Sort of Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie

Good old Pennsylvania winter...

This meal was planned to be a crock pot meal. To bubble into perfect yumminess while we were away at church but, as is becoming too common, it snowed and we were home from church. We braved it out to my parent's home to still eat as a family, but this ended up going into the oven for time and our belly's sake. SO I'm calling this a crock pot meal because it is in it's destiny to be one! It does require a few minutes in the oven before serving to spare your family from a soggy topping of stuffing. But it's totally worth the wait! The epitome of comfort food topped with a crunchy yet moist topping of stuffing. A comforting meal in one helpful and trusty crock pot!

Ingredients:

1 small onion

4 stalks of celery

1/2 package of baby carrots

2 chicken breasts

4 cups Chicken broth (this amount will be split 4 ways)

4 red potatoes

Olive Oil (your own desired amount for sauteing the onions)

Salt

Pepper

1 package of Pepperidge Farm Herbed Seasoned Stuffing

6 TBSP butter

1 box of Campbells V8 Garden Vegetable Soup

Boil chicken in the chicken broth for 10-12 minutes. While that's boiling, dice up vegies and sautee onions in olive oil on medium low. When they begin to soften add in the celery and carrots. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sautee for 10 minutes. Dice up potatoes and place in crock pot. Remove chicken onto cutting board saving the broth. Shred the chicken and add into your crock pot with the potatoes. Once the vegies have sauteed stir them into the chicken and potatoes to combine.

Add in the box of vegetable soup

This is the stuffing I used because of it's lack of unwanted ingredients

Remove 2 cups of broth from the pot and set aside. With the remaining 2 cups of broth still in the pot, melt in the butter on medium heat. Stir in the stuffing package and the remaining sauteed vegetables. Place in a air tight container to store in refrigerator until use. (If you're making this in the oven right away, you can just set the bowl of stuffing aside)
 

Pour one cup of the reserved 2 cups of broth into chicken, vegetables and vegetable soup

At this point, you could store both of the components of the meal in the refrigerator until the next morning. You would hold off on putting the stuffing on until you were home and preparing to eat.

Once the stuffing is removed, using the same pot, we're going to make a rue for thickening the pot pie. Heat up a couple of TBSP of olive oil and sprinkle in 2 TBSP of flour. Cook out for a minute. Whisk in the remaining 1 cup of broth. Whisk until it comes to a boil and thickens. Once thickened pour over crock pot mixture. Stir until well combined.

In the morning, simply prepare your crock pot and cook on high while you're gone. Before serving spread the stuffing on and bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Until brown and beautiful.... just enough time to get the table set.  

If you wanted to skip the plug in crock pot, you could bake this in the oven at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Raise the heat to 450 degrees. Spread on the stuffing and bake for 10-15 minutes until stuffing was browned.

         This reads as a lot of steps but trust me it's simple and delicious!

*Ingredients can easily be traded to make this into a vegetarian meal. Simply use vegie broth and cut out the chicken part. A great substitute for the chicken could be gnocci or white beans. Just add them into the crock pot with the raw potatoes and continue with the rest of the recipe*