All the comforts of home

Been in the kitchen mostly today.  I had some things I needed to use and so have been..well...using them.  I made apple cereal bars (uh not low calorie, but good), Cranberry orange bread, and lastly a chicken pot pie for dinner.  The cranberry orange bread was a pumpkin bread recipe I altered to use butter instead of oil and cranberries instead of pumpkin.  I think it would have done fine had I baked it in wide bread pans or used three pans instead of two, but I didn't so it over flowed the pan some and didn't turn out as pretty as I would have liked.  It's good though.  It's good and went promptly into the freezer.  Whew!  It will reemerge on a day I can enjoy it, and when everyone is home and can help me eat it.

While preparing to make the chicken pot pie, I had an inspiration to write a post about things we can do to still enjoy the comfort foods without turning to highly processed diet tricks.  The recipe that I will leave you with is a healthier version of Chicken pot pie.  As a result it will have fewer calories and fat then it's unaltered counter part, but it is by no means a "Diet" recipe.  There are no tricks of the trade as you may know them.  I'm not using skim milk, thickener (cept flour), "Low fat canned soups", or anything else like that.  This is sure nuff Chicken pot pie, made smarter.

First things first you need chicken and chicken broth.  This morning I took a whole chicken from the fridge (I had been thawing it a few day in there) and placed it in my crock pot to cook.  I added no extra water.  Just the bird and a little salt.  It cooked on high the better part of the day til the chicken was falling off the bones.  That's what you look for.  I removed the chicken to a plate to cool,and poured the broth, which was now in the crock pot, into a 2 cup measuring cup.  I placed the measuring cup into my freezer to get cool enough for the fat to solidify on the broth, but have no plans to freeze this broth.  It's to be used tonight.  And that is tip #1

1)  Use de-fatted broth.  I don't buy broth.  I make my own.  But you can buy your own.  Just make sure you read the labels.  It should only be broth...maybe salt.  Anything unpronounceable, move on.

2)  Use the white meat part of the chicken-  I'll de-bone the whole thing and save the dark meat for other recipes, but since this dish will have a pie crust, I'm using the white meat for lower fat in that area to make up for the fat in the pie crust.

3)  Double up on the veggies-  I bulk up my pot pies with extra veggies  The recipe calls for a 10 oz pkg of frozen veggies, I may add another pack of veggies, or add extra celery or carrots to bulk it up.  I use the same amount of meat though.

4)  Don't saute your veggies in butter or any other kind of fat.  Once my broth is cool enough to remove the fat, I will take the broth(after I've removed the fat) and add my veggies directly to it and let it simmer til they're soft.  This one thing alone removes 1/4 cup of butter from the recipe.  I also add the chicken after the veggies are soft. 

5) They normally want you to use the 1/4 cup of butter so that you can make the gravy for the pie.  Instead, I take the 1/3 cup of flour called for in the recipe and whisk in the 3/4 cup of (I use whole milk/water half and half) milk.  Whisk the milk/water into the flour and not the other way around or it will clump.  I turn the heat up on my chicken/broth/veggie mixture and once boiling, add the milk/flour all at once and stir.  It will thicken pretty quickly.  Once thickened, remove from heat.

6)  Use one pie crust at most.  I mixed up a recipe for a double crust pie, but will freeze one and use the other tonight.  You can also can roll out your single pie crust and cut it into strips.  Use the crust on the top of your pot pie in a criss/cross pattern.  You won't use as much crust this way.  Freeze the extra for later.

So here is the actual recipe:

10 oz pkg frozen veggies or more (or fresh equivalent )

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 stalks celery chopped

2 cups white meat chicken

1/3 cup flour

3/4 cup of half whole milk half water

2 cups chicken broth (de fatted)

1/2-1 tsp salt (start with the 1/2 tsp and add from there)

1/4 tsp sage

1/8 tsp pepper

2 tbs dried parsley

Pastry for single crust pie.

Place broth, veggies, cooked white meat chicken, and spices into a pot and simmer till veggies are soft but not mushy.  Whisk milk into the flour.  Bring the veggie mixture to boil and add the milk flour mixture all at once stirring well.  Once thickened, remove from heat.  Might want to taste and make sure it's to your liking.  Now would be the time to make any adjustments.  Pour into a 9 X 13 casserole dish and top with single crust.  Bake 450 for 10 min or until crust is golden brown.