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Mariel here. Last week’s 21-inch “dusting” of snow left me with a hankering for something homey. Back in the day, my mom used to cobble together a pretty killer chicken pot pie using leftovers and frozen veggies. Later she elevated her kid-friendly staple into this rendition with leeks, sweet potatoes and portabellas, but I’m not sure we’ve made it again since we posted it.
When I was assigned Canela Kitchen for this month’s installation of Secret Recipe Club, I spent a long time perusing Gloria’s Chilean recipes since she hails from Santiago. In fact, I came thisclose to making her Corn Soup with Pebre. But after Nemo swept through town, I wanted something snow-day-worthy. Gloria’s rendition of this Chicken-Cheddar Tart is a lot speedier than what I ended up preparing…and she opted for mini tarts instead of an entire pie. But in an unusual twist of fate, I found myself with an afternoon “off.” I had just wrapped a deadline for DailyWorth.com and my bambino was happily snoozing, so I decided to really take my time with this, to brown the chicken separately, to fully caramelize the onions and carrots, and to add a pop of purple fingerling potatoes. This is well worth the time spent making it. It’s comfort food to the core and a dish I suspect the whole fam will applaud. In fact, it got a rave review from my 7-month old, so you know it’s good.
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Chicken, Cheddar and Fingerling Potato Tart Serves 6 Adapted from Canela Kitchen
Ingredients: ½-lb fingerling potatoes, cut into ½-inch dice – $1.05 2 Tablespoons butter – stock 1 medium onion, chopped finely – $0.72 3 carrots, peeled and chopped finely – $1.00 1-lb chicken breast, cut into thin, bite-size strips – $4.69 1 Tablespoon olive oil – stock ¾-cup sharp shredded/grated cheddar – $2.49 1 cup light cream – $1.69 Small pinches of dried savory and dried thyme – stock Package of 6 frozen puff pastry shells – $4.99 1 egg, beaten – stock Salt & pepper – stock Grand total assuming “well-stocked” kitchen: $16.63 Cost per serving: $2.77 Directions: 1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the diced potatoes for 4 minutes. Pour into a strainer and run under cold water to halt the cooking process. Set aside. 2. In a large saute pan, heat the butter over med-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and add the onion and carrots – season with a dash of salt. Cook for 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden and tender. Add the blanched fingerling potatoes and cook for an additional 5 minutes. 3. Season the chicken strips with salt and pepper. While the onions/carrots are cooking, in a separate skillet, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides. You may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your skillet. 4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 5. Once the chicken is cooked, add to the skillet with carrots/onions/potatoes. Remove from heat and pour in the cream, cheddar, savory, thyme and salt/pepper, if desired. 6. Transfer the mixture to a pie plate and arrange the 6 frozen puff pastry shells on top. Brush the tops of the shells with the beaten egg. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until shells are golden. Serve hot.
This sounds fantastic – perfect for a cold winter night supper. Comfort food at it’s best!
This looks fantastic…total comfort food! I definitely want to try this out since the weather is slated to get a lot chillier where I live! 🙂
This looks amazing!! Serious comfort food at it’s finest! Great pictures!
Found you at The Freshman Cook. This looks great! Pinning
Talk about comfort food. This looks delicious! Have you seen your beet salad recipe yet? Really enjoyed perusing your site. Happy SRC!
Im happy you love my recipe and I have to say you make it awesome, look delicious! thanks!!
GORGEOUS photos, and you’re so right! This is definitely homey food!
That looks ahmazing!
How did you do that? Make homey look so beautiful? It’s dinner time and now I’m drooling.
This look like the ultimate comfort food! I am pining this for later.
It looks scrumptious! I love the puff pastry shells on the top! Beautiful looking hearty dishes like this one always make me feel hungry!
Oh wow – this is comfort food deluxe! And you know I’m all about comfort food so I absolutely have to try this recipe. Love the pop of color from the purple fingerlings!
Looks delicious! Great SRC choice!
This is so pretty! I love the combination of chicken, cheese and potato…yum!
Beautiful, comforting and creative – what a wonderful winter recipe! Thanks for sharing.
Hi there –
Just wanted to let you know that I made this the other night and it was SO GOOD. I ended up making biscuits for the topping because our store didn’t have puff pastry, and the filling was so delicious. Loved including cheese in the filling, yum. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!!
I’ve already tried this great recipe and I also had a lot of fun while preparing it because it was with my boyfriend during our cooking class. He gave me an unusual Valentine’s present – he made a private booking for one of the courses organized by Zac’s cooking school in our native Vancouver – cooking classes for couples so now we’re collecting interesting recipes to come up with during that course. This was a very impressive meal, and I think we’ll keep it in our “cooking for company” arsenal. 🙂