Chicken Pot Pie

Knowing the calories in your home cooked meals is crucial to successful weight loss. There are several sites out there that allow you to create recipes and they calculate the calorie count for you BUT the only site I have experience with is Livestrong so that's what I use.

The thing I like about Livestrong is that I am able to select EXACTLY the brand of whatever I use that is relevant to MY region. The same food can vary significantly in nutritional content depending on where it was produced, even if it comes from the same manufacturer so knowing the nutritional values of the food you are actually using is paramount. I trust the calorie count for my home cooked meals because "I" control what goes into each recipe and Livestrong helps me to do that by making the information available to me when creating the recipe. tracking the recipe to my plate and in the creation of my meals and recipes.

So what does this have to do with Chicken Pot pie? Nothing, I just thought of it while collecting my thoughts ... oh and I have to update my recipe on Livestrong to reflect the modifications I made to my regular pot pie recipe ... which is very good ... this one however is likely to be better ;)

Just a few thoughts before beginning;

1) This recipe changes every time I make it cause I tend to use up what's in the fridge, yours will probably do the same

2) Tonight I am making little packets filled with the chicken mixture made with phylo but I am just as likely to serve this as a stew on rice or beside potatoes or in small ramekins topped with a pastry crust or even as a 2 crust pie, which is how this was initially intended to be served. The final recipe calorie count given is just for the filling, see final notes below for more details.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breast cut into 1" cubes (about 4 small boneless breasts or 600g give or take) I also chopped up 2 boneless chicken thighs in addition to the breasts cause I had them lying around and needed to use them up. Just use whatever but at least 1 pound total
• 1 large Carrot, diced (about 1 cup volume or 145 g)
• 1 cup frozen peas (about 145 g)
• 2.5 cups home made chicken stock, no sodium added ( I had a little bought vegetable stock that I added in order to use up an almost empty carton. The total broth volume however was not more than 2.5 cups or end product may be too runny)
• 3/4 cup grated zucchini (left over from making zucchini cupcakes about 125 g not in original recipe)
• 1/2 cup creamed spinach (again leftover in my fridge not in original recipe)
• 1 can undrained peaches and cream corn, Green Giant
• 3 Tbsp Butter, unsalted or salted your choice
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves (I used the equivalent of garlic puree in a tube)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1/3 cup flour ( if you REALLY want this to be thick you can use 1/2 c here but it could make the final product too dry if making a pie or pastry packets so be careful.
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions:

In a large dutch oven combine chicken, chicken broth, carrots peas, corn and any other veggie you have lying around that you think might be good in this. Cover and simmer on low about 15 minutes. Remove from heat transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

In the same (now empty) dutch oven saute onions in butter until translucent Add salt, celery, pepper and celery seed and saute an additional 5 minutes or so on low heat. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds while you measure flour (remember burnt garlic tastes bad don't overdo it here) Add flour and cook another couple of minutes stirring constantly to take the raw edge off.

Add milk 1/3 c at a time stirring flour mixture after each addition.

Ladle and stir in reserved chicken, vegetables and broth mixture.

Bring up to temperature (but not quite boiling just enough to let the flour do it's thing to thicken this). Taste and season as needed. You can also add a 1/4 c of table cream to this if you want it more intensely creamy. I sometimes do but make sure it doesn't get too runny ;)

At this point you can either add it to a (partially cooked maybe 5 minutes before filling helps prevent soggy bottom) pastry lined pie crust, cover with pastry and bake it as a pie .. or you can line individual serving dishes with several layers of phylo overhanging the sides and pour filling in, bring up phylo overhanging sides, twist to seal and bake at 350' until top is golden brown and pastry is cooked. Read phylo package directions for more detailed directions for working with phylo. You could also just serve this as is in a bowl or with a side like mashed potatoes. It's your table, your calories, you decide ;)

Time is approximate but about 30-35 minutes at 425 should cook the pie I'd probably reduce the temp to 350-375 for the smaller phylo packets. If serving as a stew put it on the table right away and enjoy or put in a casserole, top with buttered bread crumbs and bake until crumbs are golden and filling is hot throughout before serving ;)

When all was said and done the total weight of this recipe was 2.124 kg assuming a serving is about a cup or 250 g this makes 8 generous portions. Your portion size will of course differ depending on the ingredients you use and how you are serving. When plugged into my Livestrong recipe builder this worked out to 280 calories per cup serving as written here, but of course that is without any crust or phylo or sides added .. that's just for the filling.

I ended up adding 1/4 c table cream as well as 2 tsp of better than boullion chicken demi glace to season it a bit more, after that addition this was delicious before that it was just really good ;)

PS: I ended up lining to small custard cups with 2 sheets of phylo pastry cut in half to make 4 layers for each custard cup serving using about 2 T butter in total per serving to brush each pastry layer. Since each sheet is 80 calories that added 160 calories to the meal for the pastry and 140 calories extra for the butter.

Total calorie cost for my packets was 280+160+140= 580 calories .. I baked this for 30 minutes at 375 and served with a side of brussels sprouts (100g serving 40 calories) for a grand total of 620 calories for my supper. Who said you have to eat like a bird to diet? Yeah with the pastry it's higher in fat but it's GOOD fat ... and do NOT start with me about butter being bad for you ... it isn't.