Hi! And thanks again for stopping by. As the temperature cools down and Halloween lurks around the corner, I thought of a nice warming meal you and your children can prepare before heading outside to Trick or Treat.
CHICKEN POT PIE-O-LANTERN
Serves 4-6
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 33 minutes
Refrigerated leftovers can keep 2 days. Reheat in an oven 350*F covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes before serving.
Ingredients
1- eight ounce skinless boneless chicken breast
1- nine inch deep dish frozen pie crust shell
1- can Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup- NO WATER
1- can Campbells Cream of Chicken Soup- NO WATER
1- twelve ounce bag of frozen mixed vegetables (any assortment that you and your children decide to try)
1- tsp garlic salt
1- tsp ground black pepper
1- tsp dried tarragon leaves
1- tsp seasoning salt
1- half tsp sugar (optional)
1-TBSP dried parsley flakes
4- Pilsbury Grands, refrigerated biscuits
Preparation
Child- Turn on oven 350*F to pre-heat
Child- Mix all dry ingredient seasonings in a bowl and stir with a spoon to mix together well
Parent or Child- Remove chicken from packaging, rinse with cold water, dry on double thickness of paper towels.
Parent or Child- Spray a cookie sheet pan with a non-stick cooking spray. (Remember the tip is to spray over the sink, so the spray is contained to an easy to clean location)
Parent or Child- Place the chicken breast on the center of the sheet tray. Discard paper towels.
WASH HANDS WITH HOT SOAPY WATER IF YOU TOUCHED THE CHICKEN
Child- Sprinkle half of the seasoning gently and evenly over the top of the chicken breast. Save the other half of the seasoning to add to the soup mix in a later step.
Parent or Child over 12- Place your sheet tray with the chicken breast into the center of your 350*F oven for 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 165*F.
Child- remove the frozen mixed vegetables from its packaging and place in a colander and run under warm water until all vegetables have no ice and are room temperature. (About 4 minutes if you use your hands to move the vegetable around inside the colander, to help the thawing process) Allow to drain all water out.
Parent or Child over 12- open both cans of soup and using a spoon, remove the soup base from each can, into a large mixing bowl, and stir in remaining seasonings. The goal is to have one color soup mix with the seasoning evenly mixed throughout.
Parent or Child- Remove your frozen pie shell crust from its packaging. With a dinner fork, please jab the fork into the pie crust gently and slowly in 4 different locations in the bottom of the pie shell and 4 different locations in the side of the pie shell. (Imagine a clock face for the bottom of the pie shell and make a fork insert at 12-3-6-and 9 O'clock. For the side of the crust, imagine the same clock face and holding the shell at 12 O'clock, jab the outer shell crust at 2-4-8 and 10 O'clock.) You do not want to jab through the crust AND the aluminum plate, just lightly pierce the crust. Wrap second pie crust with clear plastic wrap and freeze for another recipe. Write teh date on teh outer plastic wrap using a "Sharpie" marker.
Parent or Child over 12- Remove chicken breast from the oven, leaving the oven on.
Parent- using a knife and fork, cut the chicken breast into small cubes. It should not be pink inside. Consider cutting the breast down the middle lengthwise, then one half in half again and then make 4 cuts width wise to make your cubes of one half of the breast. Repeat for the other half.
Parent- pour any chicken liquid and any seasonings from the cookie sheet into your soup mixture and stir again.
Child- add the drained and thawed mixed vegetables to your soup mixture and stir to mix thoroughly.
Parent or Child- add the cooked chicken cubes to your soup and veggie mixture, stirring thoroughly again.
Parent or Child- spoon your mix into the pie shell making the pie full and even, so the chicken is not all in one spot within your pie.
Child- quickly, with warm soapy water, scrub and dry the cookie sheet and re-spray with a non-stick cooking spray
Parent or child over 12- place the filled pie crust in its aluminum pan on the cookie sheet, filling side up. (no duh?)
Parent- Place into your 350*F oven, on the center rack.
Child- set oven timer to 15 minutes
Parent or Child- open the "Grands" biscuit roll and separate four biscuits. Place them on a cutting board or surface you can cut upon.
Parent or Child- using a normal dinner knife, like a dinner butter knife, nothing sharp, cut one of the un- cooked round biscuit dough portions into a triangle and cut one of the four round biscuit dough portions in half. Tae the scrap pieces remainng from the triangle and roll like a tube. Place tubes on the sprayed cookie tray along side your pot pie.
Parent- after 15 minutes, using a pot holder, open your oven and slowly slide your cookie tray rack and pan out.
WARNING: keep Children away from the oven door as steam can burn you and them!
Parent or Child over 12- Assuming your half cooked pie is a face, place two round biscuit dough portions on the face, as if they were eyes. Place the triangle portion in the middle for a nose and place each half where a smile would appear on your face.
Child- set oven timer for 19 minutes.
Parent- replace the pie into the oven and increase the temperature to 400*F. Bake an additional 18 minutes or until the biscuit face is golden brown. I suggest that if your oven has an interior light, look through the window to watch your biscuits bake. The more you open the door to look, the lower the temperature gets and your biscuit dough may not rise as much.
Parent- remove cookie sheet with pot pie from the oven. Turn off oven.
Allow the pot pie to rest/cool for 5 minutes before cutting. You can cut the pie into 4 sections, or six sections. It will be messy and gooey. That's ok. Also, if you have more than one Child sharing this meal, flip a coin to see who gets the eye(s), or the piece of mouth or nose. This avoids a battle before dinner. The extra two rolled pieces of cooked dough can be used by you or your children to sop up the liquid pie filling gravy.
Serving suggestion- You can pick up a few different types of fresh apples from your grocery store. You and your children can peel and core the apples. You can cut the apples into cubes, using your newly acquired technique that you mastered with your chicken. You can place the apple cubes into a blender with 8 ounces of cold fresh water and a tsp of ground cinnamon and blitz until smooth. Serve this fresh apple cider over ice cubes or warm in a microwave oven on high for 45 seconds. Stir and serve with your Chicken Pot Pie Face.
Did you know that a tsp of cinnamon equals the antioxidents you would get from eating a half pint of fresh blueberries? Yep!
What you have learned-
1. A method for "cubing" a solid food item
2. You practiced again, safe handling of chicken/poultry
3. A method for getting vegetables and fruits into yourself and Children
4. Making a jack-o-lantern face on anything can inspire a child to try a food that might be new to them.
5. That eating a warm hearty meal before walking around your neighborhood to trick or treat is healthy.
6. That filling up on a healthy meal can reduce the desire to eat every piece of candy collect on Halloween night.
7. That flipping a coin in advance, can avoid confrontation
8. How to make a fast apple cider
9. Having children set the timer and slowly get used to using the oven will build confidence in many other life tasks.
Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your weekend pre-planning. I hope that each week becomes less of a challenge and more focused on creating fun memorable meals as a family. Enjoy your Halloween! Take photos and mark them with the dates so when you are old like me, you can still know what year your child/children wore that costume. Until next week...Lead your family in a positive direction. I always say that my children are loved in two households. Its a positive way to express the change each of you are experiencing and allows your children to hear something positive about the confusion of change.
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