Chicken Pot Pie Pasta

By johnwhorfin

Oh, how I love chicken pot pie.  The warm comfortingness of it all – the tender chicken and veggies, the golden crust, the delectable taste of everything being right with the world.  But let’s face it, chicken pot pie is a late fall/early winter kinda thing.  Now that the days are longer and we’re finally putting our winter coats into the back of the closet, hot and crusty pot pies are no longer the kind of thing we are looking for, supper-wise.  But I can’t live without my trusty chicken pot pie, even if spring IS in the air.  The only thing left to do was to lighten it up a little for the season.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces short pasta (penne, campagnelle, ziti, etc)
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 1 leek, light green and white part only, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups chicken broth (I like the Pacific and Imagine brands in the box)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken

Preparation

Step 1

Instructions
Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Save ½ cup of the pasta water and drain.
Melt butter in a large deep skillet. Add leeks, carrots and celery and stir for three minutes.
Add flour and stir until it is mixed into the vegetables. Add broth and bring to a boil, stirring.
Add poultry seasoning and reduce heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in chicken until heated through. Add pasta and stir. If the sauce is too thick, thin with a little of the reserved pasta water and serve at once.