Chicken Pot Pie (in a Skillet) is basically a flux capacitor
Nov. 15—What is childhood if not a collection of the things we remember eating, right?
OK, maybe that's shortchanging all the defining moments of joy and trauma we experienced in our youths. But, if you're anything like me — and may God have mercy on your soul if you are — the smells and tastes of your favorite childhood meals are so defining, that just a single bite of those foods, even decades later, can instantly whisk you back to the days of yore, when life was simple, time seemed to stretch on forever and you could spend Saturday mornings watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" at volumes that could shatter mountains until your parents rolled out of bed and demanded answers about who ate all three boxes of Lucky Charms.
Sigh.
Standing tall among the memories of the Red Baron pizzas, Totino's Pizza Rolls and Pizza-Flavored Pringles I enjoyed as a hyperactive youngster are Banquet Pot Pies, a shockingly non-pizza-flavored frozen food that was a staple of those days in which my parents didn't feel like fixing actual food for the pesky biological creature they created. I say this without a drop of hyperbole: Banquet Pot Pies may be one of the most delicious mass-produced foods ever created, and if I were forced to live on nothing but for the rest of my life, I would barely complain.
So, know when I say that one bite of this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie (in a Skillet) instantly transported me back to the days when I could spend hours holed up in my room playing "Super Mario Bros. 3," it's the highest praise I can give. It's not quite as simple to make as opening a cardboard box, poking a few holes in the top of a frigid crust and popping the thing in the oven, but it's pretty close.
Oh, and as the recipe suggests you might do, I used cubed ham instead of cooked chicken. This saved me a couple of steps on a busy weeknight after spending hours adulting. Plus, as an added bonus, it helped solidify the illusion that was 10 again. Radical.
CHICKEN POT PIE (IN A SKILLET)
Topping
25 saltine crackers
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 tablespoon dried sage
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup diced white or yellow onion
3/4 diced celery (about 2 large stalks, trimmed)
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup milk
1/3 unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken (about 12 ounces) — Can sub cubed ham
1 cup frozen peas
Make the topping: In a small bowl, finely crush the crackers. Stir in the Parmesan and sage. Add the butter and mix with a fork until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with one rack in the middle. Preheat the skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes.
Make the filling: Add the butter to the skillet and allow it to melt, then add the onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the broth and milk. In another small bowl, combine the flour, thyme, salt, and pepper, then sprinkle the mixture into the skillet. Gradually whisk in the broth and milk, adding about a quarter of the total liquid at a time and whisking until the mixture thickens before adding more. The first batch of liquid should thicken almost instantly, though it may take as long as five minutes to add and thicken all of the liquid. When all of the liquid has been added, stir in the chicken and peas and remove the skillet from heat.
Sprinkle the topping over the skillet and place it in the oven. Bake until the topping is beginning to brown and the liquid is bubbling around the edges, about 10 minutes.
Remove the skillet from the oven and transfer it to a rack to cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Eat it.
(Recipe from Daniel Shumski's "Will It Skillet?," Workman Publishing, 2017)
