A Creative Idea for Leftover Chicken a la King or Beef Stew: Pot Pies

I have to admit I love to cook, and love to cook completely from scratch, that is I usually don't take short cuts using anything pre-made as I find that by cooking from scratch means my meals are much purer in ingredients, there are no chemical additives or preservatives that one finds in almost all processed foods. These past few years I've had to make some adjustments on just how I do cook. Up until a few years ago, my mother was still alive and when I prepared meals, I naturally cooked in a larger quantity, that is cooking for two. My mother passed away two years ago, and while I'm now alone, I still have the habit of cooking meals in a larger quantity than a single person needs. This often means I have a lot of leftovers to contend with. This is particularly true when it comes to making two of my favorite dinner meals: Chicken á La King and Beef Stew. It's rather hard to make these two dinner ideas for a smaller quantity, so what do I do with all those leftovers? Why I get creative!

Actually cooking in a larger quantity turns out not to be such a bad idea after all, and this is true whether just cooking for one, or for a whole family, as it can greatly stretch out that food budget. The first thing one can do with any leftover meal, is of course to place the leftover portions into freezer type containers, freeze it, then at another time, take it out and reheat it. But what if you don't want to just simply reheat it and want something a little different with that leftover Chicken á La King or Beef Stew? There are two creative ways to turn those two leftover meals into something a little special, the first is to make a pot pie out of them, and the second is to use the leftovers as a filling for crepes. In this article, I shall first describe how to make a pot pie out of these leftovers.

Making Pot Pies Out Of Leftover Chicken á La King or Beef Stew:

Depending on your particular taste, there are two kinds of pastry dough one can use for the pot pie. The first is a simple, basic baking powder dough, the same kind that is used for making baking powder biscuits while the other is the "flaky" pastry dough.

Basic Baking Powder Dough:

Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached flour
4 tsps. baking powder
2½ tablespoons butter or margarine
¾ cup water or milk

Sift the dry ingredients together. In a mixing bowl, blend the butter or margarine into the flour. Slowly add the water or milk and blend mixture to make the dough either with a wooden spoon or with your hands...I admit to just using my hands to blend the dough. On a lightly floured board toss the dough onto the board and knead the dough for a few minutes, then divide the dough into two portions, and set aside and place in two separate bowls and store into refrigerator until ready to use.

Flaky Pastry Dough:

Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached flour
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter
ice water

All ingredients should be chilled before making dough. In a mixing bowl add the flour, then blend in the shortening and butter, again either using a wooden spoon, or with your hands, to be honest I find it much simpler to use my hands, especially with this type of dough. Very slowly add cold ice water just enough to hold the dough together into a ball like shape, then divide up the dough ball into two equal portions and place in separate bowls and place in the refrigerator to chill further.

Preparing The Pot Pies:

Take out either the leftover Chicken á La King or Beef Stew, and reheat on stove for a few minutes, when just about bubbling, turn heat off. Take two 16-ounce small soufflé type round bowls, such as the French White collection made by Corning Ware, which are the ones I have. Turn oven on to 350-degrees. With a soup ladle, ladle out the Chicken á La King or Beef Stew into each soufflé bowl, to just about half an inch from the top. Take out the dough from the refrigerator.

On a floured board take each portion of the dough, and flatten the dough out with a pastry roller into a circular, round form large enough to cover the top of each soufflé bowl. Carefully place each round, flat pastry dough on top of each soufflé bowl to cover "pot pie", covering the entire top of the pie, and there should be enough dough leftover to overlap the top. If you wish to be "decorative" you can even "flute" the edges by using a fork at evenly spaced distances . Place the two soufflé bowls on a large cookie sheet, poke a small hole in the center of the pie to allow for venting of steam from the pie, and place in the oven. Bake for about fifteen to twenty minutes in a 350-degree oven or until the dough is slightly browned and you can see the pot pie mixture is bubbling from the vent hole.
Servings: 2

The above is for making two portions of pot pies, for more portions, double the ingredients for each dough you wish to use.

By the way as an added note. This method of making a pot pie is also great to use for a more simplistic method if you don't have leftovers by using the canned version of Chicken á La King such as the one made by Swanson, or the canned Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Either way this is a delicious way to make a great savory pot pie.

Bon Appetit!