Attempting Comfort Food

I've always liked Cooking Light magazine. I acquired an old issue last week and really wanted to make the chicken pot pie recipe. Who was stopping me? No one! So I did. Here it is!

Chicken and Root Vegetable Potpie

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled baking potato

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled sweet potato

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled celeriac (celery root)

1 cup (1/2 inch thick) sliced parsnip

1 (10 oz) package frozen pearl onions

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 Tb chopped fresh thyme

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Cooking spray

1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed

1 - preheat oven to 400F

2 - Bring broth to boil in large dutch oven. Add peas and next 5 ingredients (through onions) to pan; cover, reduce heat, simmer for 6 minutes. Add chicken, cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl.

3 - Increase heat to medium. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place all but 1 Tb flour in a medium bowl; gradually add milk to bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broth; cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper. Spoon mixture into an 11x7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

4 - Sprinkle remaining 1 Tb flour on a work surface; roll dough into a 13x9-inch rectangle. Place dough over chicken mixture, pressing to seal at edges of dish. Cut small slits into dough to allow steam to escape; coat dough lightly with cooking spray. Place dish on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 16 minutes or until pastry is browned and filling is bubbly. Yield: 8 servings.

So how did it turn out? Well, I had several problems. First off, all the root vegetables were crunchy. So if anyone is going ot make this, they need to be cooked in advance, because they will not get cooked during baking. I would also have the onions be defrosted first, or just use regular onions instead. I like pearl onions, but they ended up crunchy too, and the inside was too crunchy and not flavored. Lastly, it was too much thyme. It's way too much thyme and all you taste is thyme. I would half it. It still turned out fine. I was able to cook the innards some more so it didn't end up hard and crunchy and rescue it. I particularly enjoyed the puff pastry part. The chicken was great. Next time it will turn out perfect! And by the way, I didn't make anything light, so if you want to, just be sure to use fat free or light stuff.