Mexican Chicken Pot Pie

Let’s face it, we can only do so much with chicken. At least I can only do so much with it. I’m not the most creative person. But in trying to plan a menu for the week that will not require a trip to the grocery store, I discovered a treasure trove of chicken in various forms in the depths of my freezer. “Hmm,” I said to myself, “what can I do with chicken that’s not the same old same old boring thing?”  “Well,” I responded to myself, “my friend Rachael Ray is always making various versions of pot pies. That could be good.” So I set out to find a recipe on the interwebs. I found your standard recipes, celery, carrots, onions, chicken, gravy. Blah. How do I spice this up? Hmm, let’s make it spicy with a Tex-Mexy twist. More googling happened. I found several yummy recipes, took them apart and put the pieces I liked together to create this yummy Southwest Chicken Pot Pie!

 

Fair warning, this will require some clean up. Lots of different components that will need different pots, bowls, etc. Now, of course you can go the easy route and buy a rotisserie chicken, strip it of its meat and use boxed chicken stock or even a gravy mix. And had it been a weeknight, that’s the road I would have taken. But it was a lazy Sunday with little else to do so I went all out.

 

So first you’re going to take two large chicken breasts, bone-in and skin-on and poach them. In plain water? No no, we’re making our own chicken stock for this dish! In a pot large enough to hold all of this goodness, throw in one medium onion, halved with the hairy root end in tact for easy removal, two bay leaves, one carrot and one rib of celery, each cut into big chunks, one jalapeno, halved (remove the seeds or leave out completely if you like it more mild) and one lime, halved. Oh and a smashed garlic clove and some salt and peppercorns. Nestle your chicken in there and fill with water until just covered. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a lower simmer. Let it all hang out on your stove for about 40 minutes.

 

Remove your chicken breasts and strain the solids out of your stock. I did all this mid-morning and put the stock in the fridge so the fat would rise to the top and I could easily skim it off. Once your chicken breasts have cooled, remove the skin and all the bones, cut or tear the meat up into bite sized pieces.

 

Meanwhile, chop some potatoes into bite sized pieces, cover in a pot with salted water, boil. Until they are fork tender. Drain and set aside.

 

Now it’s veggie time. In your largest skillet, heat some olive oil or butter and add the following: one diced medium onion, two chopped carrots, two ribs of chopped celery, two or three cloves of minced, crushed or grated garlic, and the kernels of one ear of corn (or a cup and a half of frozen corn). Season with salt and pepper and sautee until soft. These aren’t going to cook much in the oven, so make sure they’re cooked to your liking. I like soft veggies, so I let them hang out quite a bit. At this point, I added my potatoes and hit the whole shootin’ match with a little white wine. I don’t think this made a difference in flavor, but who knows.

 

Okay, gravy time. You can either do this right in the skillet with your veggies or in a separate pot. I did a separate pot because I always either end up with lumps or watery gravy. So, in a sauce pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter and whisk in four tablespoons of flour. Let this cook a bit, you know the drill. Then whisk in a little milk. I probably used a quarter of a cup since we aren’t big on dairy heavy sauces at Casa Garcia. Then whisk in about two cups of your homemade stock. Sound like boring ol’ gravy? Wait, there’s more! Add a few spoonfulls  of the adobo sauce from a can of chipotle in adobo and one or two of the peppers, chopped of course. Now, do this to your level of spiciness. You can play around with seeding the peppers, using just the sauce, whatever you need to do.

 

Pour the gravy over your veggies, add the chicken and mix it until it’s all combined. You could stop here if you wanted to. It would be a delicious meal. But this is not where I recommend you stop. Pour this mixture into a big casserole dish and set it aside.

 

In a medium sized bowl, combine two cups of Bisquick with a cup of milk and a cup of grated cheese. I used Monterey Jack but I think cheddar would also be good. Whatever you think would be delicious. Or you could skip the cheese (but why would you skip cheese??). Stir this together until it resembles biscuit dough. Now dot the top of your casserole with the dough. You could try using two spoons, but I found it really worked best with my (clean) fingers. Make sure to get an even coating on top, not too thick or it will take forever to cook.

 

Pop this into a 425 degree oven for about twenty minutes until the biscuits on top are cooked. We leave ours a little on the under done side because we like the extra gooeyness. But do what you feel is best.

 

And serve! Now some variations for your consideration:

• individual servings in little ramekins
• use puff pastry instead of biscuit dough
• anything else you can think of!

 

 

 (Photo courtesy of Rachael Ray and Food Network)

Poached Chicken

 

• 3 pieces chicken breast, bone-in, skin on
• 1 medium onion, halved
• 1 carrot,  cut into thick pieces
• 1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, halved
• 1 lime, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• Salt
• Pepper corns

Vegetables

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup corn scraped from cob or defrosted kernels
• 1-2 potatoes, chopped
• White wine

 

Gravy

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• Splash of milk, half and half, or cream
• Chicken stock from poaching
• Chipotle in adobo sauce

Biscuit Topping

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 cup milk
• ½ – 1 cup cheese of your choice

 

 

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Preparation

Place chicken in a pot with halved onion, carrot chunks, celery, jalapeno, lime slices, bay leaves, crushed garlic, salt and peppercorns and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer and poach 40 minutes. Remove solids and reduce stock over high heat for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Remove skin and bones from chicken and slice or pull into bite-sized pieces.

Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces, cover in a stock pot with water. Boil until fork tender, drain and set aside.

Heat butter or olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat, add chopped onions, carrots, garlic and corn, and cook to tender, 10 minutes or so.  Add potatoes and white wine. Cook until wine reduces.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a separate sauce pan, Add flour and stir 1-2 minutes. Whisk in about 2 cups of the reduced stock then add milk and chipotle. Taste and adjust the chipotle, salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables, add chicken and mix to combine. Transfer to a large casserole dish.

Combine Bisquick, milk and cheese and dot the top of the casserole with the dough in an even, thin layer.

Bake at 425 for twenty minutes until biscuit topping is cooked through.

Enjoy!