The Vergis family is a big fan of cooking shows. One of our favorites is Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix, starring the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, Phil Rosenthal. With an amazing zest for life Phil travels the world trying the local specialties with some of the best chefs in the world. Another of our go-to shows is The Great British Bake Off. A group of amateur bakers are put through a series of competitions ranging from preparing biscuit cookies to baking and decorating elaborate three tiered cakes. Another show, a short mini series called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat entertained and educated the whole family. My boys were glued to the TV as the host Samin Nosrat explains why salt, fat, acid, and heat are the cornerstones of every great meal. The next one is not a TV show, but the movie Chef starring Jon Favreau as a temperamental chef who finds himself out of a job, and running a food truck with his son, and friend played by John Leguizamo is a family favorite that we have watched together several times. Recently we have gotten hooked on season 10 of MasterChef. We have watched Gordon Ramsey in a number of his shows, but the cast of amateur chefs in season 10 for some reason got us to binge watch the season in just a few weeks. One of the episodes that got my cooking juices going was based around creating an entire meal in a single cast iron pan in 60 minutes. Many of the chefs played it safe cooking a filet mignon with some sort of vegetable, as well as a potato serving. They all looked delicious, but it was when Gordan Ramsey bragged that he only needed 30 minutes to complete the challenge that things got exciting. When time was up Ramsey had prepared what looked like an amazing chicken pot pie. I say looked like because I have to take the other judges’ words for the taste.
I grew up on frozen chicken pot pie TV dinners that resembled what Ramsey prepared one only in the slightest. The crust was always a bit soggy, and the filling was close to lava hot comprised of a small handful of peas, and carrots, and even less actual chicken. The sauce had a consistency closer to elmers glue than to the gravy it was meant to. After watching the episode I quickly set out to see if I could replicate what Ramsey had just put together. I wasn’t concerned with doing it in 30 minutes, but I did want it to be something my entire family would love. I took a few shortcuts using frozen pearl onions, and peas and carrots, an already prepared rotisserie chicken, and Pillsbury pop and fresh biscuits for the topping, but the end result tasted as if it was all from scratch. Try the recipe below, and let me know if your family enjoys it as much as mine.
Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
Ingredients
1 Rotisserie Chicken
1 10oz Bag frozen peas
1 10oz Bag Frozen carrots
1 14oz Bag frozen pearl onions
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2/3 cup half and half
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 10oz tube of ready made biscuits ( I used Pillsbury)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
- Step 2 Remove all meat from rotisserie chicken, and chop into bite size pieces.
- Step 3 In a cast iron pan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until softened. Add carrots, peas, and stir in flour, salt, pepper, and sage.
- Step 4 Add chopped chicken, and slowly stir in chicken broth and half and half. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.
- Step 5 Place ready made biscuits on top of chicken mixture covering as much of the surface as possible.
- Step 5 Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
On the Verg 
That ain’t Morton’s pot pie!
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