Chicken Pot Pie without a pie crust

What's a pot pie without pie crust? Yummier! There are very few things that I will eat in a pie crust but Chicken Pot Pie is NOT one of them. Maybe its because the first chicken pot pie I ever had was back in the 70's when I was a kid visiting a friend and for dinner her mom pulled out those horrid frozen dinner versions of Chicken Pot Pies and I absolutely hated it! And the woman had the nerve to get mad at me! umm....taste buds anyone?? Helloooooo. I guess she had none and I never got over it. You could say this is an odd version....kinda like a casserole with a breaded topping instead of pie crust. Its a huge hit it my home and I even get requests for this from my daughters friends. (thats one up on the mom without taste buds, eh? LOL)

Today I had time to actually boil a whole chicken. I used some of the chicken for the pot pie and will be saving the rest of the chicken for later in the week when I make Chicken Divan. With my new job, I'm not sure if I'll have time to snap pictures for a blog, but I'll try. I don't get home until 6:30 as it is, so we'll see. Anyways....I boiled the chicken with lots of seasoning in the water. The more seasoning, the better the broth and I used the broth for tonight too. Btw...if you don't have time, just use some already cooked chicken (or boil a couple of chicken breasts) and use whatever chicken broth you'd normally use. 

Now...the ingredients are simple enough but this is a little bit time consuming. I promise it's well worth the effort. Comfort food always is don't you think? :)

2/3 cup butter

1 large onion chopped

2 carrots thinly sliced

3 celery sticks, sliced

2 large garlic cloves, minced

4 - 6 mushrooms, sliced

2/3 cup flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 1/3 cups milk

2 cups cooked chicken, cut up

2 cups veggies, chopped or diced

2 cups bisquick

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Ok...preheat that oven to a hot 400'. ya...this isn't something you want to be cooking during the summer, thats for sure.

In regards to the vegetables. The original recipe called for frozen veggies. I'll sometimes mix it up, depending on what I have and what I'm in the mood for. Tonight I used corn, broccoli and some peas. There were plenty of times where I just used a regular ole frozen veggie mix. But, no matter what I use, I like to cook them a bit first. I can't stand partially done veggies in a casserole. 

Now with that said...I diced up the onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic. To be honest with you, this is the first time I've ever put mushrooms in my pot pie and I loved it.

Heat butter in a very large pan over low heat until melted. Saute your diced mixture from above until tender. This could take a little longer than you'd think because of the carrots. Oh...lets get back to that "very large pan". You will be adding a lot of liquid and food to this pan before it all goes into a casserole dish. So keep that in mind. You don't want to get almost to the end of your cooking and discover you've run out of room and you need to grab another pan to get dirty and then have to clean. Such a pain. Dishes are bad enough without adding more unnecessarily. 

Ok...the carrots, onions, etc are sauteing....

Add flour, salt and pepper to taste (you can always taste it again before you throw it in the oven to see if you need to add more salt and pepper). Stir until blended and bubbly. I don't know why they say "bubbly". When you add equal amounts of fat (ie: butter) and flour, everything just gets soaked up and there's no liquid left to get "bubbly".  So, I just stir it for a minute and continue on. 

Remove from heat and get ready to add your liquids. BTW, while the carrots and onions and stuff were sauteing, I was taking the chicken off the bone and boiling the broth down a bit to condense the flavor. Then I spooned the broth into my measuring cup and got it ready for my next step.

So...your sauteed veggies have been removed from the heat (only for a minute...you don't want them to cool off). Stir in the chicken broth and 1 1/3 cups of milk. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute.

Stir in chicken and veggies.

Poor mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish and set aside.

Stir bisquick, 1 cup of milk and the eggs until blended. Pour over chicken and veggie mixture.

Try and get it over to the edge so that the juices are sealed in and won't bubble over during cooking. However, sometimes it happens anyways therefore I always put the casserole dish on a large cookie sheet to catch any spills.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.....