Culinary Tales: Broth out of anything & chicken pot pie

Hi sweetie,

You're in the other room watching cartoons, and I'm filling the fifteen minutes before I pull the chicken pot pie out of the oven.  The chicken pot pie (CPP) that you say, is The Best, as in "Mommy, you make The Best Chicken Pot Pie."

Really, as a Mom, that is such a symphony to my ears, to hear that something I make is the best, and it's also in the healthy food category.

I think today's may top the charts, even in my own biased opinion, and it's time to fill you in on a couple secrets.

First, it starts with the leftover meat on a Beer Can Chicken cooked (by me) 5 days ago, and the anticipation, of you and Daddy, who both clamored for CPP when you knew leftover chicken was hanging out in the refrigerator.

The Beer Can Chicken adventures started as a happy accident, meaning warm weather in San Francisco, my desire to roast a whole chicken and not heat up the kitchen, and the presence of a cheap can of beer in the fridge.  Turned out to be the most moist chicken I've ever, EVER made. 

So I had made a beer can chicken last Sunday, during the third game of the world series, where the Giants beat the Lions (and won the series in game four, hello, goodnight!), which again turned out marvelously, and the leftovers found their way into more than one quesadilla, until today when the fate of the chicken was sealed, as I even had, by another happy accident, made a double recipe of gluten free pie crust when I made a homemade pumpkin pie earlier in the week.

Got all those tricks so far?  There are more, because one of the real secret ingredients in the CPP is the broth, which was homemade from the bones of said BCC plus the vegetables ready for broth but beyond table consumption.  Usually it's the normal cast of characters; onion, celery, carrots, and whatever else seems appropriate.  Today was most unusual, to astonishing yummy results:

Most of a sprouting onion, sprouting top omitted, plus the quarter of an onion hanging out in the fridge
Beet greens, from yellow beets roasted last weekend
Chunks of a large yam
About a teaspoon of poultry seasoning
Half a teaspoon of sea salt
And of course, the bones of said BCC, skin omitted, and meat removed

No joke, I truly believe that broth can be made out of anything.  I've been known to throw golden beets in as well (red would probably taste okay, but the color would be suspicious!), stalks of broccoli, and occasionally a bell pepper or two, but something about the yams that sweetened the broth ... total yum!

So there's the big secret, I type as the timer goes off for the masterpiece in the oven.  

Back again, as the CPP is resting on top of the stove...

As for the CPP recipe, I start with the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook recipe, changing a few things up so it looks like this:

1/2 cup or so of chopped onion ... a little more is fine
1/2 c small dice mushrooms if you've got them, this time my mushrooms were beyond even broth stage so I 4 Tb Butter, not margarine (because I have a fondness for real butter, thank you)
Saute all of the above until the onions & mushrooms are soft, then add:

3 Tb of cornstarch for 1/3 cup flour (to make it GF, of course)
1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt (a bit more if you used unsalted butter)
Stir until mixed well, then add

2 cups of the chicken broth you made earlier
3/4 cup milk

Heat until bubbly and a bit thicker than when you started.  While you're waiting, cook the veggies:

I simmer these in a small amount of water for 3-ish minutes until tender but not mushy
1 large carrot diced (not frozen - ack!)
2 medium yellow potatoes, same size dice as the carrots
Some amount of frozen peas (which are better frozen, unless super-fresh from the backyard)


When the onion/broth mixture is bubbly and the veggies are cooked, add the veggies, to the broth mix and add:
2 cups torn or chopped chicken

Heat on the stove until it's bubbly again, pour into a pie dish, cover with the pie crust, and cook for 15 min @450 degrees. 

I know I'm leaving out the pie crust recipe ... I follow the one in this phenomenal GF cookbook:
Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts

There you have it ... The Best, according to you and Daddy, Chicken Pot Pie!

love,
always,
Mommy