingredient in any chicken pot pie I make going forward. Delicious!
I poured the filling into the pie crust and checked the instructions on the Bisquik garlic cheese biscuit mix – it only needed 15 minutes to bake, so I decided to wait and pour the top crust on the last 15 minutes of bake time. So I put the pie in without a top crust for the first 30 minutes with the pie crust edges covered in foil. The next 30 minutes saw the foil removed as the recipe instructed, and then the final 15 minutes was for the biscuit mix poured on top. And by ‘poured on top’, I mean ‘made a huge mess.’ See, the biscuit mix was a bit too doughy and sticky to spread easily on the top of a hot, almost-finished chicken pot pie. In an old recipe I used, the top crust I made from Bisquik mix was more liquid-y and could be poured easily so that it spread out naturally on top of the pie. I wasn’t really thinking and tried this with the biscuit mix and it didn’t turn out so well. I did the best I could to spread it evenly across the top, and in the end it all tasted fine, but this step would’ve been easier if I had:
A. Just gotten a double pie crust like the recipe called for to avoid adding a top crust later .. OR ..
B. Used more liquid-y Bisquik mix that would’ve made it easier to pour, instead of trying to spread sticky dough.
That little poor choice aside, the final resulting chicken pot pie was seriously amazing! I can’t gush enough about the magic of the filling flavor – again, I believe due to the use of cream of potato. The veggies were just right, the chicken was flavorful, and the crust (including the tasty garlic cheese top) all came together really well. Lucas said that I can make this again anytime I want… which is a good sign ;)
Next weekend we’ll be in Georgia for Dragon Con so there won’t be a new recipe, but definitely stay tuned for updates and photos from our trip to Atlanta with friends. :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend!