Chicken Pot Pie From Scratch

This is one of those awesome comfort-foods that can be used to get rid of whatever leftover pie-appropriate veggies are in your fridge a-wiltin' (hint: bok choy does not go into a pie). The amount of frozen veggies you add can be configured to supplement whatever fresh veggies you put in. The best part is that baking everything in the sauce will rehydrate stuff that has been fridge-dried (like that open half bag of dessicated baby carrots that you forgot about 2 weeks ago).

Ingredients:

1 giant chicken breast

2-3 cubes chicken bouillon (or if you have it, 3 cups homemade chicken stock)

2-2.5 cups mixed frozen veggies (peas, corn, carrots)

1 small onion, chopped

0.5 cups chopped celery (optional)

1.5 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp flour

Pie Crust or 1 sheet frozen puff pastry

2 tbsp minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

If you are using a sheet of puff pastry, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and pull the pastry sheet out of the freezer to thaw (puff pastry is irritating to work with when it's still half-frozen). If you are using the pie crust, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While you're waiting for the second coming of Jesus (I mean, the puff pastry to defrost), take the bouillon cubes and mix with 3 cups of water to make stock. Heat up the chicken stock in a small pot on the stove. Add in the chicken breast and boil until the chicken is cooked through (but not rubber). Meanwhile, take a large frying pan and fry the celery and onion in the olive oil until tender. Add the garlic and frozen veggies to the pan, then stir around a while so they start steaming and cooking. Once the frozen veggies have been heated through, toss in the flour and coat all the veggies in the pan. By now the chicken breast should be done cooking, so you can carefully remove it from the pot of hot stock and pour the liquid into the pan with the veggies and flour. Add in about 2 cups of stock and stir to thicken - if there isn't quite enough sauce and it's too thick, add more stock until satisfied. Now you have this delicious pan of veggies-in-sauce, it's time to add the chicken. Chop up the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and stir it into the pan of sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now you have a pie filling. It's time to turn it into a pie! Pour the contents of the frying pan into a pie pan (you *do* have a pie pan, right? I mean, this is a pot PIE. No? Okay, if you don't have a pie pan pour it into some other kind of baking dish). Finally, take the puff pastry (which should be thawed by now), or the pie crust, and top off your pie. You'll find that you have to stretch, trim, and splice the edges of the puff pastry to cover the top because some genius at Pepperidge Farms decided that puff pastry needs to come in squares, but do whatever it takes to ghetto it into place. Shove it into the oven and bake until the top is golden brown and flaky (about 20 minutes). Let stand for 5 minutes, then shove it into your piehole.