When Fall arrives, I happily return to cooking my favorite comfort foods. Fall weekends at our house mean, long, slow, lovingly cooked meals.
Today I decided to make chicken pot pie. Chicken, when purchased with skin and bones, whole or by legs and thighs can be very economical. Boneless, skinless chicken these days cost as much as nice cuts of beef, so I find ways to use less expensive chicken. I boiled 8 chicken legs purchased for under a dollar a pound on sale. I placed the chicken legs in a pot of water (just enough to cover the meat) with half an onion, a couple of garlic cloves, some celery, salt, and Old Bay seasonings and boiled it for about 2 hours. I then removed the chicken and placed in a bowl to cool. I strained the resulting broth, and placed it back into the pot. I added the other half of the onion, sliced carrots, left over (meaning parts of bags, not the whole bag) frozen corn, cut green beans, and peeled, cubed potatoes to the pot. I simmered the veggies for about 15 minutes. I added parsley, pepper, a little salt and a bit of "Better than Bullion" seasoning. I don't often measure my seasonings. I just "season to taste" most of the time.
Once the chicken cooled a bit, I took the meat off the bones in as large chunks as possible. I threw away the bones, skins and icky parts. I chunked the larger pieces of meat with a big knife and added it to the veggies in the pot.
I added about a 1/4 cup of baking mix (like Bisquick) to the pot to thicken the mixture.
I added all that yummy goodness to a lightly greased, big, glass baking dish.
I mixed equal parts baking mix with milk to create the crust. I added a bit of garlic powder, onion powder, and Old Bay seasoning to the batter and poured it over the mixture in the dish.
As a finishing touch, I sprinkled parsley flakes on the top. I then baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes till the crust was golden brown.
It was delicious!!
You can experiment with your seasonings as well as the veggies to find your perfect chicken pot pie.
It's an easy, economical and wholesome meal. We'll be having left overs tomorrow too!
