Lazy Girls Chicken Pot Pie With Dressing Optional Recipes

Steps:

• NOTE: I don't add salt to this recipe because most of the ingredients are canned. Adjust to your tastes accordingly. Open and drain mushrooms, using juice to reconstitute dried onions. (See notes in step #13 for reconstitution instructions if desired.)
• Remove pie crust from refrigerator/freezer and allow to come to room temperature by step 8. (I have been known to microwave my crusts when I forgot to do this part. Just be careful not to "cook" them. See notes in step #13 for detailed instructions.)
• Preheat oven to 425° F.
• Open and drain remaining cans (except the soup which should NOT be drained), discarding juice. *(see note in step #14)
• Dump all vegetables into microwave safe bowl. Chop chicken and add to bowl.
• Add rosemary (or other herbs), parsley, black pepper, and re-constituted onion bits and combine gently until thoroughly mixed.
• Lightly cover bowl and microwave filling until nicely warmed (or even hot) throughout (about 8 minutes, depending on the wattage of your machine) stirring at 4 minutes.
• While filling is warming, line a deep dish pie pan with bottom crust. Do not trim.
• When filling is warm, spread evenly over bottom crust, tamping it down to eliminate air bubbles.
• Top with second crust, tucking edges of top crust under/behind bottom crust. Using fork, press together folded edge of top and bottom crusts around rim of pie pan. Cut or poke holes in top crust to allow venting of moisture.
• Place pie in oven and tent foil over top. Bake 45 minutes at 425° F. Remove foil and bake additional 15 minutes or until top is toasty brown. (See detailed notes in step #13.)
• When done, carefully remove pie from oven and allow to rest a minimum of 10 minutes. Slice and serve hot.
• NOTES: Step 1 => To re-constitute onions, pour juice from mushrooms into cup and stir in onions. Allow to soak until onions have absorbed nearly all moisture, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Step 2 => If pie dough is still too cool to be flexible by the time you need it, bring it to room temperature by microwaving both packages together for 15 seconds on high; if still too cool, microwave in 5 second intervals until room temperature is reached. Do not allow to crust to become truly warm. If this happens, allow it to cool to room temperature before using, otherwise crust will stretch too easily while you are trying to place it. Step 5 => Cut chicken while it's still in the can, being careful not to dig knife into can (this dulls the blade and can shave bits of the can's lining into your food). Step 8 => When lining the pie pan with the bottom crust, there should be little, if any, crust overhang. If there is, your pan is smaller than mine and you won't have room for all this filling; so don't over-fill your crust when the time comes. There IS a lot of filling and it just fits the pan I use. Step 11 => When tenting foil, be sure none of the crust edges are exposed to direct heat (you don't have to wrap the sides-just make sure the top is covered), otherwise that part will burn. However, if you do accidentally burn a portion of the crust during the first 45 minutes, you can cut it away before returning the pie to the oven for the last 15 minutes. Step 11, part 2 => I use a 9" Pampered Chef deep dish stoneware pie pan; additionally, I bake in my table-top convection oven without pre-heating. Cooking times and temperatures may vary for glass or metal pie pans, so watch this dish the first time you bake it in case you need to make adjustments. Step 11, part 3> "Toasty brown" is slightly darker than golden brown. Of course, you don't have to bake it that dark if you don't like it that way, but I feel the darker color adds an extra depth of savory flavor.
• Note from step 4: * In the interest of frugality, juice from the canned vegetables can be used in other savory dishes as flavor and salt in place of water. Drain juice into a container and store covered in refrigerator until needed, for up to a week. (Canned vegetables are high in salt [which is why no salt is added to this recipe] which acts as a light preservative allowing the juice to remain viable the entire week.)

Steps:

• Boil chicken, shred or chunk and reserve 2 cups of chicken stock. We use chicken breast but you can use whatever part you want just make about 2 to 3 cups cooked chicken.
• Mix cream of chicken soup, the chicken stock and add in shredded or chunked chicken.
• Pour into 9 by 13 inch pan.
• Pour drained mixed vegetables over chicken.
• Prepare stuffing as box directions, I leave out the margarine. We also vary by using different flavors of stove top. We mix a chicken flavor and a sage flavor.
• Spread stuffing over top of mix vegetables.
• Bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes. Feeds 6-12 people depending on size of servings.
• Recipe can be half for smaller families, use 1 can mixed veggies, 1 box of stuffing, 1 cup stock and 2 chicken breast or about 1 cup cooked chicken. Smaller pan and will still feed 4 to 6. Depending on size of servings.