Chicken à la King

The fancy pastry is only because I forgot to buy patty shells.

I know I haven't been sharing any new recipes lately but I hope this one will make up for it. (I've been trying to make a homemade whole wheat/whole grain bread and it just hasn't been turning out like I want.) I set out to make this recipe because I have always loved chicken à la king but turns out it's always been made with a salty powder envelope. The fact that people use the powder makes it seems like it's complicated and that it would take a very long time to make chicken à la king, but with 15 more minutes than it would take to make it with the powder, you can make a delicious low salt homemade version! This recipe was based off of multiple recipes I found online, all depending on the ingredients I had at home. This means that you can easily interchange the vegetables for sliced mushrooms, diced red bell pepper, diced carrots, different hot peppers, etc. If you use fresh vegetables, I suggest you add them with the onions and celery at the beginning; if you use frozen, add them at the end where I added the peas.

Ingredients
1/4 cup (60mL) unsalted butter or margarine
1/4 cup (60mL) celery, finely
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 small marinated hot pepper, finely diced
black pepper
2.5 tbsp (37.5 mL) all-purpose flour
1 cup (240mL) milk
2 tsp (10mL) garlic powder
1 tsp nutmeg, ground
1.5 cup (360mL) low salt chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, diced
1 can (400mL) low salt peas
4 patty shells

Method
1. On medium heat, heat butter in a large pan or large pot. Add the celery, onion and hot pepper. Season with black pepper. Cook for 5-8 minutes or until onions are translucent.
2. We are about to make a bechamel sauce so make sure you have enough butter melted in the pan, if not add a teaspoon or so. Add the flour, one tablespoon at a time, whisking in between.
3. Once all the flour is wet/stuck to the vegetables, add the milk while whisking. Season with garlic powder and nutmeg. Bring heat up to medium high. Continue whisking as it heats for a couple of minutes.
4. As the bechamel thickens, add the broth while whisking.
5. Add the chicken and vegetables. Taste your sauce and season as needed. Let cook for another 10 minutes, especially if your vegetables or chicken were frozen. You can bring the heat down to medium if you are scared that your sauce will thicken up too quickly since you are not whisking.
6. During the last 10 minutes, take the time to heat up your patty shells. I also learned that you can eat chicken à la king on egg noodles, rice, biscuits, mashed potatoes or any other carb you fancy.
7. Plate up and enjoy! I served mine with roasted root vegetables.

Serves 4.