Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie Stew

One of our favorite meals is chicken pot pie.  As a gluten free-er, you probably understand how annoying and time consuming it is to make a pie crust for it, so I cheat when my house craving this comfort food.  One way is to use gluten free Bisquick on top as biscuits, and another is to make the stew inside and top it with cheese.  Either way, boy is it delicious.  Here's what I do for the stew.

What you'll need:
2 cooked chicken breasts-diced, shredded, however you like it
1 diced onion
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dill
sprinkle of thyme
salt and pepper to tastse
1 cup 1/2 & 1/2
32 oz gluten free chicken broth
1 small package of celery, chopped, with leaves too
about 5 carrots, chopped
1/2 a package-a whole package of frozen corn (depending on much you love it!)
1-2 diced potoates
1 bag of boil in bag white or jasmine rice

What to do:
In a large pan, saute the onion, basil, garlic, dill, thyme, salt and pepper with the butter and olive oil.  Let this cook for a few minutes, but be careful not to burn the onion or the whole soup will have the burnt taste.  add the celery, carrots and potatoes and cook for another couple of minutes. 

Add the half & half and chicken broth and slowly bring to a light boil.  Add the cooked chicken.  Reduce heat to simmer, cover and let cook for a couple hours.  Basically, its done when the veggies feel done, but I find letting it simmer a little longer than needed gives it that extra yummy taste.  About 25 minutes before you are ready to turn it off, throw in the boil in bag rice (without bag, just toss it in).  Let it cook and soak up some of the soup.  If you like your stew a little thicker, you can add a little corn starch. 

I was too lazy this batch to make the pot pie part, so I topped it with some cheese, let it melt a little and enjoyed! My three year old also loves this.  Have leftovers? Throw it in a freezer zip lock and put it in the freezer for later!

*For this particular batch, I had a bunch of stuff in my fridge I wanted to use up, so I improvised some and used what I had.  The chicken was leftover honey mustard chicken, and the veggies were from a previous night's dinner. Use what have to waste less and save money.