Deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie

I stumbled upon this recipe in a 1970s copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I have tweaked it over time to suit my family's tastes and my busy schedule. It is hearty and filling and, most importantly, gives you control over the amount of pie crust in each bite! I purchase fresh puff pastry from a local bakery to make that step super easy.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 Tablespoon oil
500g chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup onion, chopped
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups hot water
1 1/2 large chicken stock cubes (or 3 small)
2 tablespoons cream (optional)
3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen
1 cup carrots, diced
1/4 cup red or green pepper, chopped finely
1 small spring fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 kg puff pastry dough

Preheat oven to 200C. Heat oil in a pot over medium heat and add chicken. Generously season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken through, and allow it to lightly brown. Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add butter to the same pan used to brown the chicken. Add all the vegetables together at once and cook over medium-low heat covered for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. 

While the vegetables are softening, roll out the puff pastry dough on a floured board into relatively thin pieces. Cut into whatever shape is desired and place on a baking pan. Pop into the oven until puffed and golden brown. 

Returning to the softened vegetables, add flour to the pan and stir until all the flour is evenly coating the vegetables. Cook, stirring regularly, for 2-3 minutes on low heat. Add hot water and chicken cubes to the pan and stir until all the flour dissipates into the liquid. Add cream here if you want the extra richness. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Add the chicken back to the pan along with the rosemary sprig and dried thyme, and allow the pie filling to thicken over low heat. Taste the filling at this point for seasoning and add any additional salt to taste. Remove from heat and remove the rosemary sprig before serving.

Pour filling into bowls and top with puff pastry. If you love pastry crust, put a piece in the bottom of the bowl and one on top of the filling as well!

One Pot Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

We've been trying lots of one-pot dishes lately to minimize clean up. My kids love this one! It's a win for the whole family, super easy, and hearty. It has the flavors of chicken pot pie without the extra work. You can check out the Life Made Simple blog for the original recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

500g chicken breast

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

4-6 local celery stalks, diced with leaves

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups water

2 chicken stock cubes

1 cup milk

1 cup cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground sage*

1/4 tsp chili flakes

1/4 tsp paprika

250g pasta (small shapes)

1-2 cups frozen peas, thawed**

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Pie crust crumbles (optional)

Heat butter over medium heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. Fillet and season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken pieces in the pan until browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove from heat and allow the meat to rest 5 minutes before cutting into small pieces. Meanwhile, add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the water, stock cubes, milk, and cream and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium, then add the cut chicken pieces, garlic powder, thyme, sage, chili flakes, paprika, and pasta. Cook for 12-18 minutes on medium to low (you don't want an aggressive boil, but enough to cook the pasta). Add the peas and parsley to the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender. The sauce should be getting thicker, but not dry so you may need to cover it from time to time. As it cools, it will thicken a bit more. Top bowls of hot noodles with pie crust crumbles.

*You can substitute rosemary or extra thyme here if you don't have sage. I used 4 fresh sage leaves.

**The original recipe calls for 1 cup peas and 1 cup corn, but that's too starchy for my taste so I use double the peas.

Note: The first time I made this I didn't have any cream so I used all milk. It didn't adversely affect the flavor, but it just wasn't as creamy so you can definitely just use milk in a pinch.

One Pot Goulash

I love dishes that can be prepared in one pot. This one comes together really easily and tastes great!

Easy One Pot Goulash

One Pot Goulash

500 g ground beef, pork, or chicken

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups water

1 can tomato puree (standard can--not the big one)

1 can tomatoes*

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

250g uncooked pasta (macaroni or spirals)

1 cup cheese, shredded

In a large pot, brown meat over medium heat, breaking it into small pieces. Stir in onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add water, tomato puree, tomatoes, soy sauce, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Stir together just to mix. Bring up to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover with lid, and cook 20 minutes**, stirring occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom. Add in pasta, cover, and cook on low until pasta is soft. Remove from heat, throw away the bay leaf, sprinkle with cheese, and stir everything together.

Notes:

* With canned tomatoes, I just stick scissors into the can to quickly chop them a bit smaller, nothing fancy. Cans with large tomatoes are the easiest to find and cheapest so this is an easy workaround. 

** If you are in a hurry, you can just dump your pasta in here and cook for 25 minutes. The only difference in the final dish is the richness of the sauce. If you have really hungry people, just fast track it!

Chicken Enchiladas

I scoured the internet to find a recipe for enchiladas that was really workable here, and I adapted this one from Southern Living.  Admittedly, it is not the cheapest meal if you use the shortcuts that I employ, but it does take it back to the realm of weeknight dinners if you do use those. I cook some chicken ahead of time so that step is eliminated, and I buy locally made tortillas. This is a very American take on enchiladas so look elsewhere if you're aiming for truly authentic.

3 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken (or other meat already cooked)
1 Tbs chopped fresh coriander/cilantro
1-2 batches enchilada sauce
2 cups cheese
8 large flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 230 C. Stir together the first four ingredients, 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, and 1 cup cheese. For extra flavor, add in some browned onions and garlic. Into each tortilla, spoon up to 1/2 cup chicken mixture in the center. Roll and place seam side down in a lightly greased 9x13 pan. Pour any remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

Rice Cooker Barbecue Chicken

Yep. I really did it! I have been wondering how well a rice cooker could be used for traditional slow cookers so I finally tried it with a saucy chicken recipe. Since they heat a little hotter than a slow cooker on low, I figured you need to have more liquidy dishes in order to avoid burning the rice cooker. Turns out it is possible and easy to use a rice cooker for some of those dishes! Thanks to power cuts, you would need to carefully plan to have enough time, but the results are worth it. For this one, you only need an hour, and the rest of your stove top is free.

Rice Cooker Barbecue Chicken
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup water
1/2 chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon American chili powder (optional)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons mustard
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)
Black Pepper, to taste
500g skinless chicken (with or without bones)

Place the butter, onion, and garlic in the cooker, and switch it to the cook setting. Depending on the cooker, it may not work until you add more weight, but if you can melt the butter and soften the onion a bit, go for it. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir. It won't take long for it to boil. Cut the chicken to whatever size you want, and add it to the sauce. Stir to coat the chicken. Pop on the lid, and set a timer for about 40 minutes. In the last 20 minutes, you need to stir the chicken occasionally to prevent too much browning of sauce on the bottom. After 40 minutes, switch the cooker down to the warm setting for 20 minutes so the sauce can cool a little and thicken (not much longer or your chicken will get dry).

P.S. If you're sick of barbecue, don't fret, I'm trying to think of some other rice cooker meals.

Note: I put my chicken in partially frozen, and it still only took 1 hour so if you're pressed for time, it still works. 

Peanut Sauce Chicken Stir Fry

Stir fry is a pretty easy option for dinner, but in trying to add a little variety lately, I decided to try to do a peanut sauce for stir fry.  I found a recipe for this Asian Pasta from Martha Stewart that I used as my starting point and tweaked to come up with something a bit easier and more feasible with available ingredients.  

I knew I wanted to serve it over rice.  We eat a lot of basmati or regular long grain white rice here, but stir fry dishes like this are nice with some sticky rice, if you have it available.  I had to search a bit to find directions for preparing sticky rice on the stovetop, and here is one site that I found.

6 T soy sauce

6 T rice vinegar

3 T honey

½ c natural peanut butter

½ t ground ginger

Pinch of red chili flakes (or more, if you like spicy)

2 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced

500 g chicken, cut in small strips or cubes

2 cups (approximately) of chopped vegetables (I used green bell peppers, carrots, and cauliflower.)

¼ c sesame oil

(Makes about 6 servings)

Mix the soy sauce, rice vinegar (the first time I made this I didn't have any rice vinegar and tried apple cider vinegar, and it was a reasonable substitute), honey, peanut butter, ginger, and chili flakes in a bowl to form the sauce.  As you might be able to see in the picture of the skillet, this makes a lot of sauce.  When I'm using rice as a base, I really like to have plenty of sauce, but if you decide to serve this with noodles or you just prefer stir fry to be a little less saucy, you could easily half the sauce ingredients.

Saute the onions and garlic in a couple tablespoons of cooking oil for a couple of minutes until the onions start to soften.  Add the chicken and brown on all sides of the pieces.  I used chicken cut into approximately 1-inch cubes, but you could do strips, if you prefer.  Other meats could also be substituted.  Pork or beef also work nicely with peanut sauce.

When the chicken is nicely browned, add the chopped vegetables.  Stir fry is quite flexible with which vegetables to use.  We are always dependent on what is specifically in season, so I like to have recipes that can adjust to what is available.  This time, I used green peppers, carrots, and cauliflower.  Bell peppers of any variety work well and veggies that will stay a bit crunchy after a bit of cooking are good choices.  I would also add that you could easily use less meat and more veggies, if you like a stir fry heavier on veggies.  I was wanting to stretch the servings this made a bit, so I actually added more like 3 cups of veggies this particular time.  

After about 2 minutes, add half of the sauce to pan.  My kids tend to like the veggies a little on the softer side, so I continued sauteing them for about another 5 minutes, but it is a bit of a preference as to how crunchy you want the veggies. The goal is to let the veggies soak up some of the flavors of the sauce but still remain a bit crunchy (and for the meat to be cooked through).  In a perfect stir-fry, the meat and veggies would likely be done in separate rounds or pans, but I was going for simple!

When the veggies and meat are done, turn off the heat, stir the sesame oil into the remaining sauce (can easily be skipped, but I love the taste of sesame oil) and pour in the pan and stir to mix in.

Easy Pad Thai

 Thai food is one of my all time favorites. The variety of flavors that go into almost any Thai dish is what draws me in. I love the combination of sweet, spicy and savory of a good Thai curry or my go to comfort Thai food, Pad Thai. I found a simple Pad Thai recipe a year or so back and it has become a staple in our house. If you are in Asia (or in my case have an Asian supermarket nearby) the ingredients are simple and inexpensive. If you try and get these same ingredients from a conventional grocery store in the states, you will feel like you have spent a minor fortune. But trust me, do a little searching and you might be surprised that there actually is an Asian market near by. I just discovered a second one in our town just the other day!

I found the original recipe on the Eating Well website. They have quite a few simple and delicious, mostly whole food recipes, I definitely recommend the site. I modified this recipe slightly to suit our family a little better.

Here is my beautiful Pad Thai in my beautiful $3 wok (This can be cooked in a regular pan, but when doubling or tripling, which I often do, a wok is your best friend!)

Ingredients
4 ounces dried rice noodles
2 teaspoons peanut oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1-2 lbs boneless skinless chicken (I use thighs because they are so inexpensive. I have also used beef in this recipe)
1/2 cup sliced green onions
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts
Preparation

1. Soak rice noodles in warm water to cover in a large bowl until they are limp and white, about 20 minutes.
   
2. Heat oil over high heat in a wok until very hot. Add the garlic and stir-fry until golden, about 10 seconds. Add the egg and cook, stirring, until scrambled, about 30 seconds. Add chicken (or beef) and stir fry until cooked through
   
3. Drain the noodles and add to the wok, tossing with tongs until they soften and curl, about 1minute. Add bean sprouts, green onions, vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and chile-garlic sauce; toss until the meat is fully cooked and noodles are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve immediately.
   
   The best part about this recipe for me is that it is so customizable. Like more vinegar? Go for it. More veggies, less (or no) meat? It all works. I would recommend that if you are using extra veggies like carrots that might take a while to cook, steam them slightly before adding them in or everything else will be overcooked.
   
   Enjoy! 
   

Thai Cashew Chicken

The next few posts may be a bit boring because I didn't take any photos. I started the blog after eating them, but they are good recipes nonetheless. This recipe is one of my favorites in Thailand, but I wanted to adapt the recipe to something a little more kid-friendly in terms of its level of spiciness for my two little ones.

Thai Cashew Chicken

• 2-3 Tablespoons oil 
• 500grams/1.1 lbs chicken breast, sliced thinly (partially frozen makes it easier)
• 1¹/₄-2¹/₂ Tablespoons Roasted Red Chili Paste (I used True Thai, but whatever you can find works)
• ¹/₄ piece of a chicken cube like Knorr or Maggi
• ¹/₂ cup hot water (drop the cube in this & mix)
• 1 cup vegetables (peppers, carrots, broccoli--whatever you like)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• ¹/₄ cup oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 dried chiles, ends snipped and seeds shaken out
• ¹/₂ cup cashews, toasted (4 minutes in microwave)
• 1 small bunch green onions, snipped into 2-3 inch pieces
• Salt and pepper
• Steamed rice or flat noodles

1. Start by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan or wok and cooking half of the chicken until it lightly browned. Set aside, and add another tablespoon of oil. Cook the rest of the chicken, and place with the other chicken.
2. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the chili paste. You may need to temporarily drop the heat and cover the pan with a lid because the oils in the paste really make it splatter. Fry the paste for about 3 minutes until it is fragrant and not in one clump.
3. To this add the water with the dissolved chicken cube, vegetables, onion, sugar, and oyster sauce. Once this comes to a boil, drop the heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes until thickened.
4. Lastly, add the chiles, cashews, and green onions. Simmer covered until heated through. Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Recipe adapted from Cooking for Love