We always seem to have a lot of random food in our house.  Whether it be frozen meat that we’ve set into individual portions bought from a rather large warehouse style retailer, or random veggies in the fridge that are starting to show their age, there’s always something that isn’t quite enough for a full meal.  How do you get rid of all of these ingredients in one go? How about making a pot pie!

This ‘recipe’ is only for what I literally had in the house.  What this means is that it will change absolutely every single time we make it, depending on what leftovers we have.

Ingredients:

• 2 Onions
• 2 Garlic
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 500 ml Chicken Stock [or vegetable stock]
• 1/3 cup Flour
• 1-2 cups Milk
• 3 Chicken breasts [omit for vegetarian]
• 2 Mushrooms
• 1 can Corn
• 1 can Green Beans [disgusting]
• 3 Garlic Scapes
• 1 package Bacon [omit for vegetarian]
• Puff Pastry or Crescent Rolls

First thing to do is prep your basics.  Chop and dice the onions and garlic, and add it into a large saucepan with the butter.

I usually sauté it until everything becomes translucent.

Add in the chicken stock, milk, and flour.

Prep the garlic scapes, and mushrooms, and throw them into the mix.  Have any canned veggies like corn or green beans?  now is the time to add them in.  Notice though that I don’t add peas nor carrots?  I absolutely detest peas, so you won’t see me cook with them!

I’m all about extracting as much flavour as possible, so I overkill the simmering process.  I let it simmer for 1-2 hours, but it doesn’t need that much.

When you are happy with the flavour, pour them into your favourite baking dish.  If I had a pie shell, I totally would’ve used that instead.

I had a couple pieces of spinach, so I threw them into what would become my meatless pot pie.  If you are vegetarian, do not read on.  If you are a meatatarian, you’ll love the next part.

Cook your meats in a nice cast iron skillet.  Butcher your chicken into small cubes, and cut the bacon into 3 cm squares.  Cook them all together at the same time.  Coat that chicken with all of the bacon grease!

If you look closely, you’ll see that I have skin, and everything in there.  FLAVOUR!  Now, many of you will say this is blasphemous, but after the meat is done cooking, do not strain the fat out.  Take the meat, and spoon it overtop the veggie mixture.

Looks oily?  Yup.  Sure does!  Your arteries may not like it, but your taste buds will!

Prep the pastry now.  If you have puff pastry, use it.  If you have prepackaged crescent roll dough, use that.  I happened to have both, so I used both.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know how to pinch the crescent roll dough from the Crab Tart recipe.

As this is a leftover meal, I don’t bother prettying it up too much.  We don’t have to impress anyone when eating at home 🙂

Cover the dish with the pastry.  To mark which one had meat, and which one didn’t, we added a “c” for “cs will eat this one because it has a bunch of flavourful meat” … not “chicken” like you thought!

Bake for 30 mins to 1 hour depending on what type of pastry you’ve used.  A general guideline is 40 mins at 400 F.  When it’s done, let it stand for a minimum 15 mins.  30 mins is better.  If your stock wasn’t very thick, let it stand even longer.

Ta da! There you have it!  A Chicken Mushroom Bacon Pot Pie (With a ‘vegetarian’ option — using chicken stock :P)  One thing I learned when I made this, is that canned veggies are absolutely DISGUSTING.  Stick to fresh if at all possible.