Greek to Me

 

 

 It started with chicken.

 

Well, it has to start somewhere, right?

 

Actually, it started with chicken soup. Homemade Crockpot Chicken Soup, to be exact.

I'd made a really big batch of the soup, Jewish comfort food for not just the sick, but the freezing. Because we would not be having soup before dinner, but soup for dinner, I not only made matzo balls (never any leftovers of those) but I'd made the broth using 4 large chicken breasts. So really, you could say it was shredded chicken and matzo balls, in a soup kiddie pool. Just how we like it.  

It was well worth the effort, we'd had the soup a few times for dinner during the freezing cold winter. After the last meal, there was 1 cup of chicken broth left over, and 2 cups of shredded chicken.

Hmmm, what to do with that . . .

First thing that came to mind is pot pies.

But here's the thing, I don't like pot pies. I think it's the whole wet thing. I'm fully on board with the concept of yummy things in between two crusts, believe me, I am. But soup just isn't one of them. I mean, if I wanted wet meat and vegetables, I'd make soup. 

 

Which I did. 

 

Hence my sitting here trying to figure out what to do with 2 cups of shredded chicken and one cup of broth.

 

And the problem was (yes, there's another one), besides pot pie, I had no other recipe inspiration. Nothing. Nada. Why? I had an earworm. A pot pie earworm. It would not leave my head. You know how earworms work, there we have two options: submit, or suffer.

 

So {{sigh}}, I resigned myself to making a pot pie. 

 

First, it needed to be something unique. A lot of the fun of recipe development, for me anyway, is thinking outside the box, coming up with either something new, or a new twist on a classic dish. 

Second, was going to utilize my leftover shredded chicken and soup, and it was not going to be soup between crusts. Final answer.

Here starts the fun part, the conceptualization. I thought about an Italian spin, but it felt too much like a deep dish pizza. I was really excited for a while about an Asian direction, maybe a chicken chow mein or lo mein type thing, but I wasn't too sure I wanted to eat noodle pie. Spanish? Creole?

Often pieces of an idea need to ping pong around in my brain (marinate, if you will), so as a sort of semi-diversion (and since I was going in a foreign direction), I decided to visit Google translate. Maybe something about pot pie in another language will push a direction forward.

Pot pie in Italian: torta de patata

Pot pie in Spanish: pastel de olla

Pot pie in Creole: pot tat

Pot pie in Chinese: guo bing
Pot pie in French: pate en croute

Well, that did nothing to help, all those words are just Greek to me. 

And the only Greek I know is Ouzo. 

Wait!

Greek to me . . . Greek to me . . . Greek to me! 

{{runs off to check the pantry}} olives: ✔

{{checks the fridge}} feta cheese: ✔

{{yanks open the the freezer}} spinach ✔ 

Yes! Nikitis, nikitis, kotopoulo deipno (winner, winner, chicken dinner in Greek, according to Google translate).

Greek Chicken Pot Pie

 

Looks good. Smells good. 

Now just to taste. Hubs should be home soon. I wonder how you say guinea pig taste tester in Greek.

Greek Chicken Pot Pie         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 box (2 crusts) refrigerated pie crusts

3 TBSP olive oil, divided

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped carrot

2 TBSP + 1 tsp flour, divided

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1/4 cup seeded and sliced Kalamata olives 

1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed and well drained

1/2 cup feta crumbles

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a deep dish pie pan.

*Unroll one of the pie crusts, spread with 1 tsp of the flour and flip upside down and fit into the pie pan (flour on the bottom). Set aside.

*Heat 2 TBSP of the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and carrot. Cook, stirring, until the onions start to soften. Whisk in the remaining 2 TBSP flour and continue whisking until it’s thick and turning golden.

*Whisk the soup into the saute pan. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and cayenne. Keep cooking and whisking until the soup thickens. Add the chicken and cook just until the chicken is hot.

*Remove from the stove, mix in the olives, spinach, and feta. Pour evenly into the bottom crust. Unroll the remaining crust, place onto the filling. Crimp the edges of the top and bottom crusts together. Make a few small slits in the center of the crust.

*Brush the top of the dough with the remaining olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes.