Chicken Pot Pie

Remember the lemon and garlic chicken from a couple of days ago?  This is what it looks like now....
If you know me well, you know I hate leftovers but if I can make a whole new meal from them - that's a huge bonus.  No food wasted and no boring nuked leftovers!

Make chicken pot pies with leftover chicken and gravy - potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, frozen peas and bay leaf and fresh thyme.  Just a few easy steps - strip the chicken from the carcass and cube it.  Peel and cube potatoes and carrots (hold in a bowl of cold water), dice a half of a cup of onion and a stalk of celery.

Make chicken broth with 8 or 9 cups of cold water, the chicken carcass (including legs and wings), 2 stalks of celery and a wedge of onion.  Plenty of salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Let simmer for an hour and then strain.

Melt 2 Tbsp of butter and add onion and celery.  Cook at medium heat til softened but not browned.

Then add potatoes and carrots.  Cook for a few minutes and then add chicken and about 4 cups of broth.

Add a bay leaf and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.  These came fresh from my garden.  Simmer for 30 minutes or so until vegetables are tender.  Add a cup of frozen peas and stir in the gravy.  If it needs a bit more thickening, you can add some white sauce.  Mine needed a little less than a cup of white sauce (check one of my earlier posts for directions to make a white sauce - cheese sauce for vegetables - just don't add the cheese!).  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spoon chicken mixture into pot pie dishes (I also did a small casserole for the freezer).  Top with cheddar and chive buttermilk biscuits (check out an earlier post for the recipe) and bake for about 20 minutes.  Delicious and economical - I used every bit of that roast chicken.  There is also about 3 cups of chicken broth for the freezer that will be soup soon.