THE BEST Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Well, the best I have ever had!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon non-hydrogenated margarine
• 1 small/med onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered (you may used canned)
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tub Philadelphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese Spread OR use 8 oz of plain cream cheese and season with diced or roasted garlic and herbs of your choosing
• 3/4 cup  chicken broth
•   1.5 cups fresh or frozen peas and carrots OR 1/2 can of green beans and 1/2 can of carrots (use what you like)
• 1 refrigerated ready-to-use pie crust
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Melt margarine in large saucepan on medium heat. Add onions; cook and stir 5 min. Stir in mushrooms; cook 8 to 10 min. or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Add chicken; cook and stir 5 min. or until done. You can season your chicken breasts any way you prefer.  Stir in cream cheese spread and broth; cook 3 min. or until cream cheese is completely melted. Stir in vegetables.
3. Place bottom pie c rust in pie plate and brush with beaten egg.  Spoon mixture onto top of bottom pie crust.  Cover with top pie crust; gently press edge of crust onto other dish/side of dish to seal. Brush crust with remaining egg. Cut slits in crust to permit steam to escape. Cover pie crust with aluminum foil or an aluminum shield.
4. Bake 25 to 30 min. or until crust is golden brown.  Remove foil or crust shield after 15 min.  Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
 

 

Hint: If you don't have an aluminum pie crust shield, you need one pronto! I hate messing with covering my crust with foil.




Enjoy!

Devilish Chicken Tenders

You can do these with chicken legs if you prefer (that's the original recipe) but I just cut up chicken breasts into strips.

3 chicken breasts
1/4 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1 tbsp hot sauce (like Fred's Hot Sauce, or Louisiana Hot Sauce)
1 1/2 cups Panko bread crumbs
1 tsp italian seasoning
salt & pepper

Mix the chicken, sour cream, mustard, and hot sauce in a zip lock bag.  Let sit for 30 minutes (or longer).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, place the rack in the top third of the oven.   Mix the bread crumbs, italian seasoning, and salt & pepper in a large bowl.  Dredge the chicken pieces in the bread crumb mixture and place on a greased cookie sheet.  FYI - I prefer to use a cookie cooling rack on a cookie sheet (like this), that way the bottom of the chicken isn't mushy from the bread crumbs.  Spray the tops of the chicken pieces with Pam or drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 20 minutes or until done.  Serve drizzled with ranch dressing if you like.

A few notes - the first time I made this I used regular bread crumbs.  I would HIGHLY recommend using Panko bread crumbs, you can get them in the Asian food section at the grocery store.  The texture was so much better.  Also, do not be nervous about using the entire tablespoon of hot sauce.  It feels like it's going to make the chicken too hot, but it doesn't at all and adds a good flavor.