As the end of the summer draws near the start of the new schoolyear ushers in new culinary demands. Dinners have to be cooked on a regular basis, no more sneaking off tothe pool or the beach all day then rolling home too late to cook supper.  Suddenly routines need to be imposed toaccommodate homework schedules and endless extracurricular activities.  A busy household requires a straight forward, scrumptious dinner that can be whisked up in the time ittakes to shepherd everyone to the dinner table.  Chicken pot pie fills the bill in my house.

Tohelp in a time crunch use a store bought roast chicken, at a pinch use asupermarket rotisserie chicken.  Add yourfavorite vegetables to the pie, try butternut squash,green beans and mushrooms.  The shortcut of using frozen puff pastrysaves a great deal of time and provides a fantastic “wow” factor as the pastrypuffs up to produce a glorious golden “dome” to top the pie.  The recipe can be used to make one large orsmaller individual pies – always a hit with children!

Chicken Pot Pie

For the filling;

1roasted chicken, skinned, boned with the meat shredded
1large onion, peeled and sliced
3carrots, peeled and cut into discs
1leek, white part only, thoroughly washed and sliced
3sticks celery, diced
Freshherbs such as oregano, parsley or sage.
½pint cremini or baby bella mushroom
1cup frozen peas

For the roux sauce;

3tablespoons unsalted butter
3tablespoons all purpose flour
Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper
2½ cups low fat milk
½cup heavy cream
Zestof one lemon

1egg for the egg wash

FrozenPepperidge Farm Puff Pastry

To make the roux sauce:

Meltthe butter in the pan, add the flour and mix together.  Very gradually add the milk, a few splashesat a time.  Add the lemon zest. Stirthoroughly with each addition.  Youshould end up with a smooth sauce that coats the back of a wooden spoon, if itlooks too thin don’t add all the liquid, if it looks too thick add a littlemore milk. 

Addthe salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Ina saut