Chicken Pot Pie: The Topic

[Mayhaw Man]

Well, that depends on what I was using it for.

I like the white, as it is what I am familiar with.

Those little fried pork hunks are a lovely vision of cholesterol filled goodness. I bet they would be great in a salad as pork croutons.

[Dave the Cook]

Those little fried pork hunks are a lovely vision of cholesterol filled goodness. I bet they would be great in a salad as pork croutons.

If they lasted that long.

[fifi]

Those little fried pork hunks are a lovely vision of cholesterol filled goodness. I bet they would be great in a salad as pork croutons.

If they lasted that long.

They are but they don't.

I use the white lard for sweet pastry (on the rare occasion that I do that) and the "regular" tan lard for savory, sometimes. The tan does have a bit of porky taste and I use it most often for sauteeing vegetables, making refried beans, etc. As I think of it, I would probably use the white in the chicken pie so that the pig doesn't get into an unseamly quarrel with the chicken.

[Dave the Cook]

I use the white lard for sweet pastry (on the rare occasion that I do that) and the "regular" tan lard for savory, sometimes. The tan does have a bit of porky taste and I use it most often for sauteeing vegetables, making refried beans, etc. As I think of it, I would probably use the white in the chicken pie so that the pig doesn't get into an unseamly quarrel with the chicken.

Which would you use for frying chicken?

[fifi]

Actually, the tan. That is really because I often get lazy and just make the oven method lard (one of the methods in RecipeGullet) and that really only produces the tan product. You can regulate how much toasted pork flavor you get from the oven and produce a lighter or darker lard if you watch what you are doing. I tend toward pull it it off as light as possible. But to get the really white stuff you pretty much have to use the stove top method and it is a bit of a pain.

I actually fry chicken maybe once a year and that is usually precipitated from a lard making session. I will do it more often when I get that outside burner set up.

[Dave the Cook]

I was thinking the tan as well. I've never done my own lard (though I think I will this weekend, thanks to these last few posts), but it seemed to me, based on the chicken and duck fat that I've rendered, that you could adjust for color pretty easily. Of course, you can always mix the white and tan to taste, I suppose.

fifi's Lard-rendering procedure

[Daniel]

I am a pdutch boy and am use to eating my grand mothers chicken pie. I am looking for an exceptional recipe, crust included. Thank you.

[irodguy]

You could do one of the new wave New England type pies that uses Potatoes instead of crust.

[Richard Kilgore]

As I recall, RLB has a very good one in her Pie and Tart Bible. I have not tried it, but think it would be worth checking out.

[eunny jang]

I love this topic. Chicken pot pie is one of my favorite things in the world to make.

Roast a chicken the day before. Make sure you have at least a cup or so of chicken in big pieces, and that you have some really good, tasty stock around.

Crust:

This is my take-no-prisoners heretic's rough puff pastry (I know zero about baking/pastry otherwise, so other people's opinions might be more valuable here, but this stuff rises high and fast, cooks to a beautiful shattering crisp, and can be put together in thirty minutes).

The cardinal rule of pastry making is of course to keep everything cold - keep your flour in the freezer; have cold butter and ice water ready; do everything on a marble or similarly cool surface. For an 8x8 dish or an 8" pie plate with a double crust, take a little more than two cups of flour (say 2 1/4 cups). Dump it on your counter; sprinkle it with a little salt. I really like to add rubbed sage or rosemary right into the crust as well.

Put two sticks of cold butter, cut into tablespoons, on the flour mass. Take your chef's knife and start chopping like you would parsley, holding the point stationary and moving the knife from side to side as it goes up and down. The point is to get a mixture of flakes, chips, and large-ish wads of butter coated in flour. The pieces in the mix should look like a pile of loose change mixed into flour. Stop at this point.

Sprinkle a little - maybe 3 or four tablespoons - of ice water over everything. Mix things up a little with the tips of your fingers. Still using your knife, gather the mass together into a crumbly rectangle about three times as tall as it is wide. Use the knife to help you urge the top third of the rectangle into a fold, like you would a business letter. Shove all the crumbly stuff into the crack. Fold the bottom of the wad up in the same way.

Turn the mass 90 degrees. Sprinkle with flour; roll it out to the same dimensions; repeat the folding. It will be messy and hopeless-looking at first, but keep doing it, and after 4 turns or so it will start to come together into a homogenous dough. Keep scraping your counter down and pressing the trimmings into the dough; if rolling exposes any "bleeding" butter, sprinkle it well with flour. Turn/fold it another three or four times. Give it one more fold iteration, wrap it in plastic, and let it sit in your fridge (not too long - you don't want the butter layers to get brittle).

Filling:

Start half a stick of butter melting in a saucepan. Add the same amount of flour (four tablespoons) and cook, stirring, till it's kind of a honey blonde. Add stock and wine, whisking carefully, your vegetables, seasonings (I like rosemary and sage), and finally your chicken. Sometimes I make this with leftover roast vegetables; sometimes I add peas, mushrooms, whatever you like. Let it burble until the sauce is thick and glossy.

This is important: let the filling cool. If you know anything about piemaking, you know this already (I didn't). The point of puff pastry is to create steam as the layers of butter melt in a hot oven, forcing the dough up up and away. If you put the top crust on hot filling, it will start melting the butter and take the puff out of your crust.

Assembly:

Cut your dough in two, and roll it to size. If you did it right, when you cut it, you'll see seemingly hundreds of tiny layers of butter and flour. Roll from the center out, in one direction only (towards the edge). Transfer your bottom crust to your pie plate, and prick all over to keep it from puffing. Stick this in your fridge to chill some more. Roll out the top crust, put it on a baking sheet, and let that chill as well.

Fill your bottom crust with the chilled filling. Put the top crust on; slash a couple vents to let the steam of the heating filling out; flute or crimp the edges to seal.

Put the thing in a 425-450 degree preheated oven. I like to start it really hot to get the pastry to rise as high as possible, and then lower it to 350 or 375 after 15 minutes or so and let the filling heat through. Total, it should take about 30 or 40 minutes. It's done when the pastry is brown and the filling is bubbling.

Let it sit for five minutes or so before you cut it.

Aaaaah. So good.

Edit: boy, that was long. Sorry

Edited October 20, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[melkor]

We sometimes make pot pie using cornbread as a lid, other times its a pie crust. Either way its in a cast iron pan. Start with a bunch of veggies, garlic, onions, whatever cooked in chicken fat then removed, then make a roux with whatever is left in the pan and a bit more chicken fat, once it's medium-dark toss in a bit of chicken glace and some cream, add some shredded chicken, put the veggies back in, add the lid and toss the pan in the oven.

[sabg]

i posted a similar request sometime back and got a response from mayhaw man..i didnt know to connet to the post s i just copying and pasting...i was making my good friends fav dinner for her as a b-day gift...thankfully i made 2 so i could have one..this was unbelievabpe..nothing like what i was used to..BETTER..so much better

well now i have a copy paste issue...i'll get help and get it to you

[fifi]

Luckily Mayhaw Man posted the recipe so it is available while RecipeGullet is down. It is a really weird one but I can attest to the fact that it is delicious.

EDIT: Merged with older thread

Edited October 20, 2004 by fifi (log)

[Daniel]

FIFI,

The link, she is a missing.

[Msk]

OK I did his too, though without pictures unfortunately.

I have been having a serious craving for chicken and dumplings and figured this would satisfy that urge.

HOLY COW!

This rocked, and made my sick pregnant wife sooo happy on a rainy day.

I used 1 1/2 cups uncooked jasmine rice (it was what I had on hand and somehow was the perfect amount and tasted great) While this was alot of rice, I used all of the broth that was produced so these offset.

The dumplings had a great flavor but next time I think I'd use my own self rising flower from AP flour. Like fifi I like a heavy chewy stick to your ribs dumpling.

The crust, was indescribable. Part biscuit-part flaky with a bottom that was perfectly gelatinous from absorbing the chicken broth/dumpling gravy.

This was worth every second of effort cooking and cleaning. Thank you.

Msk

[sabg]

i MUST have ck pot pie...have stuff to do until the weekend with no free time. this is going to be a get up extra esry on sunday morning thing for me....it is just that good

fifi, thanks much for getting this up here...i really have to learn how to do a bit more on here...i have taken some pics that i want to learn to put up also...they have been hanging in the camera since the egullet picnic

[fifi]

sabg... Pleas do post pictures. I am sure that this recipe is one of those that reflects the personality of the cook. It would be really interesting to see the differences.

Info for posting pictures is here.

[ludja]

I make a rather straightforward version that is similar to melkor's. Although I can't personally testify to this, it seems like a PA dutch or old-fashioned New England style recipe with its simple seasonings and pie crust.

It works very well with turkey also and makes good use of turkey broth. It has a pie top crust--which is particularly nice if made w/half lard and half butter. I make it in a deep dish pie pan.

Make a blond roux with butter and flour (4 Tbs butter, 6 Tbs flour); then slowly add 1 cup milk and 2 cups broth, stirring over heat until thickened. (Can sub apple cider or dry white one for half of the broth.) Add chicken pieces (~ 3 cups), rosemary, parsley, savory, s&p to mix and simmer for ~ 5- 10 min. Cool to RT and stir in 2 cups each of cooked sliced carrots and cooked peas. (if peas are frozen, add peas without cooking first). Spoon into dish, add pie crust on top, cut vents, brush w/egg yolk + water glaze and cook in 425 deg oven for ~ 30-40 min.

Two notes:

a pan underneath is a good idea to catch drips

I use stock made from the roasted bird carcass. This type of broth can be strong for some apps but definately works well here.

edit: should also add that fresh Italian parsley and rosemary are a big plus here; savory if you can get it.

Edited October 20, 2004 by ludja (log)

[ladyyoung98]

Brooks...if u do that cookbook..id be more than willing to buy a copy....lol

oh and the comment about those red kidney beans in chili...i think i must be a real bad texan as i dont like them in my chili..i prefer pinto beans in my chili....

Edited October 20, 2004 by ladyyoung98 (log)

[Toliver]

FIFI,

The link, she is a missing.

←

Brooks recipe (if that's what you're talking about) is on page one of this discussion: Click here.

If you're talking about the link to how to post images, it's there. You just have to wait for the post to "come in" after you click on it.

edited for spelking

Edited October 21, 2004 by Toliver (log)

[Dana]

*bump*

I just made pot pies from Rebecca Rather's book "the Pastry Queen". For those who don't know of her, she has a bakery/cafe in Fredricksburg, TX. I visited there a couple of weekends ago, ate lunch (her pot pie) and picked up this cute book. Lost of good desserts, cookies, and a few savory offerings, like the pot pies and King Ranch Casserole (no soups, make your own cream sauce.) The recipe is really good, however, I liked the resaurant version better. The book version sauce was very thick, and I like the sauce to be a little looser, so as to soak up the crust. Easily fixed. I also added a small handful of shredded carrot, which I won't add again - too sweet - but I will leave in the peas. I had a little trouble with the crust which is 3 c. flour, 1 stick butter, 10 oz cream cheese, s&p, egg wash. As I type this I realize that I only added 8 oz. cream cheese. Maybe that's why it was a little hard to work with. I was thinking it needed some ice water, but maybe the additional 2 oz of cr. cheese would make the difference.

My point to this post: I just HAD to add the carrots (I also added some celery, too), but does everybody do that? Monkey around with the recipe? I used to be pretty good about making a recipe just like to book, but the last few years, I seem to be compulsive about adding something.

[fifi]

I usually cook "by the book" the first time around, unless there is something that I just have to mess with. I agree with you about the carrot. I am pretty sparing of carrot in chicken pot pie because of the sweetness. A little is ok but a lot is distracting. I like peas in there.

[handmc]

Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Pot Pie

Cook a 3 - 4 lb chicken covered 3/4's of the way by water

(add some onion, celery & salt for the broth)

when the chicken is done remove celery & onion

take out chicken - let it cool, then cut up - set aside

cook noodles in the chicken broth with the pan covered - approx. 40 min.

(a little potatoe diced is optional - I do, mother doesn't)

when noodles are almost done add chicken back in to warm up.

add salt and pepper to taste.

(keep a can of chicken stock handy in case you need to add some so it isn't too thick - this is especially important if heating up leftovers)

NOODLES

try to make these several hours ahead so they can dry a bit before cooking.

the best is to make noodles in the morning and cook late afternoon.

cut 3 T butter flavor crisco into 2 Cups unsifted flour and 1 tsp salt.

seperately - beat an egg - add 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, mix

add liquid ingredients to dry.

make into a dough ball - don't over work!!

on a floured surface - roll out pretty thin - between 1/16 and 1/8 inch

cut in square or diamond shapes ( a pizza cutter works well)

- set aside on waxed paper until ready to cook

Serving suggestions - accompany with garden peas, pepper cabbage or cole slaw, roll and apple sauce.

[fierydrunk]

We made a fantastic Chicken Pot Pie (from the Cooks Illustrated Cover and Bake book) and have 3/4 of a 9"x13" casserole dish left. What is the best way to reheat such a beast for individual or larger servings???

[fifi]

This is a very good question. It is trickier than you might think because you would like to preserve the texture of the crust and not over brown it while heating the insides. I have only done this once with the product of Mayhaw Man's recipe here. This is a "stand up" pie and I didn't have runny gravy to deal with but I think this might work.

I put single servings in a ramekin that looks like this. The idea was to "contain" the filling so that it wouldn't dry out, leaving the crust on top to crisp up. I think I used about 300 degrees F in my DeLonghi convection oven. It would probably work fine without the convection but I wouldn't use too high a temperature. It worked quite well and I think the ramekins had something to do with it. When I tried it in just a dish, the insides did dry out along the edges. Don't even go near a microwave. It does horrid things to the crust.