Chicken Pot Pie

I was watching Eat, Shrink and Be Merry this week (I PVR it twice a week because this is one of my fave cooking shows) and they were remaking chicken pot pie. If you don't know the premise of the show, they take really fatty dishes and make them into healthy, amazingly tasty options.

This got me craving chicken pot pie... and not the frozen store bought version that could probably give me a heart attack simply by ingesting, I was craving the good stuff... like I saw on TV.

Hence, I modified the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry recipe and had the most amazing chicken pot pie EVER. If you like chicken pot pie, have a go at this.

Semi-Healthy Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients: Filling

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 cup diced onions (I actually pureed them because I hate hate hate onion chunks)

2 cloves minced garlic

2 cups frozen mixed veg, mine were peas, carrots, green beans and corn

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

1 cup cream-style corn

1 cup 2% evaporated milk

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup packed grated light Swiss cheese

1 large rotisserie chicken, meat cut into chunks (light and dark meat)--I actually got the "herb roasted chicken" flavour... look for this one as it's awesome. I used my hands to strip the chicken too... you don't have to, but I found it effective.

Biscuit Topping

1 sheet puff pastry, rolled out and measured to more than cover your baking dish... mind looked very rustic

Directions: Filling

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place baking dish (I used one larger, probably a quart or two, dish and one smaller, 2 cup dish) baking sheet lined with foil and set aside.

To make filling, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in large non-stick pot. Add onions and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes. Stir in mixed veg and thyme. Cook 1 more minute. Add broth and corn and let mixture simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together evaporated milk and flour until smooth. Add to pot. Cook and stir until mixture thickens (and don't worry, it will thicken, just give it a few). Remove from heat. Add cheese and stir until cheese melts. Stir in cut-up chicken.

Fill baking dishes with warm chicken mixture and top with pre-measured puff pastry. Brush tops of pastry with a weeee bit of melted butter. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until filling bubbles and pastry tops are puffed up a golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving because this is super hot.

For wine, I had a reserve Syrah from Chile that I've been wanting to try... the peppery-ness of the Syrah was really nice with the herbed flavour of the pie, and the weight of the pie felt equitable with the body of the wine.