National Chicken Month

Did you know that September is National Chicken Month?  Neither did I until a few days ago.   But we all know a hungry dog:

or cat

loves chicken.  Mine love plain cooked chicken breast and also these treats

 Just Chicken for Cats and Stella and Chewy's Chicken Carnivore Crunch.  I love these treats because there are no scary additives, just nutritious tasty chicken.  The perfect thing to reward your dog with during the month of September!

The end of September is also the perfect time to make some tasty chicken for yourself, unless your a vegetarian of course.  School in NYC is closed for Rosh Hashanah so I decided to take the opportunity to make my favorite chicken pot pie.   The recipe is from Epicurious but I made some changes.  It is really delicious, and easy too!  Its one of those great homey recipes that you can't get enough of and it looks really homemade even though it makes use of several prepared ingredients. 

Easy Chicken Pot Pie From Epicurious

• 5 slices of bacon
• 1 1/2 cups of chopped yellow onion
• 8 ounces of trimmed and chopped green beans
• 12 ounces of chopped baby carrots
• 2 tsp fresh time
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 1 3/4 cup of low salt chicken broth
• 8 ounce container of creme fraiche (this is the essential ingredient in my opinion so make a real effort to find it at a gourmet market or make your own following these instructions.  Trust me this stuff is good.
• 1 rotisserie chicken, meat picked off and skin removed (3 to 4 cups of meat is good)
• 1 sheet puff pastry, preferably Pepperidge Farm brand

Recipe

Preheat oven to 450.  Butter a 9 inch oval baking dish or a 6 inch souffle dish like I used.  

Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp.  Set aside on paper towels to cool.  Saute the onion over medium low heat in the bacon drippings for 8 minutes.  Add the green beans, carrots, time and marjoram to the skillet and stir 1 minute.  Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 8 minutes until the liquid is reduced somewhat.    Stir in the cream fraiche (setting aside 1 tbsp), crumbled bacon, and chicken.  Bring to a simmer and season generously with pepper.   Pour the filling into the prepared baking dish.

Unfold the sheet of puff pastry and roll out and shape to cover the pan, a little overhand is fine. Brush the pastry with the remaining tablespoon of cream fraiche and cut an X in the top.  Place baking pan on a sheet pan to catch any drippings and bake 22 minutes, until the filling is heated through and the pastry is golden brown.