Southern Comfort Food

I don’t mean to boast but my Chicken Pot Pie recipe is WONDERFUL. It’s one of my favorite comfort food meals, especially on cold wintry night. We had such a night this past weekend. Bill had the day off so I was able to spend some time in the kitchen making this meal. My original inspiration for this recipe is from the Chicken Pot Pie recipe in “The Lady& Sons Savannah Country Cookbook Collection” by Paula Deen (an awesome cookbook, btw), but I’ve made a few changes and taken a few shortcuts. I still consider it homemade and think it’s a heck of a lot better than those frozen pot pies!

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cooked (I usually boil) and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 can of Cheddar cheese soup

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

½ cup of milk

½ of a medium onion diced and sautéed in 1tbsp butter for five minutes until soft

¾ cup of peas

2 carrots cooked (steamed) and diced into small pieces

1 package of refrigerated pie crust

salt and pepper to taste

As you can see, there is some prep work with this recipe – between cooking the chicken and veggies – but after that work, there isn’t much else to it.

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take pie crust out of fridge and bring to room temperature, about 15 minutes.

2) In a large sauce pan, heat the soups and milk, stirring with a whisk to blend. Stir in the chicken, onions, peas, carrots and salt and pepper. Cook until mixture boils, stirring often (don't burn!). Remove from the heat.

3) Follow the instructions on the pie crust. Press bottom crust into a 9-inch glass pie pan, fill with the chicken mixture, top with remaining crust, flute edges and cut four slits on top.

4) Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until crust is golden brown. After 15 minutes of cooking, put foil around the edges of the crust to prevent burning.

Delicious!!

Keeping with a Southern theme, I recommend Mississippi Mud Brownies for dessert.

Homemade:

Mississippi Mud Bars

Ingredients

1 cup butter

1 cup milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups chopped and toasted pecans

3 cups miniature marshmallows

Mississippi Mud Frosting (see below)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 15x11 jelly roll pan.

2) In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in milk, cocoa, water, and eggs. Bring to boil over medium heat (watch for burning), whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

3) In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and baking soda. Pour butter mixture over sugar mixture and whisk until combined. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle marshmallows and pecans over hot cake.

Mississippi Mud Bar Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1) In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in milk, cocoa, and vanilla. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

2) Pour hot icing over cake. Spread with a knife if needed. Cool then cut into squares.

Or, take a shortcut:

No judgment here.

Enjoy!!