Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot pie is one of those cold-weather comfort foods. I grew up on frozen pot pies from Shaw's, and I will unabashedly admit that I loved them. I may have even bought a few in our first year of marriage. For less than $5, we had several servings of what tasted like homemade pot pie. Once I got on my real food kick though, I had no room left for the frozen pot pies. I did adopt my aunt Anne's delicious recipe. She made a huge pot pie casserole for Christmas Eve one year, and I was hooked. The ingredients include a can of evaporated milk which I don't normally buy, so I made some substitutions and now....

Oh yes. This is it. I normally don't cook on Sundays (or I try not to, at least!), but this was quite simple. My mom gave me a rotisserie chicken yesterday, so I picked off about two cups of meat for the pie, and am currently simmering the carcass for stock. I had four sad little carrots in a bag at the bottom of the fridge. There was an onion hanging around somewhere, and a mostly gone bag of frozen peas. And we can't forget the frozen pie crust from Thanksgiving with Mark's parents in October. (I knew I shouldn't throw away scraps!) I had everything I needed, including an excuse to use up some of my pleasantly soured milk. It took less than a half hour to prep and clean, which is a miracle for me. I'll definitely be making this more often.

Serves 3
I highly recommend you double this recipe! I would have, but I had to work with the amount of chicken and veggies that I had.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1.5 cups chicken stock
splash of milk (3 Tbsp maybe?)
shaking of whole wheat flour (3 Tbsp maybe?)
2 T butter
sprinkle of paprika
dash of garlic powder
pinch of dried mustard
salt and pepper to taste

2 cups chicken meat, shredded, cubed or diced
4 carrots, cut into thin rounds
1 cup (or less) peas

1 pre-made or homemade pie crust

Method
Preheat oven to 350.
1. Saute onion in butter about 10 minutes, or until translucent.
2. Add flour and saute another two minutes.
3. Add stock and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer until sauce begins to thicken.
5. Add milk and spices, stirring often, until it reaches desired thickness. Remove from heat.
6. Mix together chicken, carrots, and peas in small casserole dish.
7. Pour sauce over chicken mixture and combine.
8. Season to taste.
9. Roll out crust and lay over top of pie.
10. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with tinfoil (to catch drippings) until crust is golden brown and sides are bubbling, about 35-50 minutes, depending on your oven and the size/depth of your casserole dish.

Bon Appetite!