Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Cristina Ferrare’s Chicken Pot Pie with Cornbread Crust

I watched Oprah last week when she had Cristina Ferrare on, talking about how to stretch your dollar in today’s lousy economy.  She prepared this and it just looked so good, I had to try it.

Filling:

  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter (I omited this, but used more olive oil)
  • 1 medium Onion , chopped
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups chopped Roasted Chicken (I used roasted boneless chicken breast)
  • 1/2 cup frozen sweet petite peas
  • 1 potato , diced and boiled
  • 1 1/2 cup chopped, cooked carrots
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • Cracked pepper
  • Dash of Tabasco® sauce (I omitted this)
Crust:
  • 3/4 cup white or yellow cornmeal
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 Tbsp. canola oil

To make filling: Preheat the oven to 400°. Spray a 2-quart casserole with cooking spray. In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil and unsalted butter together. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add in flour until blended. Slowly stir in 2 cups of heated chicken stock, whisking well. Cook mixture over medium heat until thickened and bubbly, about 4 minutes. Stir in chicken, peas, potato, carrots, salt, pepper and Tabasco®. Pour into a 2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray and cook until heated and thickened. Spread eventy into an ovenproof dish. 
To make crust: In a bowl, stir cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir milk, egg and canola oil until well combined. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Spoon the batter evenly on the filling. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 22 to 25 minutes.

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My finished product.  In the prep, I had to use more than 2 cups of broth – and then, after it was baked and spooned out into the bowls, I found that the corn bread had absorbed virtually all of the “gravy” , so I thought it to be kind of dry.  Everyone else loved it.  I’m not sure how else I’d fix it to make it better though.  I will say, though, that it was extremely satisfying to make something completely from scratch!  No canned veggies, no boxed corn bread. Everything fresh!  It’s much cheaper too.

4 comments:

Sharon - Mom Generations said...

Oh, that sounds and looks delish! Oh, sorry... that would be Rachel Ray!!

But seriously, I LOVE chicken pot pie. It is one of my most favorite meals and this one sounds awesome! Thanks, Dawnie!

Anonymous said...

I love chicken pot pie and I in hard core budget mode, so thanks for this!

Anonymous said...

wow, way to combine two of my favorite comfort foods. I'm so making this tonight!

Dee said...

oh I think i could do that! It looks yummy!