Week 5, Recipe 5: Slow-Cooker Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Potpie | Real Simple Recipes

I went out on a limb on this one as I am not a huge mushroom fan. However, trying to be brave and believing the magazine article when it told me these were slow cooker recipes I was sure to love, I went with it. For some reason I never fully absorbed how much mushrooms were actually involved and went ahead with purchasing the ingredients since I was already at the grocery store with no alternative plan.

Slow-Cooker Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Potpie Real Simple Recipes

Adventure #1: Stood in front of the mushroom section FOREVER as I'm pretty sure I'm a purchasing-fresh-mushrooms virgin and none of the choices were actually labeled "cremini" mushrooms. A quick smartphone google search brought back conflicting sources on which variety of mushrooms these actually are. Of course, I begin to panic as I want to get the right ones but the husband, who was tired of staring at mushrooms and wanted to get home to the new TV, put his foot down and insisted I go with the first source. So we ended up with Baby Bella mushrooms, which are not that much smaller than portabellas, and now I'm scared.

Adventure #2: Missed the "thawed" part of the puff pastry instruction and was looking for it in the refridgerated section by the biscuits. Another google search reveals puff pastry should be in the freezer section ... thus requiring thawing.

These first two adventures should have been a tip-off that this is not the recipe for me and I should've aborted right there in the grocery store.

Adventure #3: I've never cleaned mushrooms, let alone giant mushrooms. I had to google search again and then got paranoid about the instructions. Let's just say I don't think these mushrooms were actually dirty. They are just a browner mushroom. It took me a minute to figure this out. Whatever.

Adventure #4: Chicken thighs are fatty and took forever to trim. I have a low raw meat handling tolerance.

Adventure #5: These instructions don't say to unroll the pastry sheet. They didn't cook in the middle.

All of this being said, the chicken and mushroom mixture itself was delicious. It is worth a try if you like chicken pot pie and want an easy way to make it. Being me, I'd probably go with a less pungent, smaller mushroom next time.