chicken pot pie.

You know those individual sized chicken pot pies that you can buy at the store and heat up in your microwave? Well.... this is better. Promise. And guys, I don't take promises lightly.

This is D's favorite meal. Hands down. He eats half of the pie every time I make it and swears that he could eat the whole thing if I let him. I say his eyes are bigger than his stomach.

I also made this pie one time for a couple of my friends, and the next time they came over for dinner they requested I make it again. They didn't want any of my other recipes that I swore up and down were delicious. All they wanted was chicken pot pie.

I guess I can't blame them. This recipe is from my mom, and I remember eating it 1-2 times a month for my entire childhood. This is the dish my brother always picked for his birthday dinner. It's birthday dinner material.

** I actually only used 2 of the chicken breasts for this. The other 2 were for Chicken Tacos the next night!

Speaking of birthday dinners, a certain someone's birthday is coming up in a few weeks.. and I wouldn't be surprised if he requested this. But of course D will also request a birthday dinner at his parents house so that he can have his other favorite dinner, Chicken Parmesan. He's a birthday double dipper. But who isn't? It's not a birthday, it's a birthweek. Didn't you know?

Just make this. Tonight. And D wouldn't object to getting leftovers in the mail.



Chicken Pot Pie

2 cups cooked and diced boneless, skinless chicken breast (about a pound or 2 breasts)

2 cans cream of potato soup

1 can veg-all (or mixed vegetables) drained

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 pie crusts (1 package)
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into prepared pie crust (no need to grease the pie plate). Cover with top crust. Press down onto first crust with fingers to seal, cut off extra crust with a knife, then seal edges of crust with a fork. Brush pie with beaten egg. Slit top of crust 2-3 times with a knife. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool for 10-20 minutes before cutting. 

Photo Tutorial:

Only thing missing is the chicken...

Cutting up the chicken...

2 cups!

The chicken was added to the other 5 ingredients in the bowl (1st picture) and then mixed! Now time to pour..

Into the pie crust! And spread out evenly.

Then add the top crust, press down on the edges to seal, then cut off the crust.

Then, using a fork, press down on the edge, and slide out toward you while keeping pressure on the fork. If you pull up instead of sliding out, it will separate the two pie crusts.

Dip the brush into the beaten egg, and paint your pie!

Add some slits to let the steam out and then throw it in the oven to cook...

Finally! After 40 minutes in the oven! Now begin the agonizing 10-20 minutes (10 if you're impatient!) of waiting...

Voila! Time to dig in!

crock-pot lemon garlic chicken.

I really thought this was an original recipe! My sister made it for us one time when I was little.. and then my parents got the recipe from her, and then it was in our menu rotation! I thought nobody else made this chicken. Sure, maybe something like it, but certainly this specific recipe was original.

A quick google search put a kibosh on that line of thinking. Evidently, everyone has this recipe. As in the exact.same.ingredients. Sad :(

But guess what? I'm going to show you anyways. Why? Because it fills the whole house with this delicious chickeny-lemony-garlicy aroma and then when it's done, the chicken falls apart. Literally.

And do you know what makes ours different? We aren't shy with the juice. Most recipes (and even the original one that my sister used) call for only 1/4 cup of water and one measly chicken bouillon cube. But you know what? The juice ROCKS. The more juice, the better.

My mom noticed that my brother and I would take (heaping) spoonfuls of the juice from the crockpot and pour it over the rice that it has to be served with/over. So she slowly upped the amount of juice that the chicken is cooked in. And upped it. And upped it. And now.... well lets just say that the original amount of water is multiplied by 8. Yupper. 4 whole cups of love. Get into it.

Oh and if you want to break the chicken breasts into little shreds and put it onto your rice with the delicious juice and eat it like one big rice casserole from heaven? You go right ahead. (I'm right there with you)

Lemon Garlic Chicken (with extra juice!) in the Crock-pot

(From my sister... but apparently also every other recipe website known to man)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 tsp oregano (1 for each breast)

1 1/2 tsp salt (1/2 tsp for each breast)

3/4 tsp pepper (1/4 tsp for each breast)

3 cups water

3 tbs lemon juice

1/8 tsp garlic

3 chicken bouillons

2-3 tbs butter + a little olive oil

1 tbs parsley

Rinse/dry chicken. Place 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper into a pile on either a cutting board or a paper plate and mix together. Repeat this 3 times so that you have 3 piles. (Or divide each pile by 2 to make six piles, like I did- because I wanted to cut each chicken breast in half to have 6 pieces of chicken- but this isn't necessary) 

Pat each piece of chicken in a pile to coat completely with the mixture.

In a pan, melt butter and a little olive oil. Brown the chicken breasts on the outside (Do not cook long! Just get the outside to have some color. They will finish cooking in the crock pot) Place chicken in crock pot. 

In the frying pan used to brown the chicken, add 1 cup water. Once pan is deglazed, add other 2 cups of water. Add in the chicken bouillon cubes, lemon juice, and garlic. Bring to a boil. Pour mixture over chicken in the crock-pot.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours of high for 3-4 hours. 1/2 an hour before cooking is complete, add parsley.

Serve over/with white rice! (I also always always have it with green beans (maybe because that juice tastes so good poured over them?)) And yes, that was parentheses inside of parentheses.

D's plate- no green beans for him :(

I am so glad there are leftovers.

chicken curry.

Once upon a time, when I was in 3rd grade, I went to a friend's birthday party. For dinner, we had what her mom called "chicken curry". I was skeptical, because I was only used to the foods my mom made. I tried it, LOVED it, had seconds, and then spent the next 6 years begging my mom to call and ask for the recipe. 

She finally did, and in 9th grade I made it during finals week for lunch. I remember this day distinctly. As it was baking, I sat in the family recliner (which I had pulled to be about 1 foot away from the TV) and played Zelda on the GameCube. Why do I remember exactly what happened on an otherwise insignificant day so many years ago? Because after 6 years of waiting, I FINALLY got to have chicken curry again. 

And guess what happened? The recipe got lost. How does that happen!? So, for the next 4-5 years, I once again went Chicken Curry-less. It was a sad time.

When I was getting ready to move out of my parents house, I decided I needed to have a recipe book of my own with all of my favorite family recipes. My mom had an idea to give recipe cards to my sisters, grandma, etc. to have them write down their favorite recipes for my book. Now my recipe book is filled with handwriting from everyone in my family and I can think about them whenever I look at the recipes.

Something awesome happened: that friend's birthday party that I went to when I was in 3rd grade? Well it turns out that her mom works with my sister's mom, and had given her the recipe for Chicken Curry. My sister's mom then gave it to my sister, who wrote it down on one of the recipe cards that my mom had given her! 

Cheers of celebration were heard around the world. Since I got the recipe back, I have made Chicken Curry at least once a month. I.LOVE.IT. And everyone that I've ever made it for loves it. Even D, hater of mayonnaise and skeptic of anything new or different, LOVED it. If I were to ask him what he wants for dinner, I know for sure that he would say one of three things: beef stew, chicken pot pie, or chicken curry. (Recipes for the other 2 will be up here eventually, promise!)

Here you are, "my" recipe for Chicken Curry. From my friend's mom, to my sister's mom, to my sister, to me, to you. 

Chicken Curry

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can  cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup milk

3/4 tsp lemon juice (from bottle)

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 tsp curry powder (I use the McCormick kind, it's yellow)

1/2 cup sharp cheese (shredded)

Cook chicken. (I boil mine until it is completely cooked). Cut chicken up into bite size pieces, the smaller the better. (I actually cheat and use a slap-chop like device so that it kind of turns into chicken dust. It's also WAY faster.) Put chicken into the bottom of a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. 

In a separate pan, combine the rest of the ingredients. Heat over medium heat until cheese is melted and everything is combined. Pour mixture over chicken and stir to combine. Spread mixture evenly in baking dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly at the edges. (Everything is cooked so you are just letting it combine/heat) Once I put the dish in the oven, I start boiling a large pot of water. I then cook a whole bag of egg noodles. Once the noodles are done, I take the dish out of the oven. It's usually perfect timing.

Serve over egg noodles and enjoy! 

(PS: I make this for just D and I.. we eat 1/4 of the dish over a bowl of egg noodles each, and that leaves 1/2 of the dish for dinner another night! So it makes the perfect 2-person meal for 2 nights!)