To make sure that the breasts cook at the same rate, purchase two similarly sized whole breasts (not split breasts) with skins fully intact. Whole chicken breasts weighing about 1 1/2 pounds work best because they require a cooking time long enough to ensure that the skin will brown and crisp nicely. If you do not own a broiler pan, use a roasting pan fitted with a flat wire rack. This recipe can easily be increased by 50 or 100 percent. If you do increase it, just make certain not to crowd the chicken breasts on the broiler pan, which can impede the browning and crisping of the skin.

When making this dish, be sure to place the vegetables on top of the chicken after sautéing; that way, they won’t be crushed by the meat and will render their juices to the chicken. If you like, you can substitute two medium leeks for the onion in this recipe. To prepare leeks, trim the dark green leaves and root end, keeping the base intact. Quarter each leek lengthwise and rinse thoroughly. Rice pilaf makes a nice accompaniment. You can make this dish in a smaller sauté pan, but you will then need to brown the chicken in batches.

Make full-flavored, fresh-tasting chicken pot pie without spending all afternoon in the kitchen.

You can make the filling ahead of time, but remember to heat it on top of the stove before topping it. Mushrooms can be sautéed along with the celery and carrots, and blanched pearl onions can stand in for the onion. If you don’t want to make a pastry topping, make the related biscuit recipe, stamp out 8 rounds of dough, arrange dough rounds, over warm filling and bake as directed.

Always made with refried black beans, which is why I call them burritos. It just doesn’t taste right with just meat and veggies. I also like to serve this dish with spinach instead of crunchy lettuce, because it’s one of those things that you can easily sneak spinach into for the kids (as if they needed to grow any taller).

Serve with Pea Salad