I am really excited to finally be sharing a recipe with you guys, as it has definitely been awhile. I won't lie not being at home in my lovely big kitchen doesn't leave me totally inspired all the time. I like to try new recipes though and I get so sick of dinners that its definitely good to try something new.
So awhile back I was perusing Pinterest looking for some new recipes to try and came across THIS one. We really love turkey/chicken pot pie but this was just a different way to make it, I pinned it not knowing when I would actually try it but I knew that it looked good.
Well last week when trying to plan dinner I decided that I was going to give the mini chicken pot pies a whirl. I made sure I had all the stuff and then for some reason I didn't get to them last week, and so I made them last night. Prior to actually making them I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong, they might get stuck in the muffin tray, ooze out everywhere and then be try.. you know, not that I was trying to be a pessimist but I always worry when I am making something I have never tried before. I couldn't have been more wrong which made the whole thing that much better! So let me tell y'all just what I did.
I made 6 decent size mini pies, I used a baking stone which is a little deeper and wide than a regular muffin tin.
What You'll Need:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Boneless skinless Chicken breast
- 1 package of turkey gravy mix (you can use a can, or if you're fancy make your own)
- Onion (to your taste, Jason doesn't love onions so I didn't use a lot)
- Garlic
- Vegetables of your liking. (again to your discretion what you like, I used a country mix. Carrots, green beans & corn).
- Pillsbury Grands flaky biscuits
- Butter
- Chicken Stock
I started out with two chicken breast and just baked them in the oven. I'm sorry but at the beginning of this process I was thinking it was probably going to be a Pinterest fail so I didn't take any pictures. Season the chicken to your liking, but remember its going in a savory dish with other strong flavors and so you don't want to make it too strong and overpower the natural flavors. As the chicken was baking I chopped my onion and garlic and put it in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. Once the onion and garlic had sweated a bit I added my vegetables. Season with salt and pepper at this point if you would like.
I used frozen vegetables which is something I actually never do and therefore I didn't need to actually cook them it was more a matter of reheating them. If you are going to use fresh veggies I would suggest blanching them before adding them to your filling. When the chicken was finished I chopped it up into smaller chunks and added it to the vegetable mixture in my pot.
Now that everything was in there I added a cup of chicken stock along with my package McCormick turkey gravy mix as pictured HERE. On medium heat the gravy will thicken. If you feel its too thick feel free to add some more stock to thin it out a little, recipes are all about tweaking them to your own liking. Once to desired thickness, turn off and let cool.
I would say start assembling your little pies about a half hour or so before you are ready to eat.
Pull your biscuits out of the fridge and pop open the packaging. As you can see on the picture below there are 8 biscuits in the package and you are making 6 pies but they will need little tops. Use your discretion as to how thick you want the tops to be, you will have two full biscuits to split between 6 pies for topping, you may need to keep an extra layer or two.. this is why its great to use this flaky layers because they literally pulls right apart!
Once you have popped out your biscuit you are going to need to flatten it out so you can have enough to cover the bottom of you muffin spot in your tray. You don't want it too thin though as i needs to be able to hold your filling in when you pop it out of the pan. See picture below.
Before putting the biscuits in the tray I did lightly butter the tray so they wouldn't stick. I just took a little butter on a paper towel and lightly coated the inside, you could use a cooking spray as well.
I made mine one at a time, I was worried that once I put the biscuit in the tray if I didn't fill it than it might shrink.
I overfilled mine just a little, I worried that they would eventually leak everywhere when I was cooking them but they surprisingly did not!
I did put a baking sheet under my muffin tray just in case they did leak everywhere. I put the top layer on each little pie and pinched around the sides to make sure everything was sealed as best they could be. Don't be too much of a stickler here, mine definitely were not perfect and if they aren't if just give a little better of an outlet for steam so they don't explode. Think about when you are baking a regular pie, you poke holes in the top to let the steam out, same idea.
As you can see above I did poke some holes in each one, better safe than sorry.
I put mine in the oven at a temperature of 375 for about 17-20 minutes. Everyone's oven is different, the Pinterest recipe I looked at said 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, I say just watch them and when they are browning on top use your judgement. When mine were getting quite brown I took them out and put a really light layer of butter on top, leave this out if you don't feel like it.. it probably doesn't make that big of a difference. After that I popped them back in the oven for 2 minutes.
I could not be happier with how they turned out, they looked fantastic!! I was so worried that when I went to take them out of the stone they would either, not budge and there was going to be no pretty way of scooping them out, or they were crumble in my hand. I really dreaded either of these things happening but when I went to pick them up they slid right out of the stone. PERFECTION!
I am so happy with how these turned out, and let me tell you they were SO easy! This is something you could make a lot of the filling and freeze half for a quick and easy week night dinner, pull the filling out of the freezer in the morning on your way to work and throw them together in no time at night when you get home. Even if you choose not to freeze it, this is a super quick and easy meal.
Side note, I really didn't find mine to be dry at all but if you have dippers in your family or would just prefer a little extra gravy it doesn't hurt to have a little on the side. You can make an extra package or whatever you choose. Like I said the great thing about recipes is you can make it all to your own liking, tweak them in flavor and texture to please those your feed!!
I hope you guys enjoy this recipe, if you happen to make them at home yourself please tell me how they turned out!!!
Have a great day, and as always thank you for stopping by!
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