Casserole Queen Pot Pie

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 roasted chicken, boned and shredded (3 lb)
1/4 cup chopped red sweet pepper
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed 
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups peas, blanched
1 1/2 cups carrots, diced blanched
2 russet potatoes, peeled, diced, and blanched

1 sheet puff pastry (or more to your liking)

1 egg plus 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

Thaw puff pastry according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chicken, sweet pepper, and shallots and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in flour, salt, tarragon, and black pepper. Add milk and cream all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in wine, peas, carrots and potatoes; heat thoroughly.

Transfer the hot chicken mixture to a 9 x 13 casserole. Place pastry over the hot chicken mixture in casserole dish. Brush the edges of the puff pastry with the egg wash and press against the side of the casserole dish, then cut slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until the top is golden and puffed.

Notes: For the best flavor, buy fresh veggies and blanch them in salt water (it should taste like sea water salty).  Don't skimp and buy those frozen things!  Oh...and pray before opening your phyllo.  Hopefully you won't get a box of dust, like I did.

Variation 1: Use 6 ounce ramekins for individual pies. Cook for 20 minutes or until puff pastry is golden brown.

Variation 2: Use store bough pie dough and make empanadas. Use a 3 inch circle pastry cutter, cut 12 circles and place a large spoonful of filling on one half of each circle.  Brush the edge of the pastry with egg wash, fold them in half to make a moon shape.  Press the edges together firmly and crimp with a fork.  Bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes at 350.

Casserole Queens Cook Book page 48-49

Serves 6-8

Chicken and Spinach Casserole

2 cups torn bread
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
coarse salt and ground pepper
4 cups packed flat-leaf spinach, washed
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine bread with 1 tablespoon oil; season with salt. Set aside. In a medium pot, heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil over medium-high. Add spinach; season with salt. Cook, stirring, until wilted, 2 minutes. Transfer to a colander, let cool, then squeeze out water. Coarsely chop.

Wipe pot clean and heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil over medium. Add onion, garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 8 minutes.

Add wine to pot and cook until almost evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Gradually whisk in half-and-half. Add lemon juice and bring mixture to a boil over high.

Remove from heat and stir in chopped spinach and chicken; season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish and top with bread pieces. Bake until bread is golden brown and mixture is bubbling, 8 to 10 minutes.

Serves 4
 
MarthaStewert.com

Julia's Roast Chicken with Lemon and Herbs; Julia's and Jacques's Deglazing Sauce for Roast Chicken

1 fine, fresh 3 1/2 pound chicken
Salt and pepper
6 fresh sage leaves (or 4 sprigs of fresh tarragon or 1/2 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence)
1 large lemon, cut in 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup mixed roughly chopped carrots and onions

Special equipment
A roasting pan 2 inches deep; a V-shaped roasting rack; a pastry brush for basting; a board or platter for resting and carving; cotton kitchen twine

Preparing the chicken:
Set the rack on the lower middle level and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Rinse the chicken thoroughly, inside and out, under hot water, then dry it with paper towels. Remove any lumps of fat from inside the cavity near the tail opening.

To make carving easier, remove the wishbone. Lift the flap of neck skin and insert a thin, sharp knife into each end of the breast; then slice diagonally along both sides of the wishbone. Use your finger and thumb to loose the bone, pry it out at the top, and pull it down. If it breaks, carefully wiggle out the pieces.

Trim the small bony protrusions, or "nubbins," from the wing tip joint. Then fold the wings up against the breast, where they will be held in place by the V-rack.

Salt and pepper the cavity and stuff it with the sage leaves and 3 or 4 thick slices of lemon; give the slices a squeeze as you put them in. Massage the butter over the entire chicken skin, including undersides, then salt generously.

Tie the ends of the drumsticks together with twine. Arrange the chicken breast-up on the rack in the roasting pan and tuck the flap of neck skin underneath. Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon pieces over the top.

Roasting the chicken:
Set the roasting pan in the oven. After 15 minutes, lower heat to 350°F. When the chicken is beginning to brown rapidly, baste with accumulated pan juices. Roast for an hour, adding the onions and carrots after 30 minutes and basting several times. Very carefully test for doneness, checking for easy movement in the leg joint and clear color in the juices. Return it to the oven if there is any sign of pinkness. (A small chicken will roast in about 1 1/4 hours, a larger one may take 1 1/2 hours or more.) When done, remove the chicken from the rack and set it on a board to rest for 15 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to retreat back into the flesh.

Final Steps:
While the chicken is resting, make the deglazing sauce in the roasting.





Julia's and Jacques's Deglazing Sauce for Roast Chicken

1 to 2 tablespoons minced shallots
1/3 cup dry white French vermouth or dry white wine
2/3 cup or more chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (optional)

Remove the chicken to rest; have ready a strainer set over a small saucepan. Tilt the roasting pan so the remaining fat and juices accumulate in one corner. Carefully spoon off most of the fat (reserve for vinaigrette or other uses).

Place the roasting pan on a stove burner over medium heat; add the shallots and stir for a moment until sizzling. Pour in the wine or vermouth and the stock and heat rapidly to a simmer, scraping up all the glazed bits in the pan. Cook briefly until the glaze is melted and the liquid is slightly syrupy. Strain into the saucepan, pressing the strained bits to release their juice. (If you like the bits, don't strain.)

Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning; you may add more wine or stock and boil it down a bit to thicken. Whisk in the butter just before serving, if you wish, for a richer finish.

If you find it difficult to deglaze a large roasting pan over a burner, first scrape the defatted juices and as much of the glazed bits as you can into the saucepan. Pour a small amount of boiling water into the roasting pan and scrape to melt the remaining glaze. Add to the saucepan with the shallots, wine, and stock; bring to the boil and cook until thickened. Strain and whisk in optional butter.

Gourmet September 1999

Serves 4

Bistro Roast Chicken

2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
4 teaspoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (4 1/2-pound) roasting chicken
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl.

Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Trim excess fat. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat. Rub herb mixture under loosened skin and over breast and drumsticks. Tie legs together with kitchen twine. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Place the chicken, breast side down, on the rack of a broiler pan or shallow roasting pan coated with cooking spray; place rack in pan.

Bake chicken at 375° for 40 minutes. Carefully turn chicken over (breast side up). Bake an additional 40 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the meaty part of thigh registers 165°. Place chicken on a cutting board; let stand 10 minutes before carving. Discard skin


Cooking Light November 2008

Serves 5