Ken often says, “even our leftovers taste good.” Usually, all I do is reheat what was left, and only occasionally will I do something creative, and turn the leftovers into a new dish. But that’s what I did a couple nights ago.
My inspiration came from a recipe for goulash pie from the marvelous A Jeanne in the Kitchen blog. Jeanne is an incredibly talented and creative cook, and I look forward to her blog posts. She took leftover goulash and turned it into pie for a recent post, and I immediately thought, “I could do that.” It was something I definitely wanted to try in the future.
I’ve mentioned before that Ken cooks on Tuesdays. It’s a holdover from when I taught private voice lessons. Most of my students were middle school or high school students, so lessons had to wait until after school. Somehow, most of my lessons ended up on Tuesday. Ken cooked so that we weren’t eating too late. I gave up teaching when Covid closed everything down, but Ken kept cooking. I did not complain 😊
I’ve blogged several of Ken’s recipes, but not the Panamanian chicken stew that he cooked on Tuesday, even though it’s one of my favorites. Not only is it delicious, the house smells of the curry sauce long after dinner is over. I’ll try to remember to take pictures and blog the recipe the next time he makes it.
We had leftovers, and I had just read Jeanne’s post. I asked Ken if he would mind if I turned the leftovers into pot pie. I figured, it was his dish, I wanted his blessing to try something new with it. I should have remembered that Ken has never met a pie he didn’t like. He was enthusiastic about the idea.
My first decision was what to bake it in. Jeanne put her goulash into individual ramekins, but I decided to use a pie tin. Then there was the question of whether I’d add anything to the filling. Ken put plenty of veggies in his stew, so I decided it didn’t need any more. After I deboned and shredded the leftover chicken and mixed it with the veggies and sauce, I added some cooked rice, to thicken the filling. Then I made my standard scratch pie crust and topped the filled tin.
The result was fantastic. I forgot to take a picture of the pie when it came out of the oven, probably because I was salivating so much. We both loved it, and Ken says he wants to make the stew again soon, mostly so I can turn the leftovers into pot pie. I’m sure I’ll try this with some other leftover dish. I can throw a pie crust together without much fuss, but you could definitely use a refrigerated pie dough.
Who says leftovers are boring? Happy eating!
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