Wednesday, February 10, 2010

In The Words Of Mr. Hawthorne: "Imonna Sandra Lee The Hell Outta This!"

And he did just that. Just to show you anybody can cook anything on the fly, I give you Mr. Hawthorne's Chicken Pot Pie. I had some chicken thighs in the fridge, along with the other half of my pizza dough and told him to cook last night.
Yeah. This was the money shot. A tableau in browns.
He actually made a mise en place and allowed me to photograph. I must say, I was a bit taken aback by the can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I didn't even know I had a can of that slop. I begged him to make a roux and use my chicken stock but he was having none of that.
Mr. Hawthorne chopped his carrots, celery, and onions. He's also using frozen corn and peas.
Veggies went into the hot skillet.
Mr. Hawthorne likes to show off his flipping skills.
Just a few quick tosses before he put the diced chicken in.
I asked Mr. Hawthorne about his seasonings and he said he just put pepper in, no salt, since he figgered the can of soup had more than enough salt. Good call, Mr. Hawthorne.
He put the chicken in the center where the most heat was and pushed the veggies to the outside. I would have done the meat first, then add the vegetables, but this is his meal.
The dreaded condensed cream of chicken soup went in.
I believe there was enough sodium in that crap to provide salt licks for a small herd of cattle. Now what I would have done here is add about a tablespoon or two each of butter then flour, cook the flour for a minute or so to get rid of the raw, then add some homemade chicken stock, stirring and cooking until it all thickens, then top it all off with some heavy cream and maybe a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg. Yep. That's what I would have done.
A little milk to thin it out.
Here's Mr. Hawthorne's other half of his pizza dough from the other night.
Chicken pot pie mixture goes into the baking dish.
Mr. Hawthorne presses out his dough.
Mr. Hawthorne worked in a bit of butter into his dough.
Placed the dough on top of the chicken mixture.
Into a 350 degree oven until the crust is browned. Maybe 20-25 minutes. Watch it.
Ta daaaaaa.
I couldn't get over the squickiness of the condensed soup. As I said, I would have made a roux and added my homemade chicken stock to it.
However, it seemed to be a success.

1 comment:

Marilyn said...

Well, at least he cooked? That's more I can say for my husband.