Chicken Pot Pie

2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite size pieces (about 2 cups)
1 carrot sliced thin
2 med. potatoes cut into chunks
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 sheet puff pastry
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.  Dissolve cornstarch in broth.  Add to melted butter.  Stir in milk and heat until sauce starts to thicken, stirring constantly to avoid sticking.  Add carrots and potatoes.  Reduce heat and add cheese.  Add salt and pepper if desired.  Stir in chicken.  Pour into 2 qt. baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Lay puff pastry over top, trimming edges as needed.  Bake 1 hr.  Serves 6

Martha:  This recipe consists of ingredients pulled from 3 different recipes.  I pulled what I wanted in my own dish but still keep the consistency thick enough for a good pot pie.  When I worked up this dish I had 1 cup of left over fried chicken that I had separated from the bone and cut into pieces.  To this I added 1 boiled chicken breast.   I also noticed that I had no carrots but did have a bag of frozen soup mix in the freezer.  I picked out about 1/2 cup of carrots from the mix to go in my dish.  Worked perfect!  One of the original recipes called for 2 cups of cheese.  I liked the idea of the cheese but not so much that I would lose the true chicken taste.  As for the puff pastry for my crust, that was my idea and when it flaked up and turned golden brown I couldn't wait to give it a taste test.  Cutting into that crust and getting a chunk of chicken and delicious sauce - oh my!  So good.

Lillian: Puff pastry is so good as the crust on pot pies. I have always made a good rich pie crust for this, but have eaten the puff pastry topped pie in restaurants. Both are excellent and both hold that delicious chicken, carrots and potatoes in rich broth. Can it get any better than this?

Tips:  As well as "flattened" chicken, some of our dishes call for chicken that has been cut up into bite size pieces or strips.  For perfect pieces, place the uncooked chicken on a cutting board, remember to keep this board for chicken only. Using a sharp knife, slice the chicken crosswise across the grain into 1/4-inch strips. If a recipe calls for diced uncooked chicken, line up the strips on the cutting board and cut them again into chunks.