Shortcut Chicken Pot Pie

A long time ago I posted a recipe for chicken pot pie "better than store bought." I still like that recipe, but since then I have gotten lazier about making it and now I have a much faster and incidentally somewhat cheaper version that is still delicious enough to serve to company.

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 bag frozen peas and carrots
1/2 bag frozen pearl onions (NOT in sauce, just plain onions), or more to taste
Breast meat of 1 rotisserie chicken
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon or equivalent broth mix

Topping:
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup pastry or cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar 
1/3 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 stick butter or stick margarine
2/3 cup milk

First, make the topping. Preheat the oven to 450. Also put a large pot of water on to boil.

In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir. Chop the butter into small pieces and drop into the dry ingredients. Then, use a pastry cutter to cut in the butter until the pieces are no bigger than peas. Add the milk and stir gently until a dough forms. It will be stiff.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Knead carefully 8 times. Kneading a biscuit is not the same as kneading bread dough; each time you knead the dough, you will press it out flat to about an inch thick, then fold it in half. This creates the nice tender layers in the biscuit.

Roll the biscuit dough out into a shape that will fit into whatever container you're going to use for the pie. Basically, the topping is going to be one giant biscuit. You can use a pie plate or a rectangular Corningware, whatever you like that is about the right size. It doesn't have to be oven-safe.

Lay a sheet of tinfoil on a baking sheet that is safe to use at high heat. Most nonstick baking sheets are NOT SAFE at high heat. If all you have is nonstick sheets, then just use a double thickness of tinfoil.

Grease the tinfoil and then laay the giant biscuit on top. Carefully fold up the edges of the tinfoil to make about a 1/2 inch lip all the way around. This will catch any butter that melts out of the huge biscuit, so it doesn't drip onto your oven and smoke.

Bake the biscuit for 12 minutes or until golden. You will want to bake it a tiny bit longer than you usually bake biscuits to be sure it's cooked all the way through.

While the biscuit is cooking, make the filling. The water should be boiling now so just dump in the frozen veggies. Set a timer for 5 minutes and start working on the gravy.

For the gravy, whisk the flour directly into the cold milk until smooth. Then pour the milk mixture into a saucepan and add the water and bouillon and (optional) any herbs you want to add, such as a pinch of thyme, parsley, or sage. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.

By now the veggies are probably done. When they are done cooking, dump them into a colander to strain out the water, then pour them into the pie plate (or other serving container that you're going to serve the pie in).

If you haven't already chopped the chicken, do it now, and then add the chicken pieces to the veggies.

Pour the gravy over the veggies and chicken, and stir gently.

By this time the biscuit is probably done baking. Carefully, using two large spatulas or pancake turners, lift the giant biscuit off the tinfoil and place on top of the gravy mixture.

Ta-daaa! Your chicken pie is done, and it is PERFECT. Eat it!

Variations:

You can use the whole chicken including dark meat if you like dark meat. I don't, so I feed the legs to Ariel (hubby). Or, you can cook your own chicken, but rotisserie is really really good so I don't recommend this unless you don't have access to rotisserie or it's too expensive.

You can use frozen mixed vegetables instead of peas and carrots, but you must pick out the green beans. They make the filling soggy.

You can also make drop biscuits instead of the giant biscuit if you don't want to bother rolling it out and kneading it.

You can save calories and carbs by making a half recipe of the biscuit topping. It will be thinner and bake in much less time, so check on it after 7 minutes.

Can't find frozen pearl onions? You can use frozen chopped onions instead of pearl onions. The pearl onions are nicer, but the regular chopped onions are fine if that's all you can get. Don't use the kind that comes in a sauce or your gravy will be too salty.

Don't have pastry flour? Substitute an additional 1/4 cup whole wheat flour plus 1/4 cup cornstarch.

Don't have whole wheat flour? Use 2 cups regular flour and leave out the pastry flour.

Don't have cream of tartar? Use an additional 1/2 tsp baking powder, although you should try the cream of tartar sometime. You might find you really like biscuits made with it.

Can't drink milk? Replace it with water. It will still be good. DO NOT use a milk substitute, because they will all make the gravy come out wrong. Lactaid milk is fine.