Chicken Pot Pie

Well, Arkansas finally got a little bit of snow this week.  But, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to cause a "snow day" for most of us.  If you've been at all exposed to the northern part of this country, you would chuckle at our reaction to snow around here.  People buy two extra gallons of milk and five extra loaves of bread when there is an inch, yes, one single inch, of snow expected, and we cancel school and work because the roads are too dangerous to drive on.  Even if we didn't get enough snow to cancel school or work this week, we still had the cold temperatures that make you want to stay home in your PJ's and curl up with a blanket on the couch with a good book.  Enough about the weather for now.  It's back to the 50's and 60's.

About once a year I get a craving for chicken pot pie.  It came last year when Southern Living featured it on the front cover of one of their issues.  And this year, I got the craving when Real Simple had it on the cover of their February issue.  Well, when the snow was expected this week, I couldn't think of a better way to usher it in than with chicken pot pie.

I like to experiment with my recipes and try to combinations, and take a little from here and a little from there.  So, this year, I used my mom's basic recipe and added a few ingredients that Real Simple had in their recipe.

I decided to use lots of veggies this time round.  I had about 2/3 cups chicken, 1/2 cups each frozen peas and green beans, and 2/3 cups fresh carrots.

Then, I also added some sauteed onions and mushrooms.  I really love mushrooms.  Before I did, I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to eat them.  Then, one day, it clicked.

Finally, instead of making my own sauce, I just used a can of cream of chicken soup.  This is what makes this recipe so simple.  Thanks, Mom!

Mix it all together and season with salt and pepper.  But, be cautious with the salt-- the soup can be pretty salty without much help.  Add some chicken broth if you think it needs more moisture.

I didn't put a pie crust on the bottom of my dish in an effort to cut a few calories.  And before you feel sorry that I don't have a pie plate, I do.  I just thought this one was cuter.  :)  I saw the heart idea for the top in another magazine and thought it would be fun since Valentine's Day was only a few days off.

Brush the pie crust with egg.  Wrap the edges with foil so that they don't get too dark too fast.  Then bake at 400 for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil from the edges for the last 15 minutes.

Make this the next time there are chances of snow!  

Here's my mom's delicious recipe...

Easy Chicken Pot Pie 

1 2/3 cups frozen mixed vegetables of your choice, thawed (I used some fresh)

1 cup cooked chicken, cut into pieces 

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup 

2 pie crusts (or you can just use 1 for the top) 

1 egg to brush on top 

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix vegetables, chicken and soup.  Pour into bottom pie crust.  Cover with remaining crust and flute edge or decorate top, as desired.  Cut several slits in crust so the heat can escape.  Brush crust thoroughly with beaten egg.  Loosely cover the edges with foil.  

Bake for about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and pie is heated through and bubbling.  Remove foil from edges for last 15 minutes.  

Serves 4 to 6  

This recipe also freezes well.  These are my mom's instructions for freezing it:  Wrap the pie with saran wrap and foil.  When baking, be sure to take off the saran wrap and brush with an egg.  It can be a little frozen or completely frozen, too, but you will have to extend the baking time.