Cooking 101 ~ Cheap Chicken :-) ~ Part 2

I had one more pack of those $1.00 chicken legs...so while the Part 1 chicken was cooking in the crockpot, I put these into my stone baker and put them into the oven :-)

I started with just some simple seasonings...

Salt

Pepper

Roasted Garlic (about 2 tsp.)

Season All

Then I added the legs to the baker and poured in enough chicken stock to cover them 3/4 of the way...this time I used the College Inn White Wine & Herbs chicken stock...Why, you ask? Well...because of course, it will instill a gourmet flav...oh who am I kidding, it was because it was what I had in the pantry...yep, that's the only reason. It was cheap after coupons. I bought it. I had it. I used it. :-)

Your pot should look a little sumptin' like this:

Okay, now cover and insert in the oven at 350 degrees for along the lines of 3-4 hours...this is the part where I say...ahem, "check the chicken with a meat thermometer, make sure it reads at least 180 degrees"...there I said it, now you will all be safe! LOL But me...I just wait until the meat is falling off the bones, you can tell when it is done ;-)

If you are using a deep dish stoneware baker, then you should be seeing this:

Yep...you guessed it! We're gonna follow the same procedure for deboning as shown in Part 1 and then package the chicken for the fridge or freezer...I sealed mine for the freezer...You can use this kind of chicken in all sorts of recipes...I decided on chicken pot pie (because of all those pie crusts I got during the Mega Event...'memba them?) and chicken salad (recipes below)...umm ummmmm!!!

Here's the pot pie recipe...

Let me preface by saying that this my absolute favorite pot pie recipe...it's a while house crowd pleaser around here :-) It will make 2 large pies!!!

This is my TN bestie Lisa's recipe and she makes it for my "nephew" Rocky, who adores this so much that he runs around the house saying "pop pie, mama, pop pie" all the time...it is just precious! Anyway, she actually sticks it in the food processor once it is cooked and makes it more like baby (toddler) food...GREAT IDEA! Well, here ya go...

Chicken Pot Pie (Rocky style ;-)

2 Packages Deep Dish Pie Crusts (4 crusts...2 pies top and bottom)
2 chicken breasts (boil until falling apart) **I use whatever chicken I have on hand**

1 large can of Veg-All (drained)

2 cans Cream of Potato soup

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1/3 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your bottom crusts in two 9" pie pans. In a seperate bowl, mix all the other ingredients together until combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the two pans and then cover each with a top crust, flute the edges and trim the excess of the crust and put in oven. (you can make little toppers for your pie using up the excess crust...see below..or sometimes I use it to make little individual desserts too)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

It should look like this:OR if you have kids and they like silly things on their pot pie AND you're a crazy mama or papa, like me...then it would look like this:

Them there are little dinosaurs ;-) but I've been known to make leaves, hearts, names and various other critters to top off our pies...just depends on my mood I guess, LOL.

**Now keep in mind that this is another recipe that I use what I have on hand to make. So depending on what is on hand I might replace the cream of chicken with cream of mushroom... the Veg-All with frozen mixed veggies...the chicken breasts with Perdue Shortcuts, canned chicken or rotiseree chicken...you get the idea, use what you have! I have found with couponing and stockpiling at the rock bottom prices that things often vary in my pantry BUT I can still make it work for recipes.**

For the chicken salad, depending on what is in the pantry...I just cut up the chicken and mix it with some mayo and add the following:

dried cranberries OR sliced grapes

chopped walnuts OR pecans

chopped celery

salt and pepper to taste

roasted garlic pieces to taste

You could also add chopped hard boiled eggs or chopped onion if you would like.

If you have a great chicken salad recipe that you want to share, please leave it in the comment section of this post :-) Thanks!

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Cheap Chicken recipe series...