This is not your normal dinner pie. I had planned to make a Chicken Pot Pie for dinner this past Saturday, utilizing some leftover chicken from another night. My planned pie failed though when I realized I was missing quite a few requisite ingredients, and I really, really just wanted to stay home and avoid the grocery store on a Saturday. My requirements for dinner were that it utilize this leftover chicken, but not be soup. And I didn’t really want pasta either.
I decided to head on over to Food.com, which I will forever think of as Recipezaar, and opened up their recipe sifter. Have you ever used that? You can search for recipes by ingredient, which can be great when you have a miscellaneous pile of stuff you’d like to combine. I honestly don’t recall what I put in to go with the chicken, but one of the hits that came back was called Chicken and Veggie Pie, which was originally found in an Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. It called for a rice crust, which totally intrigued me, so I went to the Everyday website to see if there were any reviews. I found the recipe there, and as I looked it over, I knew I was missing some of the ingredients, but reading through the directions, I saw no reason why I couldn’t sub in green bell pepper for the red, and instead of using spinach, I would chop up some fresh broccoli and add that in.
The little reviews that were there indicated that the rice crust needed some seasoning of its own, so I made a note of that and got to work on my recipe. I started by cooking up the rice. Once that was cooked, I stirred in some garlic pepper, a touch of Penzey’s Forward seasoning, and a small pinch of salt. Then I set the rice aside to cool while I got the chicken deboned and chopped up. Once the rice was cool, I stirred in 1 beaten egg, and then 1/4 cup of cheese. The recipe calls for Parmesan, but I had this nice Italian cheese blend that I thought would work great, so I used that instead. I pressed the rice into a pie plate and popped it in the oven to bake up a bit, and then turned my attention to the chicken filling, which ended up being completely different than the recipe indicated, but it still worked out.
I sauteed some green scallion, celery and green bell pepper in a bit of oil until softened, and then added my chopped chicken. Then I chopped up a small head of broccoli into fairly small bits and added that as well, along with some salt and pepper. I let that all cook together until the broccoli seemed to be cooked through and added my shredded cheddar cheese. I did not use as much as called for. I maybe used 3/4 cup in the chicken- I found it very interesting that the cheese was the only thing used to bind this all together. Once the cheese was stirred in, I scooped the chicken into my rice crust and spread it about evenly. Another 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese was sprinkled on top, and then the whole thing went into the oven to bake up and get bubbly. This is what came out:
It smelled really, really good while it was baking, and it certainly looked good when it came out! The whole family was intrigued, though Zander was more than a little bit wary. I sliced it up and served it with some steamed vegetables and fruit, and we all enjoyed it. Even Zander! He didn’t eat his full slice of pie, but he made a good effort of it and told me he thought it was “fine”. Meaning, he was able to eat it without thinking that it was yucky. But I’ll take that over tears and a refusal to eat it at all.
I bet this would be really good made with the red bell pepper and spinach, but it was great to know that the recipe itself is highly adaptable and flexible. It was a fun twist on a casserole. Instead of just mixing all these ingredients with the rice, piling it in a baking dish and topping it with cheese, the rice was used as the base for a crust. It was fun- and the rice held together better than I expected too.
I’ll post the recipe as it was written in the magazine, but feel free to play around with the ingredients. I did, and we thought it was a great dinner.
Chicken and Veggie Pie
adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray
2/3 cup rice
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
One 10-ounce package frozen whole-leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
Salt
1 store-bought rotisserie chicken, meat removed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
9 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (2-1/4 cups)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425°. In a small saucepan, combine the rice with 1 1/3 cups water. Cover and simmer over medium-high heat until the water is absorbed, 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool.
Brush the sides of a 9-inch pie pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil. In a medium bowl, combine the cooled rice, parmesan cheese, egg and a pinch of pepper. Using lightly oiled fingers or a rubber spatula, press the rice mixture evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
In a large, heavy skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the spinach and rosemary, season with salt and big time pepper and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Stir in the chicken and 1 cup cheddar cheese.
Lower the oven to 375°. Fill the crust with the chicken-vegetable filling, leaving a 1-inch border at the top of the crust. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1-1/4 cups cheddar cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 30 minutes.