Chicken Pot Pie!! obsession!

So I'm trying to go back through my older recipes and pick my faves and write them out. This ones great because I already wrote out the recipe for my clawsin (cousin-in-law J)! The funny thing about this recipe is that I had never had chicken pot pie before in my whole life, and one day I woke up thinking “man.. I really want some chicken pot pie” and then I thought about it for a week before I decided ill just make it lol so random! But I swear I was craving it!

Anyway, I went into the humongous world of the internet to find the “best recipe”. I looked at a bunch and then made mine with all the easiest parts of the other ones! So basically, it’s like every other chicken pot pie recipe out there lol but still J  

So my pie crust is just store bought. Pillsbury pie crust.. It's in the cold section usually with the crescent rolls and biscuits.

Ingredients you'll need:

1 package Pillsbury pie dough

1 large potato (peeled and diced- it'll be probably be about 2 cups)
1/2 cup diced carrot (you can use frozen if you want! Makes zero difference.. Unless you LOVE carrots ...in which case use fresh)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
2/3 cup onions (diced)

1 stick of butter (cut to tabs) if you're stressed about the butter, you can do a little less too.. But you need SOME for this one it seems like lol
1 cup flour

2 cups cooked cubed chicken (I was so stressed out when I was making this that I forgot the chicken until the recipe said "now add your chicken"!! But luckily I had plain chicken leftovers and just cut that up, heated it and used that. I don't know how I'm SUPPOSED to season the chicken.. I just used plain kinda bland chicken – it was only seasoned with garlic and salt. That’s it.)

1 1/2 cups of milk
3 cups of chicken broth

Almost 2 full tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 425!

Peel and dice your potatoes and carrots and put them in a pot with water. Bring the water to the boil (with all the stuff inside) and then turn down to medium-low for 8-10 minutes.
Then drain and put the potatoes and carrots aside in a bowl.

Put the corn and peas in a bowl and microwave them until they're warm. Then put them aside with the potatoes and carrots.

In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, take your cup of flour and add all the spices to it. (Put aside)

In another separate pitcher or bowl, mix the milk and chicken broth together too. (Put aside)

For cooking chicken, you can use Tysons Ready-Made chicken (cubed) OR you can make your own fresh chicken!  Making your own chicken is quick, but definitely do it NOW and not later J Take your raw chicken, cube it, season with ½ a tsp of salt, ½ tsp thyme, and ½ tsp garlic powder and then put it in an oiled pan on medium heat. Put the lid on the pan and let it cook for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once it’s done, set this aside as well!

Next, put a deep skillet on the stove and on medium heat, melt all the butter and then add your onions to that. Heat until the onions are soft (about 3-5 minutes).. Then slowly add the flour mixture you've set aside. Mix mix mix! Then slowly add your milk/broth liquid. Mix mix mix!
Mix constantly for about 2 or 3 minutes... Or just until the mixture you just made thickens. Once it starts to thicken, add all your veggies and chicken and mix it all together.. And put the heat on low and let it all simmer together for 5-10 minutes.. Then take all this stuff off the heat and set aside.

Open up the pie crusts and place them in a pie tin (or whatever it's called lol that you bake a pie in) and then fill that with the stuff you just made from the stove-top. Fill aaaalmost to the top and then place the second pie dough roll on top of that and pinch the edges like you're making a regular pie lol. Remember to cut holes in the top so it doesn't explode in the oven.

Cook on 425 for 35-40 minutes! Enjoy!! 

Be careful because when you take it out it is PIPING hot! Lol kinda burned my tongue hah. Let me know how yours turns out! 

Pot Stickers at home!! YUM!

I haven't written anything in a long long time and I am sorry to my one reader :) but I’m back today. I’m wondering what to write about.. I’ve made quite a few new things but I only like to post my favorites. I think I should tell you about the pot stickers!! Asian cuisine has been the hardest for me not to mess up lol... so the fact that these came out so good is almost a miracle. Basically what I’m saying is that if iii can make this, you definitely can. OH and not only are the pot stickers awesome, but the sauce, omg.. the sauce. If it were socially acceptable, I would just drink the sauce. AND that’s the easiest part. I’m so excited..

This opening paragraph is short but that’s all I have to say lol

Stuff you will need:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 – 1.5 bunches of scallions (scallions are the same thing as green onions. Also new news. Dipak and I love green onions so I always put way more than I need to) chopped small

2 cloves of fresh garlic (usually I use the pre-minced garlic in a jar, but for this recipe I use fresh garlic cloves!) mince. So what I finally learned that I feel like is common knowledge, is that when you take the papery part off the garlic.. here’s how: cut the little ends off the garlic clove, and then squish it with a wide bladed knife. It just squishes the paper off! It’s amazing J and your hands don’t get super sticky. (apparently garlic is sticky.. who knew)

1 package of ground pork, or chicken (the more fat the meat has, OBVIOUSLY the more delicious lol)

3.5 Tbsp of Hoisin sauce (in the ethnic isle.. it’s a salty Asian style sauce. They even have the sauce at our tiny Publix, so I’m sure it’ll be easy to find.)

3 tsp soy sauce (you can use low sodium, or regular. I found it makes zero difference :/which always confuses me but whatever)

1 tsp Chinese-5-spice (This is a powder style spice.. looks like cumin actually. I also found this in my ethnic isle.. I assume if you can find an Asian grocery store, they’ll have a more flavorful one. Mine is a little bland..)

1 egg

1 package of won-ton wrappers (I get the smaller squares. They have the ones that are the size of a spring roll, and smaller ones are like… 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches… that’s my best guess)

A little bowl of water (keep separate)

About ¼ cup of vegetable or canola oil. (I also don’t know the difference in using these… if anyone knows, help a girl out)

For the sauce:

1 little bowl

~ 1/8 cup Soy sauce (low sodium works best for the taste to come out right- and the amount is also up to you. You can make as little or as much of this sauce as you want. You can’t really do it wrong, I promise)

½ a lemon (juice)

½ tsp sriracha (that’s hot sauce.. I’m sure you knew that but just in case! And feel free to add less or more based on your taste J)

Normally I don’t actually suggest this myself but taste as you go for this sauce so you can get it just the way you like! I love it to be extra lemony and spicy!! Mmm! My mouth is watering just thinking about it hah.

Mix these 3 ingredients together with a fork. You're done!! Best and easiest sauce ever!

Here’s what you do:

First, you can use a Wok of course for the first step, but I suggest a deep skillet that has a lid. The lid is VERY important here… and a lot of surface area.

So put your big skillet on the stove and put the heat on medium/high. Add in your sesame oil and wait for it to heat up. Then add your scallions and garlic. (you can also add minced ginger to this part, but I hate ginger. Soo…. ) So add the scallions and garlic to the warm oil and let them heat up. This is to take the “bite” off the garlic and onions. Let them simmer for about 4-5 minutes or until they start to change colors. Take this scallion/garlic mix off the heat and set it aside in a bowl for a minute.

In a big bowl, dump the ground meat (either pork or chicken). Add in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and Chinese 5-spice. Dump the scallion/garlic mix into the raw meat bowl. Then add an egg on top.

Finally, take a spoon (I use a teaspoon) and stir all this stuff around the bowl until it’s all mixed together and gets kind of… goopy. It’s not going to look like hamburger meat if that’s what you're thinking. It looks more like pink sticky pudding. Lol that’s gross, but it’s true.

Now the part that takes forever.. let me explain it one by one and then you can figure out your own factory assembly line system. Place a wanton wrapper (flour side down.. one side of the wrapper will have a little more flour on it than the other.) put about half a teaspoon of your meat mixture in the center of your square of wanton wrapper. Then dip your finger in the water bowl and wet two adjoining sides of the wrapper. And then fold the square into a triangle.. (I hope that makes sense. I hate origami) squeeze the wanton sides together until it’s a little triangle pocket full of raw meat.

Set your little wanton aside in a plate and cover it with a wet paper towel. (that’s to keep it moist. Until you're done making 50 more of those)

Repeat the process until your meat is gone. And trust me, I know it looks like a LOT, but pot sticker left overs are AWESOME!! They re-heat well and that sauce… my fave.

Once you have a heaping plate of wrapped up pot stickers, you take it over to your skillet (the same one you heated up your scallions/garlic in) add a little regular oil and put the heat on high (maybe a LITTLE less than the highest setting). My pan can hold about 8 pot stickers at a time, so place them in (watch out for splattering oil) let them sit for 10 seconds and then pour a dollop of water into the pan and shut the lid real quick! This steams the pot stickers! Let them steam, untouched, for 6-7 minutes. When you open the lid again, the water will be gone. The bottom of the pot stickers will be crispy and the top will be soft and steamed.

Repeat this process until you're out of raw pot stickers! Serve with the awesome sauce! SO GOOD!! Good luck! And let me know how they turn out! 

this first picture is when i spent time trying to make the pot stickers look like restaurant style... its SO freaking hard and took WAY too much time. If I had like 10 helpers, maaaybe it would be worth it, but basically now I just make them like paper footballs. 

the pretty ones..  the usual ones :) -->