Chicken in a Garden

I thought perhaps it was time to post a recipe that did not include a main ingredient of sugar. :) Main dishes were probably the hardest thing for me to learn to cook. I was great with desserts for many years, but I had no idea what to do when it came to the "real food." But I've greatly improved in that department, and I love to share the things I love to make the most.

One evening I went to my friend Marie's house for a movie night, and rather than our traditional order-in-Pizza-King routine, she made this for dinner. It was so yummy - and she promised it was also so easy - that I asked for the recipe. I have made this many times since. It is extremely easy to assemble, it has VEGETABLES in it (gasp!), and it tastes pretty good even as a leftover. Though I make this year-round, it struck me as a sort of fall comfort food, so I thought this would be the perfect time to share it with you!

The Recipe:

1 9-inch baked pie crust
1 large can of chicken
1 10-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables, cooked and drained
1 10 1/2-ounce can cream of chicken soup
1 3-ounce can French fried onions

Combine chicken, vegetables, and soup, along with half the can of onions. Pour mixture into baked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining onions over the top and bake 5 minutes longer. Enjoy!


I prefer the mixed vegetable bag that has just carrots, corn, green beans, and peas. But you can pick whatever blend you like to get your favorite taste. If you don't like canned chicken, you could use a couple cups of chopped up chicken breast. (I just don't want to take the extra time to cook the chicken first and I never have any prepared ahead.)


When I make pies, I make my own crust, because I like to do things the long way. :) But part of the joy of this dish is that it's QUICK, so when I make it, I use pie shells from the freezer section. The ones I buy come two in a bag, so I can make this twice! The directions for baking an empty pie shell are printed on the bag, so follow those directions to pre-bake the shell. You're also supposed to poke the shell with a fork prior to baking. I have a call in to my Mom to find out why that is, but so far she hasn't called me back with the answer, so for now, the reasoning is "just because."


While the pie shell is baking (usually takes about 15 minutes), I go ahead and get the filling ready. I start by cooking the vegetables. This is one of my favorite kitchen tools. It's the Pampered Chef Micro-Cooker, and this particular one was given to me by my mom when I was a freshman in college. It has definitely survived a lot of wear and tear! (My senior year of college, one of my roommates borrowed it to make soup and didn't stop to think about it being plastic, so she put it on the stove. It has huge coil marks in the bottom now, but it didn't melt all the way through, so it's still perfectly usable!) Anyway, this thing is great for microwave cooking. It has measuring marks on the inside, pour spouts, and the lid doubles as a strainer. In college I used it for macaroni and cheese, soup, Ramen, you name it. But now I love it for things like this so I don't have to mess with heating up the stove top. I just pour some water in with the veggies, cook them for a few minutes, and then flip the cooker over to pour off the water.

When the veggies are cooked, I just put them in a bowl along with the chicken. I do drain the juice off the chicken before I add it to the veggies. Some of the canned chunks can be kind of big, so I break them up with a fork to spread it better throughout the dish.

Then I add the soup and the onions (and I usually add more onions than it says because I like them so much).

When the pie shell comes out of the oven, I'm ready to pour the filling in! I think the temperature to cook the empty shell is higher than the temperature to cook the assembled dish, so I just hold the oven door open for a couple of minutes until it cools down to 350.
And once the main cooking time is done, I add more onions and....here is the finished product!

You can just cut it like a pie and serve it! I really like to eat this with grapes for a perfect, simple, fast little meal.