Easy Homemade Bisquick Chicken Pot Pies

Easy Homemade Bisquick Chicken Pot Pies

So, the other night, I had homemade pot pies on the menu, and the whole family was excited about it, as I haven't made pot pies in a long time, mostly because it is so time consuming. Anyway, one way to cut down on the time I spend on it is to buy premade pie crusts. I had a box of pie crusts in the fridge, I discovered right before I went shopping, so I put pot pies on the list. I really should have checked the expiration date on them, though, as I would have bought more had I known that they expired in June. Yeah. I need to clean out my fridge more.

But I digress.

So, I almost chucked the whole idea of making pot pies, especially after I realized that I was out of shortening outside of butter, and I have never made pie crust with butter. I mean, I know is possible, but mine was not room temperature, and I didn't know how the crust would turn out if I microwaved the butter. (As you can tell, I overthink things. A lot.)

I digress some more.

Anyway, I nearly decided to use my thawed chicken breast with some pasta, but the family was all like, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! WE WANT POT PIES!!!!" so I started prepping to try to make pie crust out of refrigerated butter when I saw a box of Bisquick in the cupboard. Now, the only reason I even have it is because the family is so obsessed with the 7-Up Biscuits I make out of it, so I almost never even use the stuff. I didn't know what it was capable of.

I didn't have a recipe for it, but I figured, "How hard could it be?" So, while my daughter finished prepping the filling, I made Bisquick pie dough. And, to my amazement, we did not end up with veggie and chicken stuffed biscuits. It was a little less dense than pie dough, and had a slightly different texture, but honestly, it was super easy and tasted really, really good!

I made these in a mega muffin pan, so they were very nearly the same size as a pot pie you'd buy in the frozen food section of the market.

I think next time, I am going to experiment with a Southwestern version, adding taco seasonings to the crust, and corn, cooked rice, and peppers to the filling!

Here is the recipe on my Pepperplate account: Easy Homemade Bisquick Chicken Pot Pies.
Here is a link to a PDF version of the recipe on one of my retro recipe cards: Easy Homemade Bisquick Pot Pies.

Or copy and paste from here:

Ingredients
    For Filling
        1 chicken breast
        1/2 cup celery, finely diced
        1/2 cup carrots, sliced
        1 pkg chicken gravy mix
    For Crust
        3 cups Bisquick
        1/2 cup melted butter
        1 cup water

Instructions
    For filling
        Cut up thawed chicken breast into 1/2-inch cubes, and toss into small skillet with your favorite cooking oil (I used 2 tblsp. unsalted butter). Season to taste (I used salt, pepper, lemon pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder). Allow to cook over medium heat, stirring and flipping occasionally.
        Chop up celery and carrots and place in small saucepan. Cover with water, add salt, and bring to boil.
        In a separate saucepan, make gravy mix following package directions.
        Drain cooked vegatables and add to gravy mix. Add chicken chunks to gravy mix. Set aside.
    For Crust
        In a large bowl, combine Bisquick, melted butter, and water and knead for 1 or 2 minutes, until mixture forms a smooth ball.
        Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface as a pie crust, about 1/4-inch thick.
        Using a medium bowl as a guide, cut out 6-inch diameter circles from the dough.
        Place 6-inch circles into Mega-Size Muffin pan and press dough to sides.
        Re-roll dough and cut out 4-inch circles for pie tops.
        Fill dough-lined muffins with gravy mix, and top with upper crusts.
        Press edges of dough together gently, poke holes in the tops, and put in 400-degreeoven for 25 minutes. Makes 6 pot pies.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches Recipe

Super yummy, spicy pulled pork sandwiches!

I have never been a big pork fan, but this is one way that I actually enjoy it... and the whole family loves it, too... and I live with a bunch of picky eaters! Though this recipe does take some planning to pull off, it isn't difficult in the least.

Here is a link to a PDF download of this recipe on a stylish, printable, retro recipe card:
Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Or you can copy from my Pepperplate account:
Clicky clicky here

Or you can copy and paste from here:

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
[For Spice Rub]
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar

[For Brine Solution]
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon spice rub (above)
2 quarts water (approximately)

[For Pork Bake]
1 pork loin (about 2 lbs)
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 Walla Walla sweet onion
1 Anaheim pepper
1 jalapeno pepper

[for spice rub]
Mix all spice rub ingredients together and mix well to combine.

[for brine solution]
Mix 1/2 cup salt into 2 quarts of water and mix until completely dissolved. Add 1 tablespoon spice rub mix. Place pork into brine solution and add more water if needed so that pork is covered. Put a lid on the pot and put in refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight.

[for pork loin]
After brining time is up, remove loin from brine solution and pat dry with paper towels. Rub down generously with spice rub on all sides. Place in baking pan (fat side up) and surround with chopped vegetables. Cover pan with tin foil and bake at 225 degrees for 8 hours.

Remove from pan and place pork loin in shallow bowl and shred with tongs or two forks. Serve on potato buns with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, BBQ sauce, or whatever you choose.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies!

 These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies, bar none. They are soft, not too sweet, and not too crumb-y. I love them, and they never last very long around my house.

I'm attaching the recipe on one of my recipe cards as an image and as a .PDF file you can print on card stock and cut out. Or you can copy and paste it:

These babies never last very long!

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add in brown sugar and egg and continue beating until creamed. Mix in vanilla and sour cream and beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat dry mixture into wet mixture 1/4 cup at a time until completely combined. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts (if you're using them).

Drop batter by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies will get a very light golden brown but will still be pretty pale.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size you make them. ;-)

Click for larger view!

Creamsicle Cookies!

So, over on Pinterest, I saw a recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cookies, so, for the Superbowl, I knew I had to make them. The recipe was easy to find then, but the sites since been taken down as an "attack site," whatever that means. So, go ahead and click the link to the Pin, if you want, but skip clicking to the site, k?

Anyhoomers, that picture there is of my Orange Creamsicle Cookies, and, let me tell you what: they are AH-MAY-ZING. They totally taste like an "orange-ier" version of that creamy, frozen, ice cream delicacy you remember from childhood.

I've put the recipe on one of my recipe cards, which you can download as a 300 DPI PDF file:

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Or, copy and paste:

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening (OR 2 sticks butter) [I used butter flavor Crisco.]
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons orange zest (about 2 oranges' worth)
2 tablespoons orange juice*
1 bag vanilla chips

*I found that the mixture was too dry when I put in all the dry ingredients into the wet ones, so, since I had zested oranges just sitting around, I squeezed those a little and added the juice to the mixture. This was NOT part of the recipe I used. The juice might make your cookies a little "orange heavy" for your tastes, so, decide for yourself.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

In another bowl, cream together your butter/shortening and sugars. When well mixed, beat in egg, vanilla, and orange juice (if you're using it).

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients a little at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Stir in orange zest and vanilla chips until well incorporated.

Roll dough into small balls and place about 1.5" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, until just starting to turn golden. Do not let them overcook!

Let cool on baking pan for a few minutes before removing to rack or tray to finish cooling.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on how large of cookie balls you roll.

Baked Potato Soup

Baked Potato Soup

A favorite dish around my household is my Baked Potato Soup. This is a dish that, i would suppose, a lot of people make, but I had to try my hand at it with my own recipe after hearing about a version a restaurant made, but didn't have at the time I visited.

Much of this recipe is just common sense - such as parboiling the potatoes before starting the soup - but it has a few twists, too. I've kept it simple in the recipe here, but, as you can tell from the picture, I like to top mine with green onions, if I can.

Now, to keep my family from bogarting all the bacon bits, I put them in the soup prior to serving, but you can certainly put the bacon bits into a bowl and let people self serve, or just sprinkle some on top with the cheese and sour cream. To really amp up the flavor you could substitute a few cubes of chicken bouillon for the chicken broth. I've had it both ways, and it's equally tasty, but if you're avoiding salt, stick to the broth method.

I've put the recipe on one of my recipe cards that I made recently, and made it into a PDF file for easy downloading and printing onto card stock. Enjoy! Here's a preview image, though the quality looks horrible here, it's a lot nicer in the PDF, I promise!

Download Baked Potato Soup Recipe (PDF)

Retro Style Recipe Cards - Free Printables

So, ever since I moved into the new place, I have wanted to organize my recipes, which are currently just clipped together pieces of magazines, printer paper, notecards and labels. Alas, I have not yet managed to do this particular task, but I have managed to create some nice recipe cards if I ever get to the point in life where I don't have to make appointments to use the restroom.

So, I thought I would share these recipe cards with y'all. They're all retro styled cards with stripes, circles, and rounded rectangles in modern colors. Feel free to share away, too. I've put them all into sets: 6 cards with retro circles; six cards of retro stripes; and three cards of retro rectangles. They're available as 300 DPI PDF files, below.

Each card is 4" x 6" when printed out and trimmed to size.

Download the Retro Circles Recipe Card Collection (PDF)
Download the Retro Rectangles Recipe Card Collection (PDF)
Down load the Retro Stripes Recipe Card Collection (PDF)