One-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

Don't you just love chicken pot pie? I know I do, even though Horse Lover and The Monkey hate it. But they hate all food that has identifiable vegetables in it. Hey, at least they're not discriminating.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to make dinner for a friend, and I decided to go with the chicken pot pie idea. I've been looking for a way to make chicken pot pie where it's not quite so loaded down with fat and calories. The single biggest calorie buster in this recipe is the crust, but I'm not willing to use a anything but my Flaky Pie Crust recipe that I got from Aunt Esther, even though store-bought crusts may have less calories and fat. I'd rather eat cardboard. So that means the next easiest thing to do is to use less crust, right? Okay, a one-crust dinner it is. I also chose to use chicken broth as a base for the sauce instead of milk, though I did have to add some light sour cream near the end to make it creamy.

You can see from the pictures that I made this into two dishes - one to take and one to eat at home. However, if you have a large family you can also make this in just one large 13x9-inch pan. You may just need to roll out a larger pie crust for the top. If you use store bought cardboard - er, crust - you'll need to get creative in cutting it out to fit, but it can be done!


One-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves minced garlic
salt/pepper to taste
1/4 c. corn starch
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
3 red potatoes, cooked and sliced
2 red bell peppers, diced
1 large zucchini, diced
3/4 c. light sour cream
1 tsp. dried basil

Before you start cooking the chicken, I highly recommend getting your veggies ready. Since the potato is already cooked, you don't have to worry about the thickness of the slices, but the zucchini and pepper are going to cook in the sauce, and you don't want it to take forever. Cut them large enough that you'll be able to taste them, but small enough that they will cook relatively quickly.

Cut raw chicken into small cubes. Preheat oil in a large skillet (preferably one with a lid) and add the chicken and garlic. Cook chicken about 5 minutes.

Once your chicken is just about done, sprinkle the corn starch on top and stir until as much as possible as been absorbed into the chicken juices and oil.

Pour a small amount of chicken broth into the pan to blend with the corn starch and keep it from getting lumpy. Once it's mixed in well, add the rest of the chicken broth and stir.

Add the veggies and onion flakes and mix well.

Cover and cook for about 7-8 minutes, or until veggies reach almost the desired tenderness. This still has to bake in the oven, so it's okay if they are still a little under-done.

Once the veggies are ready, add the sour cream and basil and stir until well combined.

Pour into either 2 medium casserole dishes or one large 13x9-inch pan. Don't forget to coat your pan with cooking spray!

Top with pie crust. If you make your own like I do, it makes it so much easier to top those pans that aren't round. However, no matter how hard you try you will have extra crust hanging over the edge when you place it on top. This is good. You want this.

You are going to take this extra crust and fold it back over onto itself inside the pan. The you'll press it into the edge of the pan and seal it as well as you can. This makes a nice, thick edge similar what you'd get if you cooked it in a pie plate with 2 crusts.

Works the same if you have a round pan, too! Once you've got your crust folded over and sealed, go ahead and cut some slits in the top to let the steam (and possibly juices) escape during baking.

Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until the crust is done and you can see sauce bubbling slightly around the edges. Let cool slightly, then serve.

Note: This is also a great make-ahead meal that you can re-heat in the oven in about 30 minutes at 350. I'm pretty sure you could freeze it as well, but having never done it I don't know what to tell you as far as baking instructions unless you let it thaw first.