Chicken Pot Pie

This is a very inexact recipe, BUT very easy to get it right so don't worry about it. If you make too much filling, it's SOOOOO convenient to freeze it and then pop it in a pastry to bake for another pot pie on another day. (Or you can refrigerate it and eat it later as soup with crusty french bread for a different meal.) You can also purposely make more than you need in order to freeze it for later.

Filling

Chicken

Get a mixture of dark and light meat, preferably on the bone as that makes the best flavor in the stock. So maybe a breast and a couple thighs, or something like that. Pull off the skin and discard. Put the chicken in a large stew-pot and cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for an hour or an hour and a half. This is to develop the stock. Then pick out the chicken and let cool, pick the meat off the bones and chop and set aside. Strain the stock to remove the gunk that ends up in the stock.

Put the strained stock back in the stew-pot.

Vegetables

Chop and put into the stock:

• 1 onion
• 2-3 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 potatoes

Boil till all vegetables are tender. I usually wait until the carrots are about half-done to put in the potatoes, as they can easily over-cook and breakdown.

Once the vegetables are tender, add:

• frozen peas
• canned or frozen corn

and any other veggies you like, I like to put in lima beans out of a can, or sometimes frozen green beans. Now the trick is balancing the amount of soup stock to the veggies you have. You don't want it real soupy but you need enough soup to have some liquid to thicken. If you need more liquid add water and chicken bouillon--about a cup of water to a cube or teaspoon of chicken bouillon. The veggies will produce water as they cook so don't try to balance the liquid / veggies until the veggies are done cooking.

Taste the soup. Now add salt, pepper, and chicken bouillon to taste. Once it tastes just right to you, add the chicken back in, bring to a boil and thicken it either with flour or cornstarch smoothly dissolved in about a half-cup of water. Let it boil a minute or two to get the full effect of the thickening. Now remove from heat, and ladle into your waiting pie crust. Don't fill it too full or it will overflow and make a mess. Put on your top crust, seal up the edges and poke a few holes in the top for air to escape. Bake it in a moderately hot oven like 425 until the crust is nice a golden brown. (The inside is already cooked so only the pastry needs to be baked.) Sometimes I like to lightly butter this top crust as soon as it comes out of the oven. A crisp green salad goes nicely with it.

Pastry

You can make this while the chicken or vegetables are stewing. Then cover with saran and refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

I usually like to buy pie pastry if it's available--enough for the top and the bottom of the pot pie. I usually use a 9-inch square pyrex baking dish so all theamounts will be with that in mind.

If you can't buy pie pastry, then you can use this recipe for a two-crust pie (for a square dish size):

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ²/₃ cup plus two tablespoons shortening
• 4-5 tablespoons of very cold water

Mix the salt and flour, cut in the shortening with a pastry-cutter until it resembles small peas, sprinkle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, mixing it in with a fork, until the pastry is completely moistened, and can be formed into a rough ball with the fork. Turn out onto a floured surface, roll out and put in pan, roll out the rest of the pastry for the top crust.