Store-bought chicken pot pie?

[Phils]

Theo,

Not necessary to apologize for the thread... it's a good one and the word "tractor" was even used a few times!

Now I want to find and try a "chicken pie".

Phil

 

[curly]

If you could get a pie pan shaped like a tractor...that alone woul;d make the cpp better

 

[rox]

Who says you have to tell them a caterer did the work?

You are not bothering anyone with the thread. Its a good one. I wanna see how this turns out for you and if Rox can manage to surprise the French Chief Hubby.

Its How the Chicken Pot Pie Turns...

Channel TBN on 24x7.



Later,
Dan

Good news and bad news,
Good news is today we finally finished pulling the suckers off all the trees. I think we must have been at that a good three weeks. Bad news is we were both to tired to cook a regular dinner so we agreed jsut to each make what we wanted. I chose Belgium endive, cut in half lengthwise sauteed in Mas Des Bories Olive oil, when cooked through I added sugar to carmalize and had a whole big plateful. The contrast between the bitterness of the Belgium endive and the sweet of the carmel is delicious yum-yum. Hubby heated up some frozen snails and then made a sandwich of left over roast beef. So the bad news is no chicken a la king tonight.

Now the good news. Two fields on one of our upper terraces are so full of weeds hubby is going to rototill tomorrow (the rest of the 12 acres we hand weeded). So that means I will be in the house by myself tomorrow and can sneak cooking without him looking over my shoulder. I already took out the chicken this morning from the freezer so tomorrow will be the chicken a la king ambush day

Honestly it is not just my husband virtually all the French are very very interested in their food and are highly suspecious of anything they have not had before. We had our neighbor over for Mexican food and he really approached it with trepidation. I'm not kidding you at every single dinner party or big family get together the talk always ends up about food, men and women.

They use a much wider assortment of ingedients/raw materials over here. It is not jsut buying a chicken over here but what kind of chicken. And at every party an effort is made to bring a good wine and of course finished off with different home made liquors. My husband makes a heck of a cherries in pure grain alcohol. I have to go to the pharmacy to get the alchohol and they limit you to 2 liters at a time but they know me there so I can get as much as I want. He takes the fresh cherries from our tree adds sugar and water and the alchohol and lets it sit for a month and then it is done. There is a lot of trading around in home made foods over here. What is really great is when my brother in law comes with his homemade Italian sausage.

So food over here is a big deal and tomorrow I am going all out for an ambush of chicken a la king. Will have to go to the store to buy American bread as I want it authentic. I'll be following Bird's recipe, I ahve got my fingers crossed.

Edit: I came up with a good idea. I'm not going to tell him it is chicken a la king, I'm going to tell him it is chicken on toast. I'm afraid if I use the words "chicken a la king" it will turn him off and he won't eat it. Chicken on toast is more French sounding since toast is a French word. They do a lot of appetizers on toast here so I am probably safe with that description.

 

[sunspot]

the bad news is that i found some chicken pies that were very high in taste and quality but did not contain any vegetables at all (hence chicken pie vs chicken pot pie).
Theo

Are you going to share where chicken pies can be had?

 

[Bird]

Rox, you know if you go to google.com and search for "chicken ala king recipes" you'll find dozens of variations. I just now looked and the first one I came up with here is about what I do, but I haven't been putting bell pepper in mine. Of course since I do like bell peppers, that might be a good addition to the recipe. And of course, I've normally just used whole milk instead of half and half, and normally just use canned mushrooms since we always have some of those on hand.

 

[rox]

Rox, you know if you go to google.com and search for "chicken ala king recipes" you'll find dozens of variations. I just now looked and the first one I came up with here is about what I do, but I haven't been putting bell pepper in mine. Of course since I do like bell peppers, that might be a good addition to the recipe. And of course, I've normally just used whole milk instead of half and half, and normally just use canned mushrooms since we always have some of those on hand.

Bird I'm a little worried about the pimentos since I have never seen him eat them ever. He done'st even eat olives with pimentos in them. I'm really debating wethere to put in piments. I like pimentos but I am leaning agoinst putting them in. I think I'll use red peppers instead. And also I think I'll get some fresh peas and add that in, but other than that I'
l'll follow the recipe. I'm kind of excited to surprise him.

 

[JDeereman]

Theo,

Not necessary to apologize for the thread... it's a good one and the word "tractor" was even used a few times!

Now I want to find and try a "chicken pie".

Phil

Thanks for your support phil. and always remember that green tractors are the way to go.

Theo

 

[JDeereman]

If you could get a pie pan shaped like a tractor...that alone woul;d make the cpp better

I am having a hard enough time finding round pies of the right size namely big. so many brands out there but mostly small one serving size 8 to 10 ounce. the large pies are few and several chicken only and not chicken pot pies.

Theo

 

[JDeereman]

Are you going to share where chicken pies can be had?

So far the best ones are the most expensive ones and they are served up by the bakery in portland mentioned early on at $18 each for large and $11.50 each for small size. i could serve up tenderloin steaks cheaper but unless i find something better or at least as good and cheaper, i will swallow hard and pay handsomely for my flub. two more frozen brands are in the toaster oven as i write this. when i am done i plan to write a book so long as i survive this crazy mission with my sanity still intact.

Theo

 

[JDeereman]

Rox, you know if you go to google.com and search for "chicken ala king recipes" you'll find dozens of variations. I just now looked and the first one I came up with here is about what I do, but I haven't been putting bell pepper in mine. Of course since I do like bell peppers, that might be a good addition to the recipe. And of course, I've normally just used whole milk instead of half and half, and normally just use canned mushrooms since we always have some of those on hand.

Bird i know you mentioned toast but isn't chicken a la king served mainly over fresh baked puff pastry shells if you want to impress? i'm thinking rox should go that route to play it safe. other options beside shells and toast include noodles, bisquits and rice.

Theo

 

[jdbower]

...so long as i survive this crazy mission with my sanity still intact.

I'd be more concerned with your aorta than your sanity

 

[Bird]

Bird i know you mentioned toast but isn't chicken a la king served mainly over fresh baked puff pastry shells if you want to impress? i'm thinking rox should go that route to play it safe. other options beside shells and toast include noodles, bisquits and rice.

Theo

All those options are included in lots of recipes. I only mentioned the toast because that's the way I eat it. And I don't care whether the toast is white bread or whole wheat (we use more whole wheat). But I have no doubt I'd like chicken ala king on those other options, too.

Rox, the red peppers sound like a good alternative to me. Of course, unlike your husband, I'm quite fond of pimento stuffed olives, as is our older daughter. But my wife and the younger daughter will not eat olives. However, they will eat the pimentos in the chicken ala king.

 

[JDeereman]

I'd be more concerned with your aorta than your sanity

So that is what that sharp pain is. seriously, i have eaten more chicken pot pie than i want to think about at this point but there are still a few brands to go. i did find a really good frozen brand which could be the frozen category winner however it is not cheap by a long shot. in fact, it is more expensive than that bakery i mentioned but i can buy in advance and not have to worry about the bakery being closed or sold out.

Theo

 

[rox]

Bird and everyone, the French Chef was served Chicken a la King tonight and he loved it
Yesterday I roasted the chicken and he knew I was doing a surprise with chicken. Then I went to the grocery store because I needed American Bread and mushrooms. While I was at the grocery store I saw the flaky pastry cups so I couldn't resist and I bought those. When I get home and he sees the pastry cups and the mushrooms and he already knows my surprise is going to be based on chicken so he says, "Oh you are making Poulet de la Roi or Bouches de la Rein" Which translated means Chicken a la king of something of the queen. The something is the French word for those flaky pastry cups. So he knew! Just by looking at my ingredieants he knew.

I was right not to use pimentos as he said he would nto have liked it so instead I roasted a fresh red pepper and added fresh cooked carrots and fresh green beans to the chicken. The rest of the recipe is as Bird suggested, Chicken, a bit of water and a chicken boullion cube and of course i added cream and then my crumbly flour and butter mixture to thicken it up. The only seasoning was salt and pepper. I went to 3 stores looking for fresh green peas but they must be out of season because 3 stores didn't have them. I am positive tomorrow at the open air market I can find green peas but for today I substituited fresh geen beans cut small instead.

You can see how my chicken a la king turned out in the pics. You can see my husband has a big smile as he digs in So I did ambush him sorta, he figured it out once he saw the ingrediants, but never the less he was happy to ahve a change in menu and he liked it.

He also told me why we have never had Chicken a La King. He was only 23 years old and he landed the job as Executive Chef for a very exclusive Private Country Club in Milwaukee. His first day on the job his manager said, "Whatever you do don't put Chicken A La King on the menu. A few years ago the members were served a very bad Chicken A La King and virtually everyone got sick, some seriously for a while. So just don't make Chicken A La King ever. " So now I know why he has never made it. Anyway he enjoyed it. I couldn't help but wonder if I was making Chicken A La King or Chicken Pot Pie, either way it was good for a change. And on my side the unique aroma brought me immediatly back to high school. I recalled that they served this in high school it was the aroma. Man that is a few years ago...

 

[Bird]

Glad it turned out so well. I might have to add a few of those ingredients, like the carrots and green beans, myself. And those are some good pictures of both of you.

 

[curly]

That looks great Rox, with those little bisquit bowls.

 

[dmccarty]

Rox,

Its funny how many years/decades you can "know" someone but not know everything about them.

I can see the way your hubby was holding the cutlery that he was ready to eat!

With FOUR helpings on the plate I assume he was hungry from working all day! He must have liked Chicken ala King.

Using pastry cups was a good idea.

Later,
Dan

 

[JDeereman]

You can see how my chicken a la king turned out in the pics. You can see my husband has a big smile as he digs in So I did ambush him sorta, he figured it out once he saw the ingrediants, but never the less he was happy to ahve a change in menu and he liked it.

Wow! looks like it came out great rox and the smile on your husband's face is in marked contrast to the awful looks i got with my infamous mrs budd's chicken pot pie mistake. all i can say is well done!

Theo

 

[JDeereman]

As the 99th and (hopefully) final post in this dubious thread, i can confidently report that the very best frozen chicken pot pie out there (even if it didn't have a full crust) is a relatively new brand called twin hens. very expensive but very good and available at whole foods market (but not necessarily in family size everywhere - you got to look real hard). honorable mention goes to stouffers brand for best overall value even if the chicken was a little tough. at least it was there and it was white meat. marie callenders was not so bad either for the price. it was edible. the real cheapy brands (swanson and banquet) were not so good in my opinion. the premium blakes brand was not really all that bad but was way overpriced for what you got. taste was kind of bland and not really to my liking either. i commented before that mrs budds pies were not so great and they started this whole silly taste test mission in the first place. various fresh chicken pies that i found locally were quite good but they were not the true chicken pot pie that i sought. but the real winners were the restaurant and bakery offerings. kfc was not selling them because it is summer, but i did eventually visit a boston market down south of here and it was pretty darn good i thought. other restaurants in the area had similarly decent offerings. as mentioned earlier, the very best chicken pot pie was from a bakery here in portland called two fat cats. it is excellent and expensive but cost less than twin hens frozen brand in the family size. you do have to call ahead a couple days and make sure they have some for you, but those will be the ones i will bring to my next potluck dinner to redeem myself from the mrs budd horror show. i think they will work out just fine. special thanks go to tig for pointing out that fine source to me.

so thanks to all for your help and comments and i do hereby promise never to ask about food products in this forum ever again. go green!

Theo

 

[dmccarty]

Sorry Mr. Green. You don't get off that easy!

You have to report back what happens when you serve up the CCP!

So does the mean I got post 100 in this dubious thread? And you will report back at with post 101!

BTW I liked your summation of the good and bad of CCP. The review sounded like the ones I read in a cooking magazine I get.

Later,
Dan