Quick and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

What's quick and easy to cook, yet nutritionally-balanced and yummy to boot? (Operative words being "quick" and "easy") It's chicken pot pie complemented with a salad bed of fresh crisp greens.

It's Chicken Pot Pie complemented with a bed of fresh crisp greens and a glass of fresh kalamansi juice.
 (Caveat : You'll need some store bought frozen puff pastry on hand, otherwise, forget about "quick" and "easy"!) 

Just the thing when you've got about an hour plus preparation time and expecting some company for a quick lunch.  I was looking forward to a lunch visit from my childhood friend and her family who were making a pitstop at my place en-route to Singapore.  They were bringing their gorgeous 8-month old twins for their first visit back to her hometown in Ipoh, a town about 2 hours drive north of Kuala Lumpur and were now on their way back to Singapore. As it's a 4 to 5 hour drive south from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, I didn't want to prepare anything too heavy or loaded with too much carbs out of  consideration for the driver. A full belly and heavy lids are not the best combinations for a long, afternoon drive!


The Ingredients (Serves 4)

From top left (clockwise): Swiss button mushrooms and a sprig of fresh thyme,  sliced leeks, cubed chicken meat and chopped celery 

1 chicken breast meat and 1 whole chicken thigh, deboned and cubed
2 celery sticks
200g fresh swiss brown button mushrooms
2 stalks of leek
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
250 ml of fresh chicken stock
1/3 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon of fresh thyme
1dried bay leave
Freshly grated black pepper and salt to taste
Grated nutmeg (optional)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 tablespoon of butter (optional)
2 tablespoons of plain flour

Storebought frozen puff pastry sheets (this is why it's quick :))


Methodology in Pictures

First, marinate the cubed chicken pieces with a teaspoon of sea salt and then dust with 2 tablespoons of plain flour

Heat up a pan/wok with a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter.

When oil/butter is heated up, gently sautee the garlic and chopped leaks for a minute or 2.

Add in the marinated chicken and toss it around with a spatula for a few minutes before including the mushrooms.

Throw in all other ingredients ( you may use any other vegies - carrots, potatoes or peas) . Cook for a few minutes

Include your chicken stock, thyme and bay leave and let stew simmer for a 5-7 minutes. The bay leave and thyme adds a subtle yet aromatic flavor to the dish.

Mix a table spoon of plain flour into 20 ml of water and thicken the stew.  Season with salt and black pepper. Grate in some nutmeg .(just a little - less than a pinch). Check for taste.

Include the thickened cream at the end

Remove the bay leave and thyme sprigs. Fill up 4 oven proof ramekins with the chicken stew leaving no less than an inch from the brim of the dish.

Cut squares from your puff pastry sheet large enough to drape over your ramekin as shown in the picture.

Preheat your oven at 200 degrees celsius and bake for 15 minutes or when crust is golden browned and all puffed up.

The finished product ... it's fun as you can dress it up any way you like, with any old salad combinations you like!

Shepherd's Pie .. the kind with vegies in it

How do you get kids (and ahem [*cough cough*], certain adults too) to eat these vegetables?

EXHIBIT A : Colon friendly fibre which would do your doctor proud

You disguise it!  ... In a meaty shepherd's pie with creamy mash potatoes - the stuff that men and kids can live on indefinitely. Some stealth is sometimes justified for the greater good ;P

EXHIBIT B : The shepherd's pie for the serving

So how do we get from Exhibit A (the sliced vegies above) to Exhibit B (the meaty carbo concoction that will have your kids and your man begging for more) without raising too much of a suspicion?

First, we'll roast it and and then roughly chop it up beyond recognition.

Sprinkle some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and some oil over the vegies and roast it for about 15 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees celsius

Add caption

I used a pair of kitchen scissors to quickly chop up the roasted vegies

The shepherd's pie is relatively easy and quick to prepare with some planning and multi-tasking involved. While the vegies were roasting in the oven, I boiled the potatoes on the stove while cooking my meat filling.  Halfway through simmering the meat filling, I added the chopped up, roasted vegies and cooked for a further 5 minutes. This is when you adjust the seasoning of salt, black pepper and the moisture level to your liking.

Lay the meat filling with the incorporated vegies out on an oven dish.. the great thing about aubergines and zucchini is that they just disappear into the dish.  

Time to attend to the potatoes, which should be fork tender by now.

I usually just drain the potatoes, throw them into my cake mixer with the milk, butter, salt and pepper and process. It's fluffy, mashed potatoes within 3 minutes.

Layer the mash potatoes onto pie filling

Use a fork to create those lines and sprinkle with some mozzarella (and parmesan if you wish) and pop it into the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius or until it nicely browned.

Ingredients used for this dish:

To roast and then chop 

1 brinjal or aubergine

1 celery stick

1 carrot

(zucchini would be good too but I didn't have it on hand this time around to replace the celery - in fact you can put any vegies you want. Caveat - avoid strong smelling, difficult to camouflage stuff like cabbage, brocolli which may just alter the taste of the pie filling )

Time : 15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius with circulation fan on

The Meat filling:

350 g of minced beef/ lamb

300 g of ready made tomato pasta sauce or ragu sauce (those bottled tomato pasta sauce are a great convenience - you can use napoletana, mushroom, basilico  and so on)

2 bay leaves

1 whole fresh tomato, quartered

Sautee the mince meat in some oil together with the bay leaves and quartered tomatoes. Throw in the pasta sauce and allow to simmer. Incorporate the abovementioned roasted vegies. Season to taste.

The Mashed Potato Topping

Mash the following

550 g of boiled and cooked russet potatoes

100 g of fresh milk 

A dollop of butter

Salt and pepper to taste

The Assembly of the Dish

Lay out your pie filling in an oven-proof dish. Remember to remove your bay leaves before putting on your mash potato layering

For sprinkling during baking:

Grated mozzarella cheese and a pinch of grated nutmeg seed

(Tip : Adjust the moisture level of the pie filling by adding more tomato sauce, making sure there is some gravy in it. Same goes for the mashed potatoes, add more milk or cream if necessary for the right amount of moisture. You don't want your pie to dry out during the baking process.)