What to do with the leftovers from Roast Chicken, if you indeed have any.

Chicken Pot Pie!
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

Even though Matt's brother was there for the Roast Chicken, we managed to have leftovers, so I turned back to my old friend Google, and started compiling all the returns for "chicken pot pie" into one convoluted yet cohesive whole. I did not want, for instance, to make a bottomless pie in a pie tin, but I did want to use celery. I didn't want to make a biscuit-top...thing in the cast iron skillet, but I did want to use white wine.

I also had to account for the fact that no one on the Internet seems to make a chicken potpie with fresh vegetables. Most of the recipes called for a "16 oz bag mixed frozen vegetables". Ew. I did, however, end up throwing a handful of frozen peas, the ones that I keep on hand to break up the monochromatic appearance of the Favorite Lentils EVER, into the skillet at the last possible minute!

ANYWAY. After I turned the oven to 425, I cut the meat off the chicken (we ended up with a breast, a thigh and a leg), then washed, skinned and chopped two potatoes and three carrots, and diced and sliced one onion and three stalks of celery, respectively.

Sauteed the potatoes and carrots in a cast iron, and therefore oven proof skillet, with a tablespoon of butter for about five minutes, then added another pat of butter and the "soft" vegetables: the onion and celery. After another three minutes, I tossed the chicken in with everything else, and turned off the stovetop.

Rolled out the (Trader Joe's) piecrust (nope, still can't make my own), and used a tiny cookie cutter to make four decorative "steam holes" in it, tossed a handfull of frozen peas into the pie, and then had Matt drape the crust over the top of the skillet (with his mad pizza-making skillz, he is much better at draping crusts than I am!), and then I brushed it all over with melted butter.

Into the over for about 15 minutes, and then under the broiler for about five, et voila!

It was pretty good.