Yesterday was March 14 — 3.14 — affectionately known in some circles as Pi Day. I thought it would be clever to make a chicken pot pie for dinner, assuming my math-loving 8 year-old would be amused. He was not, but it did remind me of one of my and J.’s favorite exchanges in the movie Fight Club, when Edward Norton’s character Tyler and Brad Pitt as his alter-ego are talking on a plane.

EN: “Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I’ve ever met. See, I have this thing: everything on a plane is single-serving…”

BP: “Oh I get it, it’s very clever.”

EN: “Thank you.”

BP: “How’s that working out for you?”

EN: “What?”

BP: “Being clever.”

EN: “Great.”

BP: “Keep it up then…”

Right. Back to the pi… I mean pie. This is a super-easy recipe, since the only cooking you’re doing is thickening a sauce. Everything else is pre-prepped, dump and back. You can buy a rotisserie chicken if you don’t have leftovers to use up, and the vegetables go in frozen. Mix it up and bake, and you’ve got a much healthier version of a TV dinner staple.

It was surprisingly delicicous. The boys wouldn’t eat it but me, my mom, and dad all loved it and they were eager to take home the leftovers. You won’t miss the milk found in other recipes at all.

Non-Dairy Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted from The Non-Dairy Queen’s Chicken Pot Pie

3 c. low-sodium vegetable stock, divided
4 Tbsp. white whole wheat flour
2 c. cooked chicken, cubed
1 16-oz. bag frozen mixed vegetables (blend of corn, carrots, green beans, & peas)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground dried savory
salt and pepper to taste
2 9″ whole wheat pie crusts (I like Wholly Wholesome brand)

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Heat 2.5 cups of the stock in a large pot over high heat, until it comes to a low boil. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the remaining half cup of stock and the flour together, until it is totally smooth with no lumps. This is called a slurry. Carefully and slowly pour the slurry into the boiling stock, whisk constantly until the stock thickens and is smooth.

Continuing cooking over a medium heat, and add in the chicken, vegetables, and seasoning. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Set one pie crust on top of a baking sheet to protect your oven from any spills. Carefully pour the pie filling into the first pie crust, and then invert the second crust on top, cutting a few small vents in the top with a sharp knife.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top crust becomes lightly browned, or according to the directions on the pie crust you’re using. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

The original recipe uses pork — General Tso’s Slow-Cooked Pork Tacos With Orange-Broccoli Slaw — but boneless, skinless chicken thighs are an easy substitution. That’s what I did. The chicken thighs only need to cook for about 4 hours on low in your Crock-Pot.

I omitted the cornstarch, and once the chicken was fully cooked I removed it in order to shred it fully. While I was doing that, I reduced the remaining sauce in a small pan on the stove, and found that I could get it to thicken slightly in a short amount of time. If you do use the cornstarch, you will likely get a much glossier, thicker sauce, so the choice is yours.

I used my own dressing for the broccoli slaw, which includes sriracha, honey, fresh lemon, and rice wine vinegar. The slaw is better if it sits for a few hours in the dressing, but its crisp and spicy flavor is a good compliment to the saucy chicken.

A. was happy to eat a couple of these chicken tortillas, and even asked for them again the next night. On the other hand, I could barely get G. to try a plain tortilla. So, a semi-success. I liked the flavor of this dish a lot, and think it performs well as a slow-cooker meal. It worth repeating a couple of times a year.

Tired of beef meatballs in marinara sauce? This is a delicious alternative that can still be served with spaghetti if you have picky kids like mine. The recipe for Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Glaze comes from Deb at Smitten Kitchen, and it is a keeper.

I followed the recipe exactly, except that I did use the full amount of fresh ginger and I bumped up the amount of cilantro (because I love it). The ground turkey mixture is extremely wet, but if you gently shape the meatballs as Deb explains — dampen your hands with cold water and move the mixture from hand to hand as you form it into a ball — they’ll turn out fine. I had to re-wet my hands a couple of times.

These meatballs are fantastic. The sauce, which reduces beautifully, is thick and glossy and just like you’d get at a good restaurant. The meatballs are tender and bursting with a light, fresh favor thanks to the herbs. Because the sauce is a salty and clings to the meatballs, it contrasts perfectly with the lighter, sweeter note of the turkey.

Unfortunately, I could not get either of my boys to try them. I think on another night, A. would have tried a meatball without the sauce — he loves cilantro too — but he was tired and not in the mood to be adventurous. I froze a good portion of the meatballs in their sauce, but did not care for the way they later defrosted and reheated. As reheated leftovers, the meatballs were slightly spongy and watery, and the sauce reduced a bit further and was too salty for my taste. So, if you make them, eat them fresh! I’m sure in most households, there won’t be any leftovers to worry about, anyway.

This is the third time I’m posting about this recipe for Sriracha-Glazed Chicken and Onions, so you know it must be good! Anna from Cookie Madness passed it on to me originally, and when I first made it back in 2008 I did it without sriracha. It was good, but a very different result both visually and flavor-wise than using hot sauce.

When I posted about this chicken dish last year, I was all about the sriracha and I reiterated how important it is to cook the onions low and slow, separately from the chicken. It’s not an exaggeration to say I had those onions on the stove for 45 minutes when I made it again last week.

The sauce is a deep mahogany color, and the onions taste buttery from their long cook time (no dairy in this recipe, though). I served the chicken with whole wheat thin spaghetti, and a chopped salad that included pea shoots, peppers, cucumber, and broccoli. This is one recipe that will remain in our rotation — I just need to remember to make it more often.

The weather has reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day” lately, with incessant hard rain and constantly gray skies. In the middle of the deluge, though, there was a break for a couple of hours of weak sun on Tuesday afternoon, and I was able to cook this meal on the grill rather than the stove top.

The recipe for Teriyaki Turkey Sliders comes from Dinners for a Year and Beyond, the blog of personal chef Amy, who has tons of great dinner ideas for families. The flavor of these small burgers is excellent, even if you neglect to brush them with hoisin sauce while cooking. I think ground turkey takes the soy sauce, scallion, and hoisin mixture perfectly — the turkey is so mild it doesn’t compete with the seasoning, and you do feel like you’re eating an Asian-influence burger. I overcooked mine a little, so they weren’t as juicy as they could have been. But paying better attention to my grill, or even adding an egg to the meat mixture, would easily remedy that flaw. We plopped our burgers on whole wheat buns with a little salad mix on top; my dad added ketchup as well. I wasn’t able to convince either of my boys to try the burgers, though.

Since I had the grill on already, I sliced up a fresh pineapple, using a melon baller to remove the core from each slice before putting them on the grill. I didn’t add any kind of glaze to the fruit, because the natural sugars caramelize beautifully without it. My broccoli slaw was a quickie production: packaged broccoli slaw mix, and a dressing made with light mayo, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. It was lackluster, so say the least. Too bad, since I do have some wonderful slaw recipes, like Sweet Sesame Cabbage & Radish Slaw, Cashew Cabbage Slaw with Sesame Dressing, or Spicy Cabbage Slaw, in my arsenal.

Regardless, it was uplifting to eat such a cheery meal without hearing rain pelting down on our roof. The reprieve was short-lived, though… by bath time the skies had opened again.

A food blogger I admire recently wrote that she doesn’t understand people who write about recipes they made but didn’t care for, or that outright failed. I actually like to read posts like that, for two reasons. First, just because that blogger didn’t like it doesn’t mean I won’t, and I can definitely learn from their explanation of what didn’t work for them in that dish. For instance, perhaps they thought it had way too much cilantro (but I love cilantro) or they thought it was just OK, for quinoa (I’m not a huge fan of quinoa anyway, so I’d probably skip that one). And second, it makes me feel like part of a larger, human community to know that not everyone else’s dinners turn out perfectly all the time, but that we should still keep trying new recipes. That’s just part of cooking daily. Since I take a lot away from both positive and negative recipe recaps, I like to write them too. And yes, at the end of the day Chick in the Kitchen is a chronicle of my home cooking for my family. Sometimes it’s great, sometime’s it’s not. I want to share my happy successes and disappointing failures with you.

That said, this Pineapple Chicken Salad did not come together for me. The first problem was my chicken. I had made Chicken Soup earlier in the week, and although the meat from that chicken is usually perfect for a salad, it was overcooked this time and mushy. It had none of the firmness of a roasted chicken, and so texturally I couldn’t get into this dish at all. The contrast of the hard slivered almonds and mushy chicken was really unappealing; I kept feeling like there were bones in the salad. Although I used mayo (less than the recipe called for), I skipped the plain yogurt which might have added a nice tang. I subbed minced sweet onion for the green onions, which did nothing for the dish’s appearance. The Worcestershire sauce was interesting; it added a bit of a grilled flavor, but not enough to make we want to try it again. Overall, I’d prefer to stick to my regular fruit addition to chicken salad: halved grapes.

I’m curious: what do you think about bloggers that post recipes that didn’t turn out, whether they are run of the mill “I didn’t like this one” posts, or failures like how they burned three batches of cookies in row? Leave a comment and let me know.

I first tried this recipe about a year ago, but when I made it then (Martha’s Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken & Beans) I omitted the chipotle in order to make it more palatable for the boys. At the time, A. did eat a few bites of it, but I did not find the same success this time. I did add in the chilies Monday, and the recipe is better for it. You can add more or less to suit your spice tolerance — the amount here has a medium level of heat.

Although the original recipe does not call for soaking the beans, the comments suggest doing so improves the recipe. I never seem to remember to soak mine. This time I used a quick-soak method, where you pour boiling water over the beans and let them sit for a few minutes before adding them to the Crock-Pot. I like this way of doing things: I didn’t have any burning of the beans, their texture held together while still becoming creamy, and it didn’t rely on me remembering to start dinner the night before.

This recipe cooks up thick enough to be served inside tacos or rolled as a burrito. I like it a lot and wish my kids were more receptive to it! Even the addition of cilantro — one of A.’s favorite condiments — wasn’t enough to win them over this time.

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken & Pinto Bean Stew
Adapted from Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

1 c. dried pinto beans, picked through and rinsed
12 oz. salsa (I use a medium spice level)
2 Tbsp. canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 c. vegetable stock (chicken would work too)
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro (about half a bunch)

Boil a kettle of water while you pick through and rinse the pinto beans. In a heat-proof bowl, cover the dried beans with the boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes. Drain.

In a large slow cooker (mine is 6 quarts), stir together beans, salsa, chiles, flour, and vegetable stock. Layer the diced onion and pepper on top. Then place the chicken thighs in a single layer on top of the vegetables. Cover and cook on low heat for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 8. Don’t peek!

Using two forks to pull the meat apart, shred the chicken thighs in the crock. Add the cilantro, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Give a final stir and serve with tortilla chips, tacos, or wraps.

This recipe also freezes well.

My local grocery store, an A&P Fresh, recently started carrying their own line of “international specialties” — mostly condiments and sauces — under the label Food Emporium Trading Company. Their light coconut milk caught my eye while I was looking for evaporated skim (for Mrs. Jones’ Macaroni & Cheese), so I bought it several weeks ago with the intention of finding a recipe that called for coconut milk.

Originally, I thought I’d make a curry, but I found a recipe for the Filipino dish Ginataang Manok in my search and thought it looked worth trying.

The recipe calls for 2 cans of full-fat coconut milk, but I used the same amount of light instead. I knew it would impact the thickness of the sauce, and truthfully my sauce was so thin it was more like a broth. I think you could easily get away with cooking this dish in a single can of coconut milk, and if you use a light version I think you’d notice the difference from full-fat milk less. I also subbed an 11-ounce container of fresh baby spinach (whole, I didn’t chop it) instead of the frozen. It cooks down into a very reasonable amount (and probably added to the wateriness of the sauce).

My mother-in-law was clearly skeptical of this dish while it was cooking. But she was a good sport and tried it, and wound up thinking it was very good. I liked it as well, though the leftovers staring back at me from the fridge did not appeal to me the next day, and I have to admit I threw them out. Because the sauce is white, I was able to serve all the kids the same chicken we ate, but removed from the sauce. They were none the wiser.

All in all, an adequate dinner for us, but not one I would make again. It makes me happy to have cooked something outside my comfort zone, though, so in terms of trying something new it was a definite winner.

There are some recipes you can taste just by reading them. I started thinking about how I could work it into my menu plan as soon as I saw this chicken salad recipe on Kalyn’s Kitchen (Shredded Chicken Salad with Green Olives, Celery, and Green Onion).

I knew the salty, smooth olives, cool crunch of celery, and the creamy, tangy mayo would be the perfect accompaniment to the old reliable: leftover chicken. My chicken was left over from soup-making; but of course you can bake a couple of chicken breasts just to make this salad if you need to. Because, if you like olives and chicken, you NEED to make this recipe.

I used all light mayo, but much less than the recipe suggests (about a 1/4 c.) since I like my chicken salad just barely moistened. I also cut back on the green onion because I could smell how potent the batch I had was… but I still felt this flavor overpowered my dish. I had been tasting the salad as I added ingredients, so I knew I’d already made something deliciously memorable before adding the onions, yet I felt compelled to throw them in since I’d purchased them just for this recipe. I should have trusted my gut.

Even with the boldness of the onion, this is one chicken salad I will make over and over again. I’m already looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I have been finding lots of good recipes through Twitter lately — you can follow me (@heydara) — I retweet anything delicious I come across. Kristen (@DineandDish) tweeted this recipe recently and I can sum up my take on this chicken in one sentence: It is the best chicken I have cooked this year.

Yes, I liked it that much. There is not much to say about the flavor other than what you can glean from the ingredients. The thighs stay juicy and moist, the spices are bold without being hot, and the honey tempered with vinegar caramelizes while it broils. My parents agreed it was excellent as well. Needless to say I will be making it again, next time for my in-laws!

Honey Spiced Boneless Chicken Thighs
Adapted slightly from Spicy Honey Chicken Thighs

I made a large quantity of chicken and froze some. You can easily halve this recipe.

2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. cumin (add more if you like)

3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8), trimmed
1 Tbs. olive oil

1/3 c. honey
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Turn your broiler to high to preheat, setting your oven rack in the middle position.

In a small bowl, combine spices. In a larger bowl, toss trimmed chicken pieces with the olive oil. Sprinkle the spice mix over the chicken, and toss with your hands so the chicken is completely and evenly coated.

Place chicken pieces on a foil-lined baking pan, and place under the broiler for about 7 minutes. Flip the chicken and cook for another 5-7 minutes.

While the chicken is broiling, warm the honey and vinegar in your microwave for about 15 seconds. Stir to combine.

Generously brush chicken with the honey mixture, then slide it back in the oven for another 2-3 minutes. Flip the chicken again, and brush again with the remaining honey. Broil one last time for another 2-3 minutes, until the edges of the chicken darken and the meat is cooked all the way through.

Chicken tastes great served hot, or sliced cold over a salad the next day.