Zero F#@&*s Left To Give: Chicken Divan Pot Pie

On any given day, I’ll freely admit that the pandemic year hasn’t been all that bad for us. Present company excluded, we’re a house full of introverts; having our social lives curtailed has been a bit of relief for some members of this family. My husband is still employed, the kids adapted to online school, and I’m frankly pretty glad to have the company. Most of the time.

Most of the time is not the same as all of the time.

Last night was one of those times.

I had a work commitment scheduled in the evening and David was teaching, so naturally my kids regressed by a solid decade and had a huge screaming/sitting on each other fight. The dishes were piled up, the thing I’d planned to cook hadn’t thawed in time, the dog and cat were both freaking out from all the noise, and yet everyone still expected to be able to eat at some point. Having completely flaked out the previous night and made everyone else cook, it really was my turn. I had little time and even less interest.

Pot pie to the rescue! While we’ve gotten into the habit of making the same two recipes from this particular cookbook, it really is a gem – I’ve been working my way through some of the other recipes and knew that this one was going to make an appearance on the table at some point. Thanks to my Milk Fairy neighbor, I also had some pre-cooked chicken and pre-steamed broccoli hanging out in the freezer, so really all I had to do was the sauce. This was exactly the level of effort I wanted (okay, it was actually quite a bit more but that doesn’t mean it was really much of an effort, the bar was set pretty low) and it was pretty satisfying to look at the baking dish and feel like dinner was 80% done when all I’d done was open a couple of Ziploc bags.

Then, you know, the actual cooking part happened. The whisk I’d grabbed didn’t get the corners of the pan, so I had to get a different one – more dishes piled up – and I couldn’t find any stock so I used bouillon cubes and they wouldn’t dissolve so I was trying to smoosh the cubes with the whisk and stir my sauce at the same time. I discovered that my son had eaten almost an entire loaf of bread during the day so I ended up with less than half the amount of bread crumbs needed, because of course I’d used the last of the bread crumbs in the freezer for last week’s meatloaf. I tried to use my food processor to grate the cheese – something I’ve done a zillion times – but it hated this particular block and kept getting stuck; I gave up when the motor started smelling funny and threw what I had into the bowl with the inadequate number of bread crumbs and called it good enough. The clock was ticking.

I stuck it in the oven, made myself an Old-Fashioned, and dialed in to the work thing. I assume everyone ate dinner at some point. Some nights are just like that, even in Australia.

From Pot Pies: Comfort Food Under Cover by Diane Philips. This is such a gem of a cookbook; it’s a contender in the ongoing First Time I Cooked Every Recipe in a Cookbook competition.

 

Filling

3 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp oil
8 skinless boneless chicken breasts (or equivalent amount of cooked chicken)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 cups broccoli florets, steamed al dente (or thawed from your freezer, if it’s that kind of day)
3 Tbsp flour
1 ½ tsp curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
½ cup milk

Crust

4 Tbsp butter
3 ½ cups fresh bread crumbs (or whatever your carb-freak child has left in the bread bag)
2 cups grated Cheddar (ish. As long as you keep it proportional to the bread crumbs you’re good)
 

Heat the oven to 375.

In a saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon butter with the oil. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper and saute until golden brown on both sides but not cooked through, about 3 minutes per side (obviously this step goes much faster if you’re using pre-cooked chicken). Arrange the chicken on the bottom of an ovenproof baking dish and top it with the broccoli. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the same pan and whisk in the flour and curry powder until the mixture begins to bubble, 3-4 minutes. Gradually add the chicken broth and whisk until smooth. Add the milk and bring the sauce to a boil. Pour the sauce over the chicken and broccoli. You can refrigerate it at this point until you’re ready to bake if you’re making this in advance like the organized person you are.

In the same pan, melt the butter. Add the bread crumbs and stir until the crumbs are crisp, 4-5 minutes. Put the crumbs in a mixing bowl, add the cheese, and toss. Spread the crust over the chicken mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly.