Chicken Pot Pie With Herbed Potato Crust
This recipe was born from the depths of an over-stocked, aging fridge. A lot of the ingredients are just pantry and freezer staples kept on hand for emergency eats: frozen peas and corn, real bacon bits, whole wheat pie crust (I LOVE the Wholly Wholesome brand) make this a pretty quick recipe to pull together. About five times better than quick, It's splendidly delicious. If you don't have fresh herbs, you can most certainly use dried ones, but the fresh herbs really make the difference in flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1/3 cup onion finely diced
- 1 small clove garlic chopped
- 4 ounces real bacon bits
- 2 cups frozen peas and carrots blend
- 2 cups chicken or veggie broth
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 lemon freshly squeezed
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1 bunch fresh asparagus cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 whole wheat pie crust
- 6 russet potatoes peeled & boiled until tender
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 egg
- a bunch of fresh dill thyme, and chives
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a skillet, brown chicken with onion and garlic. Stir in the bacon bits, peas and carrots. Cook just until the peas and carrots aren't frozen, about 3-4 minutes over medium-high heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, cornstarch and lemon juice.
- Pour the mixture into the skillet and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Stir in the cream cheese until melted. Add the asparagus, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly while baking the pie crust..
- Place the whole wheat pie crust into the oven and back for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges turn a light, golden brown. Remove and allow to cool slightly before filling with chicken mixture.
- In a large bowl, mash the potatoes with the butter, milk, and egg. Toss in a handful of fresh chopped chives, a good amount of fresh or dried dill (we added about 1/2 tablespoon of dried dill and it was perfect), several pinches of fresh thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mixture over the chicken mixture.
- Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the mashed potatoes are golden brown at the peaks.
- Enjoy!