(Rotisserie) Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry

I have another confession to make. I am pretty much the rotisserie chicken queen. I often detour on the way home from work and pick up a couple of hot, $8.99 birds. I know it's not very domestic but it beats the hell out of a drive-through dinner and I use the carcasses to make stock. They're great for that, by the way.

In terms of making life easier, they are right up there with panty-hose and washing machines, if you ask me. You can't buy a chicken, heat up the oven and roast the bird for less than nine bucks. On a Friday night after a long week at work, we would be eating bologna sandwiches if there were no such thing as rotisserie chickens.

This recipe makes four, individual sized pies. They freeze and reheat really well. I like the pastry really brown so I defrost them on the counter and cover them with tinfoil to reheat so they don't burn.

Chicken Pot Pies

3 large chicken breasts,  (cooked)
16 -20 fresh, white mushrooms
3 Tbsp Butter
2 green onions
2 or three shallots
1/2 a red onion
4 - 6 cloves of fresh garlic
Sprigs of fresh thyme, sage, rosemary and parsley (YES...I changed the order on purpose.)
1 large carrot
1 large stalk of celery
6 slices of thick, smoked bacon
1 cup frozen peas (Or fresh garden peas if you are lucky enough to have them.)
1 1/2 cups of red wine
A pint of whole cream
1 package puff pastry

Chop the cooked chicken into large chunks and set aside. Soft fry the bacon in a large frying pan. Chop into large chunks and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Drain the bacon fat from the pan and add butter, red wine, roughly chopped mushrooms and garlic. Simmer until the mushrooms have absorbed almost all of the wine and are a deep, dark brown. Chop shallots and red onion into large chunks and brown them.  (You can do this in the same pan but I usually brown the onions separately.)

In the meantime, slice the carrot, celery and green onions. Finely chop the herbs. (The ratio for the herbs is mostly to preference but I use more thyme, sage and parsley with a pinch of marjoram and rosemary.)

In a large saucepan, add all of the ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a gentle boil and let simmer for five or ten minutes to allow the flavours to combine. Gently stir in the chicken and pour mixture into four, oven-proof bowls.
lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry as per package instructions. (Until it's about the right size to cut into quarters and cover the bowls - you can turn one of your bowls upside down and cut around it if you want to be picky but I usually just eyeball it) Add puff pastry to the top of the bowls and place in a 400 degree oven until pastry is a rich, dark brown and filling is bubbly.