Make Your Own Pot Pie

This is all that was left today, sorry.  But this photo lets you peek into what's inside.

Pot pies and variations of them have been around for ages.  They are easy to make and very tasty and you can put whatever you have into them.

I made chicken pot pie.  This is a deep baking dish about the same diameter as a pie plate.  I highly recommend using a deep dish or you will probably have gravy spilling out into your oven.  The dish can be round or square or oval, it doesn't matter.

The first thing you want to do is use butter or spray oil to coat your dish.  You can make your own pie crust or like me cheat and use the store bought ones.  I can make pie crust but needed to use these up.  Line your dish with a pie crust and smoosh it out to the edges but don't leave any holes.

I put in 1 home canned pint jar of drained cooked chicken that I then cut up, you can use any meat you want or none if you want to go vegetarian.  Left over meats are great, baked and broiled chicken are wonderful as are small chunks of sausage or left over roast. (The broth drained off can be used to make the gravy.)

Next I added about 1/2 a bag of frozen mixed vegetables.  You can add whatever you like, however if you use raw carrots, onions and such you need to dice them small or parboil before adding to the pie.  Everything needs to cook at the same rate without burning the crust, hence I used pre-cooked items.  I didn't have any fresh potatoes but I did have a can of potatoes I had gotten on sale.  So I cut those up and added them since my mixed veggies did not have potatoes in it.  You could easily re-hydrate your de-hydrated vegetables and use those.  I also could have used the frozen hashbrowns in my freezer.

Next I added a bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder, again, use any flavorings you like, make it to your taste.  On top of all that I added some gravy.  It could be homemade, from a mix, from a jar or even a can of un-diluted cream soup.  Just enough to cover and keep it from being dry.  If you add too much your crust will be soggy.

Cover with another pie crust and pinch your edges together.  Don't worry about it looking fancy, trust me, no one will notice as they are mmmm mmmmming over dinner.  Bake at 350 degrees until the crust is golden, mine was baked in a toaster oven and it took about an hour.  Have more gravy on hand to add to the serving on your plate.

I reheated leftover pieces in the microwave but to keep the crust from being soggy I scooped out the innards and heated that in the microwave and heated the crust in the toaster oven.  I put them together on the plate and topped with gravy.  

 mmmmmmmmmm.  Full tummy.  I think I need a nap now.