Greedy Girl : Holy Chicken pot cornbread muffins

Leftovers are a gift from god. Apparently food fairies that live in our fridge sprinkle crack on our food overnight. Its no secret I often try to cook large portions on a Sunday to allow the fairies to work their magic on Monday’s lunch. So here I was one Sunday wanting to make some chicken pot pie, but as we all know there is nothing worse than reheated crust.

Let the improvising begin:

Option 1: we have all made chicken pot pie with a bisquick crust, but that’s a bit too messy for work.
Option 2: Individual servings are the way to go, maybe I make chicken pot pie tarts, I had some premade phyllo dough in the freezer, but that’s taking be right back to square one and the soggy reheated crusts on Monday
Option 3: Ill mix the filling into the bisquick mix and make muffins. It was a plan, or so I thought.

Headed to the grocery store only to realize, they don’t sell bisquick AT ALL!! I totally forgot the comforts of a North American grocery store are sliced in half on this island (Jamaica). Lucky Betty Crocker makes other muffin mixes so I purchased the cornbread and muffin mix.

Three words: Thank you Betty!

Without further ado, lets give a warm welcome to the illegitimate love child, of a chicken pot pie and a corn muffin. He has his mothers taste and his fathers texture.

Ingredients

(Printable Recipe)

Filling

1 lb Grilled Chicken breast tenderloins
1 stalk- Celery diced
½ large Onion diced
1 large Carrot-diced
1 head Broccoli chopped (I forgot to add this but you should)
1 can Peas

1 can corn
1 can swanson Chicken broth

2 tbsp. Flour (this makes the sauce thick)
4 tbsp. Butter

2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Black pepper

1 tsp. paprika
1 cup shredded Smoked Gouda (peeled)

Batter

2 pouches of Betty Crocker corn bread muffin mix
2eggs, butter, milk

Pre-heat oven to 400
Grill seasoned chicken breast and dice into cubes
Dice celery, carrot and onion into small cubes similar in size.
Heat 2 tbsp. butter over medium heat. When hot add the celery onions and carrots and 1 teaspoon salt. Sauté until vegetables are tender.
Push the veggies to one side of the pot and add the last 2 tablespoon of butter to the empty space, when melted add the flour. Stir for about a minute till the flour is coated with fat and cooked (called a roux) then stir the entire mixture together (with veggies).
Slowly add in the chicken broth about a ¼ cup at a time, the sauce will immediately begin to thicken, do not allow it to get too thick, as it thickens add more broth.
Add in the shredded smoked Gouda cheese, remaining salt, paprika and black pepper. Stir till cheese is melted and sauce is thick
When all is mixed your saucepan should be almost filled with a creamy looking sauce. Then add broccoli, drained peas and corn and grilled chicken.
The sauce will coat all the chicken and broccoli particles, its will not be runny but will be thick and creamy.
Remove from heat and set aside
For batter follow instructions on the pouch and whisk together all the ingredients to make the cornbread batter
Add the chicken pot pie filling to the cornbread batter and stir well
Spray muffin tins with pam cooking spray
Use an ice-cream scoop or large spoon and scoop filling into pan. You should get around 16 muffins or more if you do not fill the cups too much
Bake at 400 deg for 15 to 18 minutes, tops should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted will come out clean
Remove from oven cool for 5 mins in the pan, pop them out and cool on a cooling rack for another 8 mins