Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie - it's like the ultimate comfort food to me. When I was little, my mom would make it on nights when my dad would work late and it would just be the two of us. We would eat them while watching TV in the family room (which we never did when my dad was home) - making it even more of a treat.

Now that the weather has apparently bypassed fall and gotten right into winter (why is it SO cold - what happened to nice brisk fall temps?), I decided I would try to make chicken pot pie last night for dinner. I found a recipe in Kraft Foods Magazine...does anyone else get this? I LOVE this magazine - it comes for free if you just request it online (http://www.kraftfoods.com/) (edit - I just checked and they are actually charging for a subscription to the mag now...boo! I definitely got it for free for like 2 years! I would just use the online version then instead of paying for it) There are TONS of really good, super easy recipes in it.

Anyway, the pot pie came out sooo good! I'm seriously really proud of myself, since it's my first time attempting to make this. I think J was in shock when he came home and saw what we were having - he really thought I bought it! ha! I would highly recommend the recipe, it was super easy, but looked fancy!

Here's the recipe (I made a few changes to it, which are in bold)

Zesty Chicken Pot Pie

12 oz. (1-1/2 pkg. [8 oz. each]) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 pkg. (10 oz. each) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (I only used one bag of veggies and it was MORE than enough, I don't even think I would have been able to fit any more veggies into the pot pie)
1 env. GOOD SEASONS Italian Dressing Mix
1 refrigerated ready-to-use refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of 15-oz. pkg.)

PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Place cream cheese in large saucepan. Add broth; cook on low heat until cream cheese is completely melted, stirring frequently with wire whisk. Stir in chicken, vegetables and dressing mix.

SPOON into 9-inch pie plate. (I actually used a frozen pie shell for my base because I like my pot pie to have a crust on the bottom as well) Cover with pie crust; seal and flute edge. Cut several slits in crust to allow steam to escape. Place pie plate on baking sheet.

BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until golden brown. (I had to bake mine about 35 minutes to get the crust to be really nice and golden brown)

(recipe from Kraft Foods)

When they call this "zesty", they really mean it. It does have a lot of flavor (from the italian dressing mix) and since its a cream cheese base, it's definitely creamy. Some people might not like the change from a traditional pot pie, but we thought it was so yummy!