Oh For the Love of Chicken Pot Pie

Need a way for your kiddos to eat a ton of veggies?  Throw them in this pot pie!  This recipe was adapted from one on Allrecipes.com but of course I've changed things up a bit.  TIP: use a deep dish pie plate if you have one.  I currently do not have one (gave mine away- why would I do that?) so I just use my normal pie plate which works fine, just be sure to set the pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any overflow.  There is a little bit of prep to this i.e. making the pie crusts, chopping veggies, but nothing too extensive.  The results are well worth it~ is there anything better than nourishing with a comfort food? ;)  Without further ado...

Ingredients:

• Pie Crust from Cheeseslave (this is AMAZING! I use sprouted spelt)
• 1 lb. Free-range organic chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 1/2 cups organic veggies, sliced
• 1/3 cup onion
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup flour (again, I use spelt)
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 1/2 cups organic Free-range chicken broth
• 1 cup raw whole milk

Directions:

1. Make your pie crusts in advance and refridgerate for at least 30 minutes.  Remove one, roll it out and place it in a pie pan.  Roll out the top crust and set aside.  There is no need to prebake the pie shell.
2. Preheat oven to 425°.
3. In a saucepan, combine chicken, veggies and broth.  Cover and boil for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain~ save the broth, and set aside.
4. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook the onions in butter until they are soft, about 3 minutes.  Stir in flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Slowly stir in the saved chicken broth, and milk.  Simmer over medium heat until thick.  This should take almost exactly 5 minutes.
5. Place the chicken and veggies on bottom pie crust.  Pour the hot broth mixture over the chicken and veggies and cover with top crust, sealing edges.  Cut away excess dough and make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown.  Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

 Enjoy!

The post is part of Real Food Wednesday

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Rustic Apple Tart

Anne and I (and our families) love apple pie!  It was funny, because we actually talked about our apple pie recipes, (we each had a special recipe that we made a lot and loved) and one day I made the pie for a get-together and we realized that we had the same recipe. :)  This was way before we started to use real food, and I knew that we needed to adapt our favorite recipe to suit our new way of life.  Here is my outcome.  :)

I started with the pie crust from Cheeseslave.  I used sprouted flour, it was good (actually great!) just not quite right for a sweet pie.  I would recommend using this recipe with unbleached white flour as Ann Marie did, or else using the sprouted flour for a savory dish, like a pot pie or quiche. 

Next, the apples.  Peel, cut and core enough apples to fill your desired dish.  I used a tart pan, although I usually use a pie plate.  I think I used 5 apples.  Now, the kind of apple you use is just a preference thing.  I definitely prefer tart apples for pies, like granny smiths.  Anne would argue that sweet apples (like galas or fujis) are the way to go.  It is up to you. 

The first thing you want to do is mix your crust according to the directions. Roll out on a floured surface and form to your plate.  I par-baked mine for about 5 minutes at 425.

Notice the chunks of butter and lard, these are essential for a flaky crust.  I had never done it this way  before, but decided that is was worth the effort!

The next step is to fill your pie with the apples, and form the lattice top of your pie.  This dough made with sprouted flour was a little more difficult to work with, but doable. 

Now for the sweet stuff.  You will need 1/2 cup of butter, 3 TBS flour, 1/4 cup water, 1 cup of sucanat and 1 TBS honey.  Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water and sucanat and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

                                   

Next, pour over the top of your pie slowly, letting it fill the pie evenly. 

Bake your pie at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 for another 35 to 45 minutes.  Let stand until it reaches room temperature.

Enjoy!

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop

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