Chicken Pot Pie for a snowy day

The snowpocalypse hit today. We got 30 cm last night (and even more today…) and I was awakened at 7 AM to a knock on my door as my brother was stuck in our alley and needed help. I spent the first hour of my morning pushing and shoveling. Consequently, I decided to hibernate for the remainder of the day.

So I made chicken pot pie. On days like today, you shouldn’t have to do anything besides curl up in your favorite sweats and watch movies and eat chicken pot pie. However, if you happen to get laundry done and your Christmas decorations taken down, so much the better!

Chicken Pot Pie
This recipe is more like a casserole with a top crust as Matt isn’t a fan of savory pies (being the pie-lover he is, I don’t understand this in the least) so I had to trick him into thinking it was a casserole. You can still make this pie with a bottom crust as well though.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 bay leaves
3 cooked chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley

pastry for a single crust pie
salt & pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion and about a 1/4 tsp salt, and cook until softened (about 6-7 minutes).

Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant. Stir in the flour, then slowly stir in the broth, cream and bay leaves. Simmer until the mixture is thickened (about 10 minutes).

After the mixture has thickened, discard the bay leaves and stir in the chicken, peas and parsley. You can add any additional salt & pepper to taste here as well.


Pour the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Roll out pie dough, drape it over the dish and trim. Bake at 425 F until the top is golden brown and bubbly (about 20-25 minutes). Let cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving.


P.S. My good foodie friend Lindz also has a yummy chicken pot pie recipe here. Check it out!

Casseroles instead of cookies

Have you ever seen that Campbell’s commercial where the mother is making dinner and the kids each ask if she’s making their favorite dish, however instead of just saying the name of the dish, they spell out the website url to where the recipe is on cookingwithcampbells.ca? Yeah…I’ve seen it a lot. And I kept thinking that the cheesy broccoli thing that the mom did end up making looked amazing and I had to see what it was.

Now, I’m going to admit that normally I’m a bit of a food snob. I’m not a fan of all those Kraft and Campbell’s recipes as they make you use all their brand-name products and most of them have like, salad dressing in them…it’s weird. But this recipe’s only brand-name ingredient was Campbell’s cream of broccoli soup. So I went out and bought some.

(on a side note, you could probably use no name cream of broccoli soup too…or even cream of mushroom…or chicken…I don’t think it would make a huge difference.)

Anyways, besides the fact that I’ve never opened a can of cream of broccoli soup before in my life and was consequently put off a little when I did (it looks and smells kind of gross..), the whole dish turned out pretty darn good. So good, in fact, that Matt and I ate the whole thing…and it would’ve probably made really good leftovers, but we now have none. Oh well. It was tasty while it lasted.

And I will never doubt cream of broccoli soup again.

Creamy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole
(Adapted from Campbell’s Easy Chicken and Broccoli Divan)

Ingredients:

3 cups broccoli florets, steamed
2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used old cheddar)
2 tbsp dry bread crumbs
1 tsp butter, melted

Directions:

First, cook your chicken breasts (I seasoned and broiled mine). While they’re cooking, steam your broccoli. When chicken is cooked, cut into cubes.

Mix milk with soup in a measuring cup or small bowl. Arrange broccoli and chicken in a baking dish (1.5 qt).

Pour the soup and milk mixture over broccoli and chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with mixture of bread crumbs and butter.

Bake at 425°F until heated through (25-30 minutes).


I promise I'll get back to some dessert recipes soon enough, I just need a little break...and somehow get the rest of my Christmas baking out of my house.

Chicken Soup

I love homemade soups. In fact, aside from desserts involving pumpkin, soup is kind of my culinary obsession right now. Making soup from scratch is much easier than people think and generally better for you – especially if you make your own stock – as you can control what goes into it (most importantly: the amount of salt). You just need the time…however, it’s a perfect way to make use of a lazy Sunday. Plus, your house will smell amazing.

I’m also a little obsessed with making my own stock. It’s so ridiculously simple and a great way to use up the parts of vegetables and meat that normally get thrown out. You can also make a whole bunch and freeze it, then just use it as you need it.

Today, I made chicken stock. I had roasted a chicken on the weekend and kept the bones and leftover meat in order to make a yummy chicken soup. My mom makes a mean turkey soup (usually after big family dinners) as a way to use up leftover meat and bones, and it’s one of my very favourite dishes she makes. It’s full of flavour and LOTS of dill.

What can I say? We’re Ukrainian.

Chicken Stock
I don’t really have a specific recipe for stock, as I kind of just like to throw in whatever I have, but here’s a basic guideline.

Ingredients:

bones/carcass of 1 roasted chicken, meat removed
2 unpeeled onions, coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks with leaves, coarsely chopped
2 unpeeled carrots, coarsely chopped
1 head of garlic (unpeeled), separated into cloves
6-8 sprigs of parsley
2 sprigs of thyme (or a tsp or so of dried thyme)
2 bay leaves
10-15 whole peppercorns

Directions:

In a stock pot, combine chicken, onions, celery, carrot, parsley, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns. Pour in 14 cups of water; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, skimming occasionally, for about 3-4 hours.

Use a slotted spoon to discard the majority of the chicken & vegetables. Strain stock through cheesecloth-lined sieve (or just a regular old strainer) into large bowl, pressing remaining vegetables to extract liquid. Refrigerate until fat congeals on surface, about 8 hours. Lift off fat and discard. Use as needed.

The stock can also be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Dillicious Ukrainian Chicken Soup
My spin on my mother's great soup.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons canola oil
half a medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium carrots, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 quarts chicken stock
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
LOTS of fresh dill

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cooked egg noodles (optional)

Directions:

Coat a soup pot with oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, carrots, celery and a tbsp or 2 of dill. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken stock (and more dill) and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the chicken (and more dill) and simmer for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper (and any other spices you want – dill is nice).

Add noodles to serve (I don’t put the noodles to cook directly in the soup as they soak up a lot of the broth).

Enjoy!!


P.S. To accompany the soup, I also made these biscuits. They’re pretty much to die for. You should go make some. Now.

Awesometastic Chicken Curry

So, I really didn’t expect to be posting on this blog everyday…or posting many “normal” recipes however I made a chicken curry today that was so good, I figured it needed to be shared. My boyfriend, Matt, raved about it and after some serious curry fails in the past, it feels good to make something awesome for a change.

Plus, he’s a super harsh critic when it comes to my cooking. If he thinks it’s good, it usually is.

So, without further ado, the recipe for Stephanie’s Awesometastic Chicken Curry!

Ingredients

vegetable or canola oil
½ a medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, chopped (green, yellow or any combo of the 3 would work too)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 tbsp curry paste (I use Patak’s Mild Curry Paste)
2-3 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into 1-inch pieces
5 tomatoes, diced (I used roma tomatoes because that’s all I had, but a can of diced tomatoes would work fine too)
¼ cup whipping cream
1 tsp coriander
pinch or 2 of hot red pepper flakes

basmati rice, for serving


Directions

Heat up vegetable oil (about 2 tbsp) in a deep frying pan on medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and pepper and fry until onion is soft and golden. Stir in curry paste and add chicken. Cook until meat is sealed, about 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes.

Add cream, coriander and red pepper flakes and simmer for another 5-10 minutes, until meat is cooked. Feel free to add other spices or more pepper flakes to taste. I also eyeballed the cream, so you could add more of that too if you want a creamier curry.

Serve with basmati rice. Naan bread would be good too.

This made enough for Matt and I, plus 2 servings of leftovers.


I know this recipe isn’t anywhere near vegetarian or vegan, but you could make it so by substituting the chicken with a can of chickpeas and using a dairy-free creamer or coconut milk.

I promise I’ll be back posting some new dessert recipes ASAP!! Look at me, less than a week in and I’ve already seriously strayed from my original intent…some dessert blogger I am.