Chicken Pot Pies

The ultimate comfort food that is easy to make; 7 easy ingredients, one pan, one casserole, and time to unwind while it finishes baking all equals a hot filling tasty meal.

Adjust the size and feed a hoard of teenagers or use this size for a family of four. This is a perfect after work easy meal that is reminiscent of Mom’s warm kitchen. This Chicken Pot Pie is hot, tasty and ready in a matter of minutes!

This is a quick after work I need a meal for hungry family meal.

There are 7 store bought ingredients that make this whole dish happen. There are two basic steps. You do one step when you first get in the door from work. The second step is when you put the casserole in the oven and bake it on low while you change clothes and maybe even check your emails. So, the second step is completed while you change clothes and power down from work!

The very end has you standing by the oven while the broiler adds a touch of color to the top of the casserole. You can even omit this step if you wish. Do let the finished casserole sit for 5 minutes in order for the meat and gravy filling to firm up. This dish will get you compliments as you fill up your hungry family.

One last thing, you only have one pan to wash. The casserole and the dishes you ate the meal in can all be put in the dishwasher!

This recipe used instant mashed potatoes as the topping. We like this best. However, the more traditional chicken pot pie has a pie crust on the bottom, sides, and top. If you want something similar to the more traditional one here is what you need to do.

Add a tube of biscuits from the dairy case to the list of 7 ingredients.

Prepare the whole meal and place in the baking dish. Put the meal in the oven. You want a slow bubbly cooking experience. Then go ahead and change your clothes. When you come back to the kitchen, crack open the biscuits, and lay them on top of the casserole. The biscuits should be touching. Leave the casserole out of the oven. Tick the oven temperature up to what the biscuit instructions say. Once the oven is to temperature place the casserole with the biscuits nestled on top back in the oven. Once the biscuits are done then remove the casserole.

One important bit is to be sure and let the casserole sit for about 5-10 minutes. This allows the gravy inside the pie to firm up a bit for serving.

The American pot pie tends be a small individual sized pie with full crust. The English version is called Shepherd’s Pie and has a mashed potato topping.

The last time that I had mashed potatoes in England, you could have mortared a wall with them. That is to say, their mashed potatoes are an extremely heavy smooth dish. The latest trend here is to make mashed potatoes with all kinds of extras like three cheese, garlic, and scallions. We also are making smashed potatoes and that is just another way to say the potatoes are rustic and not fully mashed.

However, Shepherd’s Pie is generally a lamb or maybe even a beef dish. This uses canned chicken. This dish could also use the remnants of that store bought rotisserie chicken from last night too!

So why use mashed potatoes which leans this dish towards a Shepherd’s pie?

The long and the short of this is that the mashed potatoes version appeals to this household more than the crust or biscuit version.

The Incas are the first people on record to dry and save the starchy potato. There is a world wide history of freezing, preserving, and drying the humble potato. The modern packaged instant flaked mashed potato is just another soldier of this history.

The instant mashed potato does have less fiber and more sodium in it. The fresh potato has more vitamin C in it too. (18% vs. 11%)

If you didn't notice, the potato serving per persons is quite small. It is used as more of a condiment.

Now having said all of this, yes, the real potato hand mashed is better. However, the instant potato has come a long way in taste, and texture. As the instant mashed potato is a topping for this dish, it does not need to stand on it’s own for flavor.

After a long day at work, a drive home in horrible weather, and then a home full of hungry kids, you just might go the ‘7 ingredient make my life easier at home route’ too.

This is the trade off.