pot pies...

Certain family members like my pot pies! And part of the reason I love to cook is to make family happy. Every once in a while, I make a bunch of these – they are kid-friendly, freeze well and ready when someone needs a quick dinner or two! Mostly I make chicken because they are the easiest, ingredient-wise. If I made a roast turkey and had leftover turkey and gravy, they would be turkey pot pies without having to make the stock because of the leftover gravy. Anyway, I cheat a bit and use puff pastry here not only for the convenience but because they like the puff pastry, so much in fact that I’ve made these with no bottom crust and got complaints, so the puff pastry is important. To start from scratch, I make chicken stock as below and go from there.
Chicken Stock
Preheat oven to 375F
10 chicken thighs and 10 chicken wings (all three sections, chopped into thirds)

Place wings and thighs in large flat roasting pan (I use the bottom of my oven broiler pan – it dark metal which encourages a little browning, a good thing and adds flavour!) Spread them out and sprinkle with 1 T kosher salt and a good grind of black pepper. Roast for half hour. Stir around and roast for another half hour. Take out of oven, remove thighs and set aside.
In large Dutch oven, place the wings and all the fat and juice. Cover with cool water and bring to low boil. Add I small onion, cut in quarters, 1 carrot and one stick of celery.
The thighs should be pretty well cooked through. After they are cool enough, remove skin and pull the meat off the bones. Set aside the meat – about three and a half cups, rough chop into bite-size pieces, refrigerate. This can be used for chicken pot pie, plain ole chicken soup or whatever and still have flavor to it instead of being boiled to death in the stock.
Put the bones and skin into the stock pot. Simmer for 3-4 hours. Turn off and let cool. Strain off broth and toss bones and veg. Place broth/stock in fridge and cool overnight. In the morning the fat will all be in a solid layer on the top, easy to lift/skim off. You should have about 16 C good, strong, gelatinized chicken broth with lots of flavour and very little salt – you can add more to the individual recipe later. I portion my stock into sandwich ziplock bags, 1 C in each and lay them flat, freeze them – easy to pull out only what you need and easy to thaw!
Chicken Pot Pie – makes 5-6 individual pies. Preheat oven to 425F.

Frozen puff pastry (thawed), I pkg is enough for 5 pies.
Place 3 cups chicken stock in saucepan and bring to low boil over medium heat.
To make this into gravy, make a slurry with 1/4 C cool water and 4 Tbsp cornstarch (you could use flour here, but I got into the habit of using cornstarch for a gravy thickener because it’s gluten-free and now I prefer it). Whisk into the stock, at a very low boil, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes. Add the 3 C cooked chicken and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper as desired/to taste – I add about 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Take off heat and allow to cool.

Add about 1 1/2 C frozen peas, carrots and/or corn or whatever combo you like – I take this out of freezer bag, rinse the frost/ice crystals off and drain well – no need to cook – that will happen while the pies are cooking. Add to gravy/chicken mixture. Let this cool completely. Optional, add 1 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley.

Roll out thawed pastry, as thin as possible. Cut dough and lay in aluminum pie tins – I found these 5-inch ones with a domed lid which are excellent for the freezer because it protects the top of the pie. Ladle 1C cup of filling into each. I take the edges and fold them over the top of the filling and then add a lid – poke steam vents in top of lid. Brush an egg wash over the tops just before putting into hot oven.

If you want to eat/serve right away, cook for 30 minutes.
If you’re going to freeze them for later consumption, cook for 25 minutes. Let cool completely. Add lids and a label with date and reheating instructions and put in freezer.
To reheat, preheat oven to 425F. Put frozen pies in for 15 to 20 minutes until you see it start to bubble through steam vents.