Need Dinner? Try Mock Chicken Pot Pie

If you are anything like me and do not even start thinking about dinner until, say, um...dinnertime. Then you will understand why I am all for any meal that can be prepared in 30-minutes or less. Now that the weather is turning colder I am turning back to one of my favorites! Chicken Pot Pie. One of my great finds was in one of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications: 'Easy Family Food'. This magazine is usually out once a year around June, but, as you can see, my 2008 copy is well loved. Anyway, back on topic, one of my favorite recipes in it is the Mock Chicken Pot Pie:

Mock Chicken Pot Pie
Start to Finish: 30 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a 15-ounce package of rolled Pillsbury refrigerated unbaked piecrusts (1 crust)
• 1 10.75 ounce can can Campbell's condensed cream of onion soup (optional if you cannot find cream of onion soup, you can subsitute Campbell's Cream of Chicken or Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soups. I have been in a bind and used on or the other at different times and they both work.)
• 1 1/3 cups low-fat milk
• 3 ounces Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese, cut up
• 1/2 teaspoon dried McCormick sage, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon McCormick ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups Tyson chopped cooked chicken
• 1 1-ounce package Birds Eye frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/2 cup Uncle Ben's uncooked instant rice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Let pie crust stand at room temperature for 15 minutes as directed on package. Unroll pie crust. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut piecrust into strips about 1/2 to 1 inch wide. Place strips on a baking sheet.* Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown.

2. Meanwhile, for filling, in a large sauce pan, combine soup, milk, cream cheese, sage, and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until cream cheese melts. Stir in chicken, vegetables, and rice. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender.

3. Transfer filling to a serving dish. Top with pastry strips. Makes 4 servings.


Per serving: 587 cal., 27 g sat. fat), 86 mg chol., 999 mg sodium, 58 g carbo., 2 g fiber, 25 g pro.

* To make clean up a little easier. Put a sheet of Reynold's Wrap on your baking sheet. After cooking the pie crust, just toss the Reynolds wrap and put away the baking sheet. No washing required.

Enjoy!