EASY CHICKEN POT PIE

IMG_5289I found these figural linen cocktail napkins on ebay.

IMG_5290 IMG_5291This one has a wonky eye 

I think they were made in the 1950s.  I had these birds of a feather framed together, and they brighten up my laundry room.  (It’s not like I was going to buy original art to hang next to the washer.)

My family has always had a thing for hens and roosters, because my maiden name or some variation of it means “chicken” or “hen” in German.  I collected roosters for a while, starting in college, but there’s no real challenge to finding them — they’re everywhere — and I kept just a few when I got married.

When I was around 8 years old, I came across a book of riddles in one of my parents’ friend’s bathrooms.  They had those kinds of friends.  Anyway, one of the riddles involved a rooster, and I had no idea what was so funny about it, but when I told it to my parents (because they liked roosters) they about bust a gut laughing. From that point on, they would encourage me to tell it to their friends (“oh, go on, tell them your joke!”), who would also cackle with laughter.  Like I said, they had those kinds of friends.  Here’s the riddle, in case you’d like to teach your young ones to tell it for cheap laughs:

Q:  What’s the difference between a rooster, Uncle Sam, and an old maid?

A:  The rooster says “cock-a-doodle-do,” Uncle Sam says “Yankee doodle do,” and the old maid says “any cockle do.”

Again, they had those kinds of friends. [Note:  “cockle” is intentionally misspelled :)]

Well, just as some times you want cheap and easy wall art, or a cheap and easy laugh, some times you want a cheap and easy chicken dinner, and that’s what has inspired this Easy Chicken Pot Pie.  It’s tasty and satisfying factory-to-table fare that you can put together in about five minutes.  I was introduced to it when my friend Laura, herself a new mom, brought it over for my family after my daughter was born, and it was as appreciated then as it is now on busy school and work nights.  Cock-a-doodle-do!

EASY CHICKEN POT PIE
Author: 
Recipe type: Poultry, Main Courses
 
Ingredients
  • 2 9-inch pie crusts (I use Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts)
  • 2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (I usually use rotisserie chicken)
  • 8 ounces frozen peas and carrots*
  • 8-ounces frozen corn
  • 1 can Campbell's Cream of Potato Soup
  • 1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup
  • ⅓ cup water
  • ½ teaspoon dried dill
  • 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • *Note: can substitute 1 pound of frozen mixed vegetables for corn and peas and carrots
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place one pie crust in a deep dish pie plate. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Transfer filling to pie plate, and cover with remaining crust. Press edges of top and bottom crusts together, crimping decoratively. Cut 3 or 4 vents in top of crust. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until crust is golden. Let stand 20 minutes before serving.

002 (4)

Spoon the filling into the crust  003 (7)

 Cut a few slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape

005 (3)

Cheap and easy — like my parents’ friends