Chicken and Parsnip Fun Pie

What good is a pot pie crust w/o pot pie filling? Well, it is actually a lot of good. It is a potential pot pie. That is better than most people achieve in a lifetime and it's just a bunch of butter and flour mixed up. After all, do you think you could ever be as awesome as this?

There is almost no chance. What we have here is pie full of chicken, parsnips, turnips and other assorted delicacies. While you might never be so delicious yourself, you can always make it. Here's what you need.

6 Chicken thighs w/ bones and skin

1 qt stock

4 parsnips

2 turnips

1 large onion

2 stalks celery

salt pepper

2 bay leaves

4 tbsp corn starch

1 pot pie crust

First things first, season the chicken thighs well w/ salt and pepper and roast at 400F for about forty five minutes. You can use boneless if you want or an equivalent amount of chicken breasts or legs but bone-in thighs are cheap and delicious and you can save the bones to make stock later.

Let those cool for a minute and then they should be cooked enough that you can pretty much just pull the meat off w/ your fingers. I like to leave it in fairly big chunks.

While the breasts are cooking cut up the turnips, celery, parsnips and onion. Throw them in a pot w/ the shredded chicken once done and top up w/ your best stock, probably need about a quart. If you don't have enough, just top up w/  water and don't tell anyone. Throw in a couple bay leaves and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook about twenty or thirty minutes, just until the veggies begin to get soft. At this point, you'll want to add cornstarch to thicken. This is one thing it's best to judge case by case. It will change depending on your stock. Sprinkle in a tablespoon at a time, stirring vigorously until the soup takes on the consistency of a light gravy. Be careful not to use too much, it thickens as you cook. Add salt and pepper to taste. You'll end up w/ something like this:

Now for the fun! Dump that sucker into the bottom half of the pot pie crust. Be careful not to splash. I did not pour from as high as it looks in this picture.

Put the top crust on and then bake at four hundred about twenty minutes. Won't take a terribly long time, just cook until the crust is nice and brown like this:

 Serve as carefully as possible but don't worry about it too much, pot pie is supposed to be sloppy.

Got any favorite pot pie fillings? Let TFK know in the comments.