Mmmm Monday: Della's Pastry and Three Star Chicken Pot Pie

Last night we had M's parents over for supper to celebrate their anniversary featuring roast chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots and fried mushrooms. There were of course leftovers which means it was time to make Three Star Chicken Pot Pie. The recipe(s) are below. It's a two for one deal today!

The first thing you need to do to make Three Star Pot Pie is whip up a batch of Della's Pastry. This recipe makes enough for 3-4 pies. You can freeze any extra pastry, thaw and use it in the future. Or, you can cut the recipe in half if you think that's too much work. You can use this pastry dough for whatever you like; meat pies, fruit pies, tarts, dumplings, new culinary experiments, anything.  It's a very simple recipe to make, only takes 10 minutes, and is a guaranteed way to impress your friends and neighbours.

Pastry Ingredients

Della's Pastry
5 1/2 cups of flour                           1 egg
1 lb shortening                                 1 Tbsp white vinegar
pinch of salt                                      Cold water

Begin by placing 5 1/2 cups of flour in a mixing bowl. I usually use my Kitchenaid mixer to avoid wrist strain. Add 1lb of soft shortening. I prefer Tenderflake as it is easily mixed with dry ingredients. Begin mixing the flour and shortening together. Next add a pinch of salt and continue mixing.

In a measuring cup break and beat 1 egg. To the egg add 1 Tbsp of white vinegar. With the egg and vinegar still in the measuring cup, fill it to the 1 cup mark with cold water. Begin to pour this liquid into the flour, shortening and salt. Mix well. The dough should be damp and elastic when it is properly mixed.


Tip: To make clean up easier, place a tea towel on your countertop/table and a cutting board on top of the tea towel. This way when you're done you can pick up the tea towel and cutting board and your work area is primarily clean.

To make your pie shell, transfer some of the pastry dough onto the well floured cutting board. Sprinkle flour over it and apply flour liberally to your rolling pin. Begin rolling the dough out in the direction of all four corners. Roll your dough until it is the thickness that you like for a pie crust. Place the pastry into your pie pan and trim the excess off.
Three Star Chicken Pot Pie

We began with the following items (as leftovers)
* roasted chicken
* mashed potatoes
* a small amount of cooked carrots
* a few fried mushrooms
* gravy

To make our pot pie we took pastry for a double crust 9 inch pie. We placed one crust in the bottom of the pie pan. We layered the leftover mashed potatoes, carrots (cooked) and mushrooms on the bottom crust. Next we broke the chicken into medium chunks and evenly spread it on top of the potato mixture.

3 Star Chicken Pot Pie ready for eating!

 In a medium saucepan we boiled 3 stalks of celery (cut) and 1 can of peas until the celery was soft. We drained off the excess liquid. In a small saucepan we sauteed 1/3 cup of onions in butter. Once the onions were translucent we added salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning*, and our leftover gravy. Once this was warmed all the way through, we removed it from the heat.

We poured the celery, peas, onions and gravy over the chicken and potatoes. Finally, we added a top crust and crimped the edges. We baked it for 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. It was delicious! We hope our delicious experiment in using up leftovers will inspire you to make similar recipes. Bon apetit!

* Pre mixed spices speed things up. Our poultry seasoning is made up of; thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg.