Chicken Pot Pie

I love when leftovers become something new, so yesterday's roast chicken became today's chicken pot pie. The bones, of course, were rinsed off and used to make stock.

Pot pie is time consuming but worth it once in awhile. Plus, today I learned how to make a flakey crust, so no more storebought frozen puff pastry! I used The Zuni Cafe Cookbook recipe for "rough" pastry, which turned out lighty, fluffy, and crispy.

For the filling, sautee half a cup each of diced onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil until soft. Add half a cup of green peas and cook until warm. Sprinkle the mix with a heaping tablespoon of all-purpose flour and stir well. Cook over medium low heat for three minutes or more to get rid of the raw flour taste. Add a cup of milk, cream, or half and half, and simmer until thickened. I also added a few spoonfuls of chicken stock and chicken fat, but only because I was simmering stock at the same time and had it handy. Stir in two cups of cooked cubed chicken. If your filling looks too thin, just keep cooking. If it's too thick, add a little more dairy or water. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg (or mace), and chopped or dried parsley to taste. The mix should be cooled before baking, so stick it in the fridge while you make your crust. You can also assemble both the crust and mix a day ahead, and just put the crust on right before you want to bake the pot pie.

The crust recipe can be found in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, but if anyone's desparate for it I'll post it here later. It requires only a stick of salted butter, a cup of all-purpose flour, and 6 tablespoons of iced water.