A hot pie for a cold night

Chicken pot pie is sort of like soup—you can throw in lots of vegetables that you’ve preserved to make a warm meal for a cold night. That’s what I did last night. Using carrots we had canned, peas and corn we had frozen, our sweet potato and the remains of a locally grown chicken that I had roasted earlier in the week, this dish came together in about 30 minutes. You’ll also notice that I didn’t use a canned, creamed soup for the broth, as many recipes call for. You can easily substitute brother and milk and end up with far less sodium.

Although I like to make my own pie dough, I cheated last night and used the puff pastry dough from the grocery freezer section. It did taste good. I didn’t even ask Jim for a rating, but he gave it a totally unsolicited 10.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic
1 C chopped carrots (fresh, home canned or frozen)
1 ½ C corn (fresh or frozen)
1 C sweet potato, diced
¼ C flour
1 C low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups chicken
1 C whole milk
1 ½ C frozen green peas
Sprinkle of oregano and parsley
Salt and pepper
1 TBSP white vinegar
Pie dough or frozen puff pastry, unthawed

Directions:
Melt butter in large, deep skillet. Sauté onion until soft, about five minutes. Add chopped garlic, carrots, corn and sweet potato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper then sauté a few more minutes. Sprinkle flour over vegetables, pour in broth and stir until all is well incorporated. Add chicken and milk. Stir and continue cooking until broth slightly thickens. Add peas, oregano and parsley. Stir and taste to determine if you need more salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar.

Place six ramekins on a cookie sheet. Fill each with the pot pie filling. Cut dough to cover the top of each ramekin and place dough. Cut a slit in each top. Bake approximately 25 minutes at 400 degrees.