I will tell you that while I write this, we are at Jonah’s office recording a cover of The Counting Crows’ “St. Robinson in his Cadillac Dream.” I discovered today that the band is holding a cover contest and if you place in the top three you win 1) a signed guitar, 2) $600 to Guitar Center, and 3) a spot on an EP that they’re distributing to fans, etc. By the time this is published, we will be long finished, but for now, we’re working away. We discovered the contest about 24 hours before the deadline, so we’ve recruited our singer/musician friend Jon to help us create an a cappella infused cover. It’s currently just after 1 am, and one of us (me or Jonah) has to wake up at quarter to 7 tomorrow morning to drive the kids to school, and then we both have to go on our couch-to-5k run… We may have bitten off more than we can chew, but by golly we’re gonna get something in for this contest!
Now onto the food. Yesterday I wanted to make dinner. I wanted to make a dinner that was delicious and wintery, not too difficult, but a little bit impressive. After browsing a few recipes, I settled on Chicken Pot Pie. Relatively easy, but impressive because, you know, it’s a pie. I didn’t use a particular recipe, and also instead of making it in a pie dish, I made it in two little ramekins, so Jonah and I each had our own little servings. Which was cute. So I’m gonna give you the measurements I used, but I suggest doubling it if you’re looking to feed more than 2 people (though we did have leftovers).
2 cups flour 1 boneless skinless chicken breast Start by making the pie dough, which you can find a recipe for here. Start by putting the chicken and broth in a saucepan and bringing it to a nice simmer. Cook it until the chicken is tender and cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a mixing bowl, and strain the broth into a measuring cup or some other vessel. Don’t bother washing the pot, you’ll reuse it a bunch of times. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat the oil in the pot and when it’s nice and hot add the onion, carrots, celery, and about 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper. Cook the veggies till they’re mostly softened (covering them while they cook helps with this by adding some steam). While the veggies cook, take a couple forks or a fork and knife and shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. When the vegetables are done cooking, add them to the bowl with the chicken. Remove your pie dough from the fridge so it can start warming up. In that same dang pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Then add the flour and stir it up. You’ll have some clumps, but don’t worry about it. After cooking your clumps for a little bit, throw in most of the reserved chicken broth (I probably did about half of it, maybe 3/4), the milk, and the thyme. Whisk it up so the clumps dissolve, and cook it until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat, and stir in the chicken/veggie mixture, the peas, and season it with salt and pepper to taste. Now you can roll out your dough. Because we were doing the little ramekins, I split each disc of pie two in two and rolled each half out, laying it gently in the dish and making sure there were no pockets of air in the sides or bottom. Once both had their bottom crust in, I split the filling between the two dishes. Then roll out the second disc (again split in two) and cover the pies, trim the excess dough, and form an edge. Put the ramekins on a baking sheet (foil lined if you so wish), and put them in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes before digging in and enjoying!Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold shortening
3-5 Tbl of ice water
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 stalks of celery, washed and sliced 1/4 inch thick
salt and pepper
2 Tbl butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawedInstructions