Pot Pies

So I had a large amount of chicken stew leftover.  What do you do with leftover stew that was already made of leftovers in the first place?  Because the stew was made with a leftover chicken carcass, freezer burned chicken, and some veggies that were about to have to be tossed.  I know, that sounds pretty gross, but let me tell ya it was some kick ass stew!

The only thing I could think of to liven it up, since I don't think either of us wanted more stew, was to make it into individual pot pies and freeze it.  They actually only stayed in the freezer for one day before I ended up tossing them in the oven, but hey - it's the thought that counts, right?

 I assembled everything I was going to need first.

Then I added water to the stew and brought it to a rapid boil for 20 minutes to pasteurize it, just in case.  It had been in the fridge for about a week, and I didn't want anyone to get sick from my cooking.  

After the stew had boiled for 20 minutes, I browned some flour in butter, then drained the broth into the skillet to make a gravy.  

mmmm gravy!

Added the solids, and let it thicken up.

I want to know how in the hell people actually get a circle from their flour.  I mean really, is there a secret?  Because mine never was a dang circle unless I trimmed it after I rolled it out.

 About two ladles full = a full pie.

A few pricks with a fork to let steam vent out when I baked them, and viola!  Pot pies :-)

The recipe for crust that I used was a basic pastry crust.  2 cups of sifted flour and 2/3 c of shortening.  But, I didn't use shortening.  I used butter.  I guess I should get shortening for baking purposes, since it's cheaper than butter, but butter just tastes SO much better!  I forgot the salt.  Next time, I'll remember to add salt to it when I sift the flour.