Chicken Pot Pie and a lesson in Organic Chemistry

Windy. Cloudy. Chilly. Rainy. Fall. 

Perfect for making Chicken Pot Pie!

I've never actually made this dish before, and I don't usually love it, but it sounded delicious for a brisk Fall day. 

A few things you should know about me and "food blogging":

1. I am not a photographer.

2. I am not a food photographer.

3. I tend to make dishes and add a little of this, a dash of that, without measuring. Makes it hard for others to recreate.

4. My brain works like so: cook, eat. 

Not so: cook, display, photograph, eat.

Phew. Now that that's all off my chest, here is my amazing recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, the simple, easy, and chock full of delicious calories version. 

Chicken Pot Pie

adapted from Pioneer Woman

1/4 c. butter

3/4 c. onion, finely diced

3/4 c. celery, finely diced

1 c. carrots, finely diced

1 c. frozen peas

2 c. chicken, I used Costco rotisserie chicken

1/4 c. flour

2 c. chicken broth

1 c. evaporated milk, or cream, or milk

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp thyme

1, 16 oz package refrigerated biscuit dough

Preheat oven to 400. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Saute and cook until the onions are translucent and the veggies are getting soft. Sprinkle the flour and stir constantly for a couple minutes. Add the chicken broth and milk, stir often. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat. Add the frozen peas, chicken, and spices. Stir and let simmer until slightly thickened. About 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick you want the end product. Pour into a baking dish (I used a 9x9, 2 qt.), cook for 15 minutes. Remove and place biscuits over the top. Replace in the oven and bake another 15 minutes. With about 7 minutes left to go, I placed foil over the biscuits to prevent from getting too brown. Enjoy!

**the filling reduced more than I expected, probably because the biscuits soaked up quite a bit of juice. If you're worried it will be too thick, you could boil the mixture for less time, double the liquid and spices, or add the biscuits with only 10 minutes left to go. I didn't have a problem with the thickness and thought it was great!

I was really proud that this turned out so dang delicious on my first try. 

Creamy, a hint of spice, and perfect biscuits on top. 

What more could you want?

Plus, I knew it would be good so I wrote the recipe down as I went. 

You can thank me later. ;-)

Now you're probably wondering, "what the heck does Organic Chemistry have to do with Chicken Pot Pie??"

Well, it's a little embarrassing  but, when I opened the biscuit package I noticed that each serving contained 3 grams of trans fat! **Huge, frustrated, gasp!**

Since everything was already cooking, I had no way to escape. Normally I'm extremely good at checking for trans fat and will not buy anything that contains it, but this time I didn't check. Oops.

So our dinner conversation went like this:

me: "So, why is trans fat so bad for you?"

hubby: "Well, let me draw you a picture..."

And then he proceeded to illustrate what fat molecules look like normally, what they look like with saturated fat, and what they look like with trans fat. He explained about the carbon and hydrogen and double bonds. Pretty much all things that I would have never heard him utter before Chiropractic school.

Of course now I can't remember much of what he said. But, this was his closing statement:

"Trans fat is bad because your body doesn't like it."

Thank you for simplifying my life, babe!