Leftovers pie

I had a friend from Luxembourg drop in on Sunday and I decided to cook a roast chicken dinner.  It was a pretty traditional thing with a lovely free range chicken and a mixture of roast vegetables.  I decided not to stuff the bird with my seasoning so I just put an onion in the cavity and let the juices blend with those of the onion, cooking the stuffing in a separate dish

In the same dish I put a couple of chipolata sausages and potatoes, pumpkin, courgette(zucchini), onion and carrots to roast, then popped the whole lot into a medium hot oven (180C) for about an hour

I also served a selection of nibbles as aperitifs and then a delicious pork pate de campagne with homemade multicereal bread made with a few nuts added. We followed the main course with a lovely selection of French cheeses, except, purely selfishly, I added a good English farmhouse cheddar. My guest brought dessert!  A glorious apple pie with an extravagant flaky pastry top and delicious shortcrust base.  The pie stands about 150mm (6") tall!! and we ate it without adding anything. 

Of course, there was quite a bit left over, particularly from the chicken and vegetables, so tonight I made a recipe I learned about from a relation just the other day.  Leftovers Pie.  I really wasn't sure about it but thought it was worth a try.  It turned out to be delicious

In a pie dish I spread out all the left over meat and vegetables, cutting everything into bite sized pieces.  I included all the leftovers, potatoes, roast vegetables, a few peas I had added to the dinner, the chicken and even one of the chipolatas and the left over stuffing until the dish was almost full.

Then I poured over the left over gravy and covered the dish with a puff pastry top.  As I always do, I used a ready made puff pastry.  I love making shortcrust pastry but have never managed to successfully make puff pastry and with such great ready mades available, I gave up trying many years ago.  The other thing about recipes for leftovers is, I believe, they should be extremely simple.  You've already cooked the meal so the ready made pastry makes it very simple and quick.

I popped the pie into a preheated oven at 190C and left it to cook for about an hour. 

The picture has been cropped so that you can't see just how much of the pie got eaten!!!