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You know how I am regarding inclusions for soup, stews, pizza toppings, and what-have-you … it’s infinitely easier and more satisfying to empty out the fridge and pantry than to head to the store to remain enslaved to a recipe. At least one weekend evening per week, my dinner is determined more by what’s on hand than a search through recipes, though I wouldn’t recommend this as a modus operandi for everyone.

Such thinking, nonetheless, beget pot pie last weekend. A cursory peek into the vegetable crisper revealed a lonely acorn squash, two final potatoes, and half bag of carrots. When I discovered a couple chicken thighs in the freezer and, glory be, a frozen pie crust from a box of two left over from who-knows-what previous effort, the die were cast. Chicken pot pie for two.

Grill the chicken until done – grilling provides appealing color to the meat and sears off more fat. When done, leave on a clean plate to cool. Cut the acorn squash in half and bake in a 350 degree oven while the chicken cooks and then rests, remove the squash when the chicken is cool and ready to cut (leaving the oven on), and when cool, core the squash from the green skin with a spoon or melon tool. While the squash cools, peel and roughly cube the potatoes and cut up the carrots, and boil slowly for 30 minutes in a pot with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and a small can of chicken stock. Cut up the chicken and add to the stew with the squash and reduce the heat to low.

Roll out the thawed pie crust, and place a soup bowl upside-down on the crust. Cut the crust dough around the bowl, about a half inch wider than the edge of the bowl. Cut a second crust the same way. Fill the bowls with the stew, and lay the pie crusts over the top of each, pinching the edges against the rim of the bowl and scoring with a fork along the edge for appeal. Poke the dough a few times with a fork for venting. Bake in the 350 oven until the crusts are golden brown.

This entry was posted on September 25, 2012 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Food with tags chicken pot pie, using leftovers, using vegetables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.