Almost Completely Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

I like rotisserie chicken. I wish I had a rotisserie so I could rotisserie my own chicken. (One of RonCo's latest inventions is the household rotisserie. WANT!) But since I don’t have one, once every couple of months I’ll grab a chicken from Top Foods. Their rotisserie chicken is locally raised and antibiotic free, so it’s worth the little extra drive up the hill.

I like CHICKEN!

Whenever we get one, I try to make two or three meals out of it. The first meal is always rotisserie chicken. I’ll just sauté up some veggies and make a salad and tah-dah, dinner is on the table.

The second meal is usually some form of chicken soup. Chicken and noodles, chicken and dumplings; all with big chunks of leftover rotisserie chicken and vegetables. I like onions, garlic, celery, and carrots in my chicken soup! And black pepper.

Well, last night was rotisserie chicken day 2, and I decided I felt frisky. So instead of putting my biscuits on the side or on top of my chicken soup, I decided to encase chicken soup in biscuits. And thus, pot pie.

I’ve always loved pot pie. I don’t know why I’ve never made it before. I made it really fresh with veggies from my local farmer’s market and my own broth. But you could definitely ease the operation by grabbing some organic frozen veggies and some packaged broth at the store. I just tossed the rest of the chicken carcass (after I had pulled the meat) in the crock pot with some water in the morning, so I had a nice bone broth to use in this recipe.

Fresh and hot from the oven!

Chicken Pot Pie (Almost Completely Homemade)

Preheat your oven to 375°

Crust:

2 c. whole-wheat flour

1 tsp organic sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 stick of butter, cubed

¾ c milk

Mix together dry ingredients, cut in (with a pastry cutter, or I use a fork) butter until the mixture begins to look like coarse cornmeal. Make a well, pour in milk. If the mixture is too dry, you might need just a splash more milk. You want a soft dough to form.

Since this is basically a biscuit, you want to be sure not to over-mix the dough. Once it pulls together, dump it out on a floured surface and knead 3 or 4 times. Roll out flat according to your casserole dish. You’ll want enough to cover the bottom, sides, and top.

Now the tricky part is getting it off the surface and into the pan. I find it’s easiest to fold it up gently and move it into the pan. Unfold (gently) and pat it onto the sides. Set aside a small amount of dough for the top of the pie.

Filling:

Absolutely crammed full of farm-fresh veggies!

1 c. Chopped, cooked chicken

1 c. Chicken Stock

1 c. Grated Cheddar Cheese (completely optional)

(Veggies of Choice, I use lots, use the size of your dish as a guide!)

Corn (I used the kernels from 2 cobs)

Carrots (A hearty handful of organic carrot chips)

Onion (1 small one, sliced thin)

Broccoli (1 head, chopped)

Celery (about a handful, chopped)

Not perfect, but it doesn't matter. It's going to be delicious!

Chop all the veggies into bite-sized pieces. Mix the chicken, stock, veggies, and cheese in a bowl. Spoon into crust. Roll out the top crust and gently place on top, pinching together with crust. Make sure to cut some vents.

You could thicken the chicken broth with a roux, a flour slurry, or even some arrowroot powder or (ick) cornstarch if you wanted to. I didn't. I might next time, there was a lot of juice at the bottom of mine, but I just poured it over the top of my bowl and it was delicious. 

I baked mine for a total of 55 minutes. This will depend on a few factors, such as the size of your casserole dish and your oven. I started by checking it at 30 minutes, and then just added time 10-15 minutes at a time. I stuck a meat thermometer in to make sure it was nice and hot inside. If you are concerned about food safety you might want to cook it a little longer, mine was only 145° inside when I decided I was hungry and it was time to eat.

This is my first attempt at this recipe, so check back, I’ll polish it. I also will get pictures of how I got the crust from countertop to dish.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yum! Thanks for dinner.

Fruits vs. Vegetables (An Introduction)

Aloha vegephiles!

Before I begin my journey to taste every single vegetable, I thought I ought to set some parameters and define some definitions.

First, I'll define myself. Well, as best I can.

Hi, I'm Shauna Krystin. I love to cook and I love eating fresh food that was recently grown by a farmer. I do eat meat, also dairy, grains, and chocolate. I love cheese and I use a lot of coconut oil. I market weight loss and health products (you can read more about that on my other blog Shauna Krystin's Crazy Wrap Thing), but my true passion is real food - learning about it, cooking it, and tasting it. I'm anti-GMO, anti-fast food, anti-processed junk, pro-digging up your lawn to plant a garden, pro-teaching your kids to cook, and pro-veggies! I have a pallet garden on my balcony this summer, and am enjoying learning about natural, organic gardening methods.

Next definition. What is the difference between fruits and vegetables?

Prepare for your mind to be blown...

Culinary and culturally speaking, vegetables are exactly what you think they are. They are savory plant parts that we eat. But botanically speaking, vegetables are edible plant parts such as the roots, stems, buds, and leaves (leafy greens, root veggies, celery, broccoli). Fruit, on the other hand, is the part of the plant that comes after the blossom, the swollen ovary that contains the seed. Here is the mind blowing part - many things we think of as vegetables are actually fruit: cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, squash, eggplant, peppers, and even tree nuts! Technically, grain is also a fruit. Legumes are another story.

So how exactly did botanical fruit become culinary vegetable, you ask? Strangely enough, a Supreme Court decision in 1893 determined that tomatoes should be taxed as vegetables in commerce, because they are savory-tasting, "grown in kitchen gardens, . . .[and] usually served at dinner." So not only are tomatoes and the like culturally considered vegetables, they are legally defined as such. Meaning, if you had a bell pepper issue and took it up with the Supreme Court, they would likely defer to the 1893 decision of Nix v. Hedden and determine that if it looks like a vegetable and tastes like a vegetable, despite actual scientific classification, it's probably a vegetable.

What does this mean for the purpose of the blog? Absolutely nothing. Just some fun facts. I'm going to be tasting and talking about vegetables, both common and unusual, I prepare based on my culture's (and apparently the legal system's) definition of vegetables. I might even  throw a few actual botanical fruits in there. Just don't be surprised if I interject that zucchini is technically a fruit. That's just the way I am.

Veg it up, vegephiles!

A Crazy Idea

Last night, as I was laying in bed not sleeping, I had a crazy idea. I asked boyfriend, "Are you sleeping?" He kind of jerked awake and said, "Sorta kinda, yea." Oops... "Well, since you are awake now.... What if I tried every vegetable?" I think he was confused. He said, "What if you did?" and went back to sleep.

Sea beans. wikipedia.org

I started thinking, what if I did? I eventually drifted off to sleep, soon to forget all about the many types of vegetables I may or may not ever taste.

But behold, on my Facebook news feed this morning I saw something called "Sea Beans." And I remembered. I've never heard of sea beans before this day. At first I thought that this gal was referring to the drift fruit that has been used in ancient medicine (the "fruit" of my first Google search), but upon a deeper search I did find sea beans, aka samphire, a coastal vegetable from northern Europe that apparently has a naturally occurring salty taste and is sometimes referred to as the "sea pickle" or "sea asparagus."

With this discovery of sea beans coming right behind said crazy idea, it was like the Universe was urging me to accept this challenge issued by my insomnia. I know some of them will be hard to acquire, and some will probably be downright disgusting (not a huge fan of Brussels sprouts, either), but my goal is to.... wait for it.... try every single vegetable.

Challenge ACCEPTED!

dctb.timebanks.org

Because it's only an idea without a plan, here's my plan: I'm going to start tonight. I'm going to start local and with some familiar items. I don't have to get exotic yet. Tonight I'll be visiting the local farmer's market to pick up some fresh veggies. Maybe I'll find something new. Maybe not. I know they sell celery root at my local supermarket - I've never tried that before.


But tonight starts my quest. To find, to cook, to eat - Every. Single. Vegetable. Follow me if you'd like to live vicariously through my culinary vegetable adventures!