Chicken Pot Pie

This is a great way to stretch out leftovers. I had some left over fried chicken pieces which I bought for dinner from King Scoopers. It's normally $4.99 for 8 pc but since they didn't have the dark meat that I wanted, and since it was late, I got some extra pieces for the same price. Of course, eating too much of that greasiness just made everyone feel stick so we had some pieces left over.

I removed the fried skin (that goes to the chickens - do NOT put this in your compost), saved the bones (for stock, then they go to the chickens), then cubed the meat. You can do this with rotisserie chicken as well.

Ingredients

• 3 pieces of chicken, cooked, de-boned, skinned and cubed
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
• 3-4 large potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
• 1-2 cups milk
• Butter or oil for frying
• 3-4 cups water or chicken stock (preferred)
• Flour (for thickening)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• (Optional) 2 cubes of chicken bouillon, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, nutmeg to taste

Method

1. Boil water and add peeled/diced potatoes. Reduce to a simmer and cook until soft.
2. Drain water.
3. Add milk and mash potatoes into a creamy consistency. If it's too dry or mealy, add more milk. Butter is optional. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Set mashed potatoes aside. 
5. Preheat oven to 350F
6. In a pan, melt butter (or use oil). Add diced onions and cook until soft
7. Add carrots and celery and cook until soft
8. Add diced chicken, salt, pepper and spices
9. Add water/stock and thicken with flour
10. Put chicken mixture into an oven-safe pan and top with mashed potatoes.
11. Bake uncovered for about 20 min until the potato top is a little browned.

 This is a very flexible recipe. The measurements do NOT need to be followed closely. This is not baking so just do everything to taste. I used carrots, onions and celery because that's what I had on hand. You can use peas, corn etc as well.

The mashed potato topping can be replaced with puff pastry, biscuit dough (then baked) or cornbread. It all works!