chicken pot pie

UPDATE: Add one tablespoon of dried sage leaves to the flour when mixing your pie pastry. I so need an editor! Thanks wayne! xo

Knowing how to make Chicken Pot Pie is critical to survival in the Great White North. Perhaps not as essential as studded tires and long underwear but it’s up there!

In my family, the humble pot pie held a mishmash of leftovers from Sunday night’s dinner. Whatever gravy was left got watered-down to make enough ‘sauce’ to hold it all together. More often than not, the crust had spent time in the bottom of the deep freezer – the remains of an apple pie. Despite being completely composed of scraps, Chicken Pot Pie has been a beloved comfort food for decades.

There are all sorts of recipes out there for easy, quick chicken pot pie. This isn’t one of them. Instead of scraps, I used fresh ingredients with a rich creamy ‘gravy’ all tucked away in a flakey, savoury pastry. It takes a bit of time but I promise – so worth it! In the world of cookery, nothing is more fun than taking a classic and putting your own spin on it. This is my spin…

Chicken Pot Pie with Summer Savoury Crust
Serves 6

CHICKEN FILLING
Makes enough filling for 1 deep dish 10” pie

2 large chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 leek, cleaned and chopped
1 cup button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon dried summer savoury leaves
2 cups chocken stock
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon flour mixed with ¼ water
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

THE STEPS:

• Place a heavy casserole over medium high heat and add butter
• When butter is bubbling, add chicken breasts – skin side down
• Cook until skin is crispy and golden. You want to get a good brown on the bottom of your pot to flavour your sauce.
• After 7 minutes turn chicken breasts over and cook the other side for 10 minutes.
• Remove chicken to a cutting board.
• Add leek, carrot and mushrooms to the casserole and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often..
• While your vegetables are sautéing, remove the skin and bones from your chicken breasts. Don’t be concerned if your chicken isn’t completely cooked. It will finish cooking in the oven.
• Cut the chicken meat into 1 ½ “ pieces – set aside.

• Once the vegetables are golden [10 minutes] add potato, dried summer savouy and chicken stock.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until the potatoes are fork tender.
• Add cream, salt and pepper, bring to a boil.

• Whisk in flour/water mixture, whisking until your sauce has thickened.
• Remove from heat.

SUMMER SAVOURY PASTRY CRUST
Makes enough pastry for 1 – 10” pie
Preheat oven 450*F

2 ¾ cups all – purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ lb lard, room temperature
1 egg
Ice water

THE STEPS:

• Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir well.
• Cut lard into the flour with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal.
• Beat egg in the bottom of a half cup measure then fill measure with ice water. Plus 2 tablespoons of additional ice water
• Pour mixture over flour and combine with a fork until it forms a mass. At this point, I put on a pair of disposable rubber gloves and finish working the lard into the flour.
• Place pastry on a floured surface and knead several times.
• Flour surface again and roll out half of dough to ¼“ thickness. Add more flour if the pastry is sticking. Make sure that you are applying even pressure on your rolling-pin so that your pastry is able to bake evenly!
• Starting at one end of pastry, roll up pastry onto the rolling pin.

• Place rolling pin on pie plate and unroll on top of pie plate then gently push pastry into pie plate.
• Repeat process for the top crust.

• Pour chicken filling into pastry lined pie plate.
• Use a pastry brush to brush water onto the pie’s top rim This will act like a ‘glue’ for the top pie crust.

• Unroll the top crust over the pie plate and crimp edges together.
• Trim away excess crust and cut several air vents in the top pie crust with a sharp knife.
• Place pie in preheated oven on the bottom rack for 15 minutes
• Then reduce heat to 350*F and continue baking for 65 minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

THE LOVE: Use a clear pyrex pie plate so that you can see your bottom crust. There’s nothing worse than soggy raw pie dough!

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Thanks for reading.