Recipe: "Leftover" Chicken Pot Pie

This is only "leftover" chicken pot pie because I use the chicken soup from earlier in the week. 

This is a fast prep, and 45 minutes to bake. When you make a chicken soup, use ingredients that you think you'll like in a pot pie later. For example, I love to put a big bunch of spinach in my chicken soup, but if I'm planning on converting the leftover soup into a pot pie, then I won't add the spinach to the whole pot. I don't like spinach in a pot pie. So when you put the pot of leftover chicken soup in the fridge, know that you'll be converting that beauty into pot pie in a few days. It's kind of like you're cooking two meals at once.

The Crust

This can be a quick meal prep if you buy pie crust from the grocery store. Most come in a two-pack, which would be two pies if you're doing a topless pie (like pumpkin or pecan) and one pie if you use one of the crusts as the top. It's so easy. Just take the pie crust from the freezer, and from the package, about 15 minutes ahead of time. 

Which frozen pie crust?

My favorite is Marie Callendar's because it's deep and big and bakes up flaky. 

Marie makes a great pie crust.

Avoid the mess. 

Trust the crust. 

Fill the pie crust. 

You'll need to remove the chicken and vegetables from the chicken soup. *Save the broth. The easiest way to do this is take a big slotted spoon and scoop into another bowl, leaving the broth in the original pot. 

Hey, you can add more ingredients at this step, like if you want to add some frozen peas, that'll be great. If you like peas. When you fill the pie crust, you can use your fingers to turn a potato here, rearrange a green bean there. Think of the finished pot pie and how every bit should be equally rich with vegetables and chicken.

My chicken soup had red potatoes (unpeeled), green beans, celery, carrots, parsnip, onions
and the starring-role chicken soup spices: rosemary, thyme, and tarragon. 

Make a thick "gravy" to pour into the pot pie.

Take about a cup or so of that *broth, and heat it up. Whip in a little bit of flour to thicken it. Don't make a paste, but make sure it's not watery either or you'll have a disaster. It only needs to be wet enough to get cozy again (in a new way) with all those vegetables.  

Top the pie with the other crust

You almost can't do it wrong. As long as it's been sitting out for 15 minutes or so, you'll just turn the pie tin over onto your pot pie, and tap the bottom of the tin. The pie crust will come right out. Once it's sitting nicely, trim the edges so there's not too much crust, and press it down. Use your hands to shape the dough to hug the bottom crust. Use your fingers to press around the edges to make the two crusts bond. 

Take a small knife and poke 3 or 4 small holes in the top crust. I make a little slit and widen one end, in the shape of a tear drop, because it's so pretty. 

I would have taken an "after" photo but it smelled too good.
We cut into it and ate it.
By the way, leftover leftover pot pie is soooo good.

It's ready to go into the oven now.

Bake in a °350 oven for 45 minutes (or according to your pie crust directions)

Everything but the pie crust is already cooked. You're only baking the pie now, so follow the directions on the crust. I have found that 45 minutes makes a good, golden crust without burning.

Use a cookie sheet to catch any spills.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving in a bowl...a pot pie isn't a "slice" like a fruit pie. Scoop out with a big spoon, they'll love it. Enjoy!∎