Creamy Comfort Food
I am a huge fan of fixing comfort foods especially in the winter months. I usually gain a few pounds over the winter and then shed it with fresh fruit and veggies come spring and winter. I have tried eating those things in the winter months but my body craves those heavy meats, sauces and carbs. One of my most favorite comfort foods is Chicken Pot Pie. I have memories of eating those little mini ones from Swansons when I was a kid. My mom used to buy them in chicken or beef and I loved them both. They had that nice flaky crust on the top and bottom of the little tin. I think now-a-days they only have the crust on the top. Sadly I have also followed suit with only having crust on one side. It does cut down on the fat content some...

I have had this cookbook since I have been married about 27 years. I really can't remember where I got it, but I think I bought it through some book club I used to belong to. It was a great foundation for me as a new bride and cook. I wish I could open it and show you how all most all the pages have some gravy stains, grease stains and comments on my most treasured recipes. One of my favorite two are the Chicken Pot Pie and the Chicken a la' King. I have them memorized. I have modified them due to becoming Lactose Intolerate many years ago. I use the Lactaid milk instead of heavy cream or half and half. It does make the recipes a little more liquidy but it's worth not being sick over.
I started my chicken pot pie by cutting up all the vegetables. Then I sauteed the onions in the butter until they were tender. The picture is a bit blurry but that is from the steam coming from the skillet. I made a roux (half real butter and half fat free Lactose milk). I boiled the rest of the vegetables in some water and when they were just about cooked, I added them to the sauce.
. I used three boneless, skinless, chicken breast. They used to come four to a package but for some reason they have dropped down to three. That's probably just as well since I am only feeding two people these days. I saved the water from the boiling vegetables and then dropped my chicken breast in that water as soon as it came back to a rolling boil. Once the chicken breasts were cooked and cooled; I chopped them into smaller bite sized pieces. All the ingredients were mixed in the skillet to be sure and coat everything in the sauce. Then I sprayed some non-stick spray on my Corningware and everything from the skillet was put in there for baking. Here is the finished pie before baking. I had some left over pie dough and decided to use a cookie cutter to cut out the state of Texas and put them on top. I brushed the whole thing with an egg. Use can use milk to do the very same thing as the egg. Using the egg or milk helps to give the crust an extra shine to it and makes the brown much nicer. I will post next weekend.