fitfool

I love roasting whole chickens. I'll roast two chickens at a time, make a gravy with the giblets, save the bones to make chicken stock, and use the leftovers from the second chicken for easy meals for the rest of the week. This weekend I added a new dish, Shepherd's Pie, to the rotation for using up the leftovers. I adapted a couple of different shepherd's pie recipes I've been seeing online for a while now. It's so tasty and pretty easy to make.

Shepherd's Pie with Leftover Roast Chicken

The ingredients are mostly a suggestion. You can adjust the proportions to suit your own preferences (more or less meat or vegetables), throw in celery or mushrooms, or any number of variations.

pat of butter (enough to grease the baking dish)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion (chopped)
3-4 carrots (chopped into coin-shaped discs)
1 cup frozen peas
1-2 dashes of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning (since that's what I had on hand)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2-3 cups of chopped or shredded roast chicken (your choice of dark or white or mixed meat)
1 cup chicken stock
4 cups mashed potatoes
a few dashes of paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Rub the butter pat around the baking dish (a 9-inch square one would work well) and set aside.
In a large pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chopped up onions and carrots, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Saute about 4-5 minutes until the onions are lightly caramelized.
Add the flour and stir until it's thickened (about a minute)
Stir in the meat.
Pour in chicken stock and add the frozen peas. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 6-7 minutes until the mixture has thickened. (add more flour if you like to hurry things along a little)
Transfer the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Top it with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle on some paprika on top if you like.
Bake about 20-25 minutes until the potatoes get browned and the gravy inside is bubbling (it'll likely leak out of the top edges)
Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Then scoop it out and enjoy!