Buffalo Chicken Pot Pie

While I've discovered a love of cooking since the first of the year, I still haven't figured out a way to fit in cooking more than one or two days a week. I'm the worlds slowest cook, and have no energy after a long day of work to throw things together, plus I work two nights until 9:15. So every Sunday I cook one big meal for the rest of the week. This week I knew it would be pie of some sort--since it is pie month! I had two recipes in mine, and the one that won is a pot pie from a Rachel Ray cookbook I bought at goodwill. Buffalo chicken pot pie--with extra veggies!

The recipe is posted all over the internet--it was on TV after all. I used my book and made some changes.
Ingredients:
Filling
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 large onion, chopped into bite sized pieces4 carrots, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
8 oz mushrooms chopped
half a head of cauliflower, chopped into fine florets5  stalks celery, chopped into bite sized pieces
3 roasted garlic clovesSAUCE4 tablespoons light butter4 tablespoons flour2 1/2 cups chicken stock1/2 cup hot sauce
Topping:
Cornbread (the original calls for 2 boxes, but I made two batches of Cooks Illustrated Southern Cornbread)
blue cheese


First you cook the chicken in a pan, if you follow the original recipe you use a lot of olive oil to do so, and then once it is cooked, take it out and then cook the veggies. While the veggies cook you make a roux and then add the broth and hot sauce and let it cook until thick. I used the last bag of frozen stock--3 cups, but didn't end up using it all. Once the veggies are softened, the chicken is added back, and then the sauce poured on. I made so much that I put it in a pie pan and a 9x13 inch pan. Then covered it with the cornbread with the blue cheese mixed in. That goes in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until the cornbread cooks through.

It turned out pretty good--I used part buffalo sauce and part another hot sauce because I ran out of the buffalo sauce. It has some heat, but with so many veggies and the corn bread it is tamed. The one challenge I had was that the cornbread cooked all the way through in the pie pan, but was under done in the 9x13 pan. I didn't realize this until I went to dish it out for work lunches. Well, it will be more polenta like! I am looking forward to a good week's worth of meals.

Buffalo Turkey Meatloaf

I was just going to do 3 flavors when I ran across a picture of a chicken buffalo meatloaf muffin and knew I had to try it. I bought a bottle of buffalo sauce a while ago and have been finding more and more things to put it on, and I had an almost limp beyond relief bunch of celery. So this seemed perfect!

Ingredients:

8 oz turkey and chicken sausage mix
1 bag (about 1/3 cup) baked potato chips crushed in the bag
1/2 cup celery stems and leaves chopped fine
half a green bell pepper chopped fine
1 1/2 tbs blue cheese crumbled
1/2 cup mushrooms and onions
1/4 cup egg substitute
2 tbs frank's buffalo wing sauce
salt and pepper
roasted red pepper
roasted garlic

Since this one was last minute addition , I was trying to think of a different binder to use to bring it together. I'd bought these individual serving bags of chips, in a variety of flavors, and I ate all but the plain ones--they just aren't good without some flavor added or with a dip. So this is not a bad use, the bag was even thick enough to break the chips through without tearing the bag!

All of the ingredients went into the bowl and got smooshed together--it was really loose and seemed like there was too many add ins to meat. So I added another bit of meat. It got packed into cupcake tins and baked in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

The Verdict: Yum! The celery and buffalo flavors really come out very well in this--and topped with just a splash of extra buffalo sauce it is spicy and flavorful. The cheese doesn't really come out, and the texture is really loose so it is fairly crumbly. My naughty dogs really wanted some of this delicious celery filled yumminess, so while I was off hanging out with Alice, the two of them got into the garbage and dragged the remains of the celery out to gnaw on for a while. They were probably jealous that Huck got to eat a whole muffin!