After collecting all the ingredients for roast chicken with vegetables, I find that there is no acceptable chicken in the grocery aisle. I would have gone for whole birds even though that seemed a little intense for a Monday. But the only ones they had looked like they were about to pop their plastic vacuum seal. I had such success with the root beer BBQ chicken last week that I wanted to try it again with some different flavors or a different sauce. I basically just wanted some chickens with some darn bones so that it would have some flavor and some juiciness whether I
brined or not. No dice, I could either buy a value pack of 20 breasts or the pitiful cutlets. The whole birds were not an option. So I found the last 2 packs of pitiful bone-in breasts hiding near the organic stuff and labeled "Buddy's natural chicken." They were random sizes and not fit to be eaten alone. So I decided they must be roasted and broken down. Either I would sacrifice them for a chicken salad (
mmm curry and raisins) or throw them in a pot pie.
This should explain why the pot pie was slightly cursed from the beginning. Usually when I make it it's intended to satisfy some deep craving for comfort food. But I just happened to have a bag of frozen veggies and the most important ingredient for my shortcut pot pie--a roll of biscuits. After my sad attempt, I wanted to catalog some lessons learned:
- frozen carrots have no taste
- I prefer tarragon as a scent or infusion in roast chicken, not as an herb in my pot pie
- milk makes the biscuits brown perfectly (will try this on the shortcakes)
- splitting the biscuits is critical. I did a shingling effect that looked a bit like monkey bread when it came out, but if I had left them whole, they would have been doughy underneath
- 3 tbsp butter and 3 tbsp flour is not enough to thicken 4+ cups of liquid. Duh.
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