Chicken Pot Pie

It probably started 6 maybe 7 years ago with the wife telling me she wanted chicken pot pie. I said "No! I can't stand that that crap." Of course I was talking about the frozen variety you buy out of the store. You know the the kind I'm talking about, the crust resembles anything but a real crust and tastes closer to dried cardboard than good crust. I couldn't help but think about frozen pot pies everytime she brought the subject up. Imagine her surprise this week when she asked what was for Sunday dinner and I answered Chicken Pot Pie.

"But you don't like chicken pot pie" she exclaimed.

"Well I don't like the frozen ones and I don't think I have ever had a real homemade one before so I am willing to try. Besides I am making it more for you because you have been bugging me about making it for a few years now." At least that was my angle I was taking for an excuse to give chicken pot pie a try.

My thought as I was trying to find a good recipe to try was let's go to a master at comfort food cooking. I know there are a couple of good cooks on Food Network that make good comfort food but after looking at recipes I chose Ina Garten's recipe, besides Ina is one of those cooks that makes everything look better when she gets done.

It's time to roll and here is this weeks cast of characters.....



A fine looking cast this week.

First we must roast the chicken breast so we spray them with a little olive oil and cover them with salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to be generous here because you will be throwing the chicken skin out anyway.



Let's take a look at the chicken after an hour of roasting in the oven.



At this point I am thinking "Who needs chicken pot pie when I can eat the chicken breast straight from the oven." As tempting as that may be I need to stay on point and make the chicken pot pie.

Next we need a cooking vessel or vessels. A quick trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond, well not a quick trip since the first Bed, Bath and Beyond didn't have any. The nice clerk in the store looked up on the computer to see if they had any ramicans and they didn't but she checked the other stores in the area and found some in Gaithersburg, only about 10 miles from home. One of the great things about living here is we have three Bed, Bath and Beyonds' within 10 miles of our place and that's no exaggeration.



I thought I would throw in a black and white photo, I don't get a chance to do that very often.

This is the part of the show where I cheat a little bit, instead of making my own pastry (just in case any of you don't know I don't bake) I used store bought. In the original recipe below Ina makes her own pastry and if you really want to go ahead, like I said the recipe is down below.



Another character that deserves a photo all its own is the frozen pearl onions. When I was reading reviews many of the reviewers omitted the little frozen wonders and all I could ask was "Why?" These little pearls are one of my favorite items for comfort food. Next time you make beef stew add these to the pot and you will be hooked, I promise.



Let's get back to why we are all here today, chicken pot pie.

Chunk up the chicken.......



.........make a roux, after all this is the base for our pot pie.......



......add the remaining cast of characters.



That went fairly quick, next top with puff pastry. Start by folding the pastry out of the cutting board........



.......and find something to cut a nice round circle about an inch larger than the ramican. In this case a cereal bowl worked just fine.



Fill the ramicans up with delicious chicken pot pie and top with puff pastry.



A little egg wash, salt and pepper and we are ready for the oven.



Cook until golden, brown and delicious or as Alton Brown would say GBD.



Time to open one up and see what we got...........



.....and a little bit more............



I'll confess not bad, not bad at all. These were nothing like their distant cousins from the frozen food section of the grocery store. The tops were nice a flaky and the and inside had plenty of chicken flavor and good vegetables including those sweet little pearl onions we talked about earlier. I will give it a 4 out of 5 forks because after all it is still chicken pot pie.

The good news is there was leftovers so starting this week will be the series premiere of Wednesday Night Leftovers.

Stay tuned.

Chicken Pot Pie
2005, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved

Serves: 4 individual pot pies
Ingredients
3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 chicken bouillon cubes
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched or 2 minutes
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

For the pastry:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into large dice. You will have 4 to 6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and sauté the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions and parsley. Mix well.

For the pastry, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and butter and mix quickly with your fingers until each piece is coated with flour. Pulse 10 times, or until the fat is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water; process only enough to moisten the dough and have it just come together. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls. Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Thu Oct 2, 2009
© 2009 Scripps Networks, LLC.
All Rights Reserved

Penne Pasta with Braised Beef Short Ribs

Since the blogs have really slowed down from everyone except big sis I thought it might be time to bring back my Sunday Dinner Episodes. I have been thinking about starting the episodes back up for some time now and since fall is here this is a good time. It's been busy the last couple of months with the bike riding vacation and another weekend spent in Pittsburgh with big sis. Other weekends were spent making apple butter and cranberry glaze, all for later.

But this past weekend I finally had time and thought I would get started on Season 2 of Sunday Dinner. Season 2 promises to be hipper, smarter, more colorful, and down right tasty. Well maybe not the first 3 but definitely more tasty. I will be trying recipes I stumble across, see on Food Network and maybe even a couple of my own concoctions I dream up.

I hope everyone is ready because it's time to roll....................

This weeks Sunday Dinner comes from our good friend on the Food Network Giada and is called Penne Pasta with Braised Beef Short Ribs. I watched this show a couple of weeks ago on Giada's new show called Giada at Home. As soon as I saw her pulling out the beef short ribs she had my attention. If you have never had beef short ribs you are really missing a treat.

I discovered beef short ribs by accident about three years ago when I was looking for oxtail for a recipe by Emeril. I couldn't find oxtail that day so the next best thing I found were the beef short ribs. Once I cooked them up for me and the wife we were both sold and have been cooking with them ever since. The wife will even tell you they are here favorite type of meat (me personally I still consider a thick ribeye steak my favorite type of meat).

Enough BS let's get on with this weeks episode.

First we must introduce this weeks cast of characters.



I think I got everything into the picture this time. To be honest I normally forget an item or two and if you can keep a secret I will tell you one. I actually had another Sunday Dinner Episode that was to be my season premier but I forgot one of the main ingredients in the cast of character lineup. Not only that but I was going to do an episode on the cranberry glaze and I forgot one of the main ingredients in that cast too. Yep, now I know how big sis feels.

If you notice in the above photo the beef ribs are whole lengths. Normally you will find them cut into 2 to 3" pieces in the store but when I went to Whole Foods to pick these up the other day their band saw was broke and I had to take them whole, and beef ribs aren't something you just cut with a knife. If you notice in the next photo I am using my cast iron frying pan to cook in instead of my cast iron dutch oven. The ribs wouldn't fit in the dutch oven and barely fit in the frying pan after a little trimming here and there.

Start with a little oil in the pan, I always use extra virgin olive oil.



Brown the ribs....



Chop up some onions.......



.....and garlic while browning the ribs.



Start cooking the onions and garlic while......



....chopping up the tomatoes.



Dump everything into the pan, if you want the real directions read the recipe at the end of this post.



And 2-1/2 hours later, presto look what we have.



Take the meat out, get rid of the fat on top and blend the rest in the food processor. I got to be honest if the food processor is involved I'm there, I like watching the food processor do its job.



Pull the meat from the bones, shred.......



......and return the meat back to the pot or in this case the frying pan.



Now it's time to cook up the pasta. I don't think you need directions on how to cook pasta but here is an action shot of pasta cooking.



Pretty exciting eh?

Next we cut up some parsley and shred some fresh parmesan-reggiano cheese.



Put it all together and here is what you got.



Look good?

Here is a closer look.



Mmmm, it was good, good enough to rate a 4 out of 5 forks. Changes? Sure I will make changes to suit my taste next time but like always I try to stay true to the original recipe the first time.

If you want a real treat make enough so you will have leftovers for a quick meal on a weeknight. After we eat a meal like this on Sunday we always mix the pasta and whatever we fixed with it together and stick it in the ice box. That's what I did this time and when I pulled it out last night to warm up I thought it was looking a little dry so I went to work.

The first thing I did was open the ice box and staring me straight in the face were fresh mushrooms. 'Click' the light bulb goes on, "Mushroom gravy" I say. Quickly I make up some mushroom gravy and dump it in the pan with the short beef rib mixture. It's good but I am thinking what else can I do? I open the ice box again and what do you know staring me in the face again was sour cream. "Oh yeah" I think "Here we go, this will kick it up a notch." I throw in a couple of spoons of sour cream, ok so they were big spoons. I let everything cook for a couple of more minutes, throw it all on a plate and call it Tuesday night leftovers.

But wait a minute, "HOLY COW" I say to the wife "This stuff is good, real good." Amazing what you can do with leftovers. I had to give it a 4.75 forks out of 5. Why not 5 forks? Well I got another idea for that last 1/4 of a point and you will just have to wait for a future Sunday Dinner Episode or maybe I should call it Tuesday Night Leftovers and tell you about it then.

Penne with Braised Short Ribs

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
4 pounds beef short ribs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
5 Roma tomatoes cut into eighths
1 cup red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Place an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Season the ribs with salt and pepper. In a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or ovenproof stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. In batches, add the ribs and brown on all sides, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the ribs and set aside. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, wine and mustard. Bring the mixture to a boil and scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Return the ribs to the pan. Add the beef broth, cover the pan and place in the oven for 2 1/2 hours until the meat is fork-tender and falls easily from the bone.

Remove the ribs from the cooking liquid. Using a large spoon, remove any excess fat from the surface of the cooking liquid. Using a ladle, transfer the cooking liquid in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is smooth. Pour the sauce into a saucepan and keep warm over low heat. Remove the meat from the bones. Discard the bones. Using 2 forks shred the meat into small pieces. Stir the shredded meat into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and place in a large serving bowl. Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat from the sauce and add to the pasta. Pour 1 cup of the sauce over the pasta. Toss well and thin out the pasta with more sauce, if needed. Sprinkle the pasta with Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley before serving.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Sat Oct 17 2009

© 2009 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved