When I told my dad we were making chicken pot pie, he said it is comfort food. I sort of disagreed because neither Mark nor I had ever had chicken pot pie before yesterday. However, it does taste like comfort food. This recipe will warm you down to your toes, especially if you eat it the second it comes out of the oven. Thank you to Chef Anne for the bare bones of the recipe that I have adapted for our needs from her original recipe. And thanks to my Great-Grandma Julie for the crust tips. This is super-delish! It will take around three or four hours to make this recipe from start to finish, but because there is so much inactive time while things cook and bake, you should be able to clean the kitchen thoroughly while everything else is happening. Best of luck with this ambitious, complex dish!
Presenting, the one, the only...
Chef Anne’s Autumn Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted by Alison
Serves many people with a multitude of leftovers!
First: Create gigantic batch of standard Crisco pie crust, bottom crust in 2 pie pans should be blind baked for half an hour at 425 degrees, then cooled. Chill top crust until assembly.
Ingredients for the crust:
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp sugar
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups chilled Crisco
¾ cup cold water
Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in cubes of Crisco, then combine with a pastry cutter. Add water gradually and continue with the pastry cutter, then eventually use your hands to combine and form into four balls. Two larger balls and two smaller balls.
Chill one hour, don’t forget to preheat the oven to 425 degrees, then roll out the two larger balls and blind bake with aluminum foil on top in 2 pie dishes for half an hour.
Ingredients for the filling and gravy:
Olive oil
1 onion
2 celery stalks
2 large carrots
Salt
2 cloves garlic
3 lbs skinless chicken legs and thighs pieces
2 containers chicken stock
2 russet potatoes
1 small package haricots verts fancy green beans
6 fresh sage leaves
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
Mise en place:
Dice onion to ½ inch dice. Dice celery to ½ inch dice. Peel carrots and cut to ½ inch dice. These three go in one bowl.
Smash and finely chop garlic. Garlic gets its own bowl.
Chop sage. Cut haricots verts into ½ inch pieces. Put them in a third bowl.
Peel and dice the potatoes and give them their own bowl as well.
Cook the filling:
Coat the bottom of a stock pot with olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, pinch of salt. Saute 7 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and sweat 2 minutes. Add chicken and approx 4 cups chicken stock, adding additional water until the liquid covers the chicken. BTB RTS, simmer 30 minutes.
Cube the potato. Boil as if making potato salad until cooked al dente. Once cooled, add to the bowl with the haricots verts.
Reserving the stock, drain the chicken and veggies into a strainer and the stock into a huge bowl. When it is cool enough to handle, remove the bones from the chicken pieces (if you used bone-in chicken), and shred the chicken.
The crust is probably out of the oven by now, so: To the cooling crusts, add the chicken and the two different bowls of vegetables, as well as chopped sage.
Make the sauce:
Melt butter in a large pan over high heat. Add flour and stir, make a roux by stirring frequently until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand and is turning beige, 6 to 7 minutes. Gradually whisk in approx 5 cups of the reserved chicken stock. Taste and add salt if needed. When the stock is combined into the roux, BTB RTS, and cook 20 to 25 minutes until it looks like gravy.
While it is becoming gravy, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Ladle gravy over the pies until the dishes are approx ¾ of the way filled up with gravy. Roll out top crust as best as possible and top the pies with it. If top crust really doesn’t cover pies, cover them with tin foil.
Bake until dough is golden brown and inside is hot and bubbly, about half an hour. Remove from oven and serve hot. “MMMM… tastes like chicken,” says Chef Anne. If you use tin foil, make sure you take it off for the last 10 minutes of the baking time so that things have time to get browned. Enjoy your feast!!
Presenting, the one, the only...
Chef Anne’s Autumn Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted by Alison
Serves many people with a multitude of leftovers!
First: Create gigantic batch of standard Crisco pie crust, bottom crust in 2 pie pans should be blind baked for half an hour at 425 degrees, then cooled. Chill top crust until assembly.
Ingredients for the crust:
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp sugar
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups chilled Crisco
¾ cup cold water
Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in cubes of Crisco, then combine with a pastry cutter. Add water gradually and continue with the pastry cutter, then eventually use your hands to combine and form into four balls. Two larger balls and two smaller balls.
Chill one hour, don’t forget to preheat the oven to 425 degrees, then roll out the two larger balls and blind bake with aluminum foil on top in 2 pie dishes for half an hour.
Ingredients for the filling and gravy:
Olive oil
1 onion
2 celery stalks
2 large carrots
Salt
2 cloves garlic
3 lbs skinless chicken legs and thighs pieces
2 containers chicken stock
2 russet potatoes
1 small package haricots verts fancy green beans
6 fresh sage leaves
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
Mise en place:
Dice onion to ½ inch dice. Dice celery to ½ inch dice. Peel carrots and cut to ½ inch dice. These three go in one bowl.
Smash and finely chop garlic. Garlic gets its own bowl.
Chop sage. Cut haricots verts into ½ inch pieces. Put them in a third bowl.
Peel and dice the potatoes and give them their own bowl as well.
Cook the filling:
Coat the bottom of a stock pot with olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, pinch of salt. Saute 7 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and sweat 2 minutes. Add chicken and approx 4 cups chicken stock, adding additional water until the liquid covers the chicken. BTB RTS, simmer 30 minutes.
Cube the potato. Boil as if making potato salad until cooked al dente. Once cooled, add to the bowl with the haricots verts.
Reserving the stock, drain the chicken and veggies into a strainer and the stock into a huge bowl. When it is cool enough to handle, remove the bones from the chicken pieces (if you used bone-in chicken), and shred the chicken.
The crust is probably out of the oven by now, so: To the cooling crusts, add the chicken and the two different bowls of vegetables, as well as chopped sage.
Make the sauce:
Melt butter in a large pan over high heat. Add flour and stir, make a roux by stirring frequently until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand and is turning beige, 6 to 7 minutes. Gradually whisk in approx 5 cups of the reserved chicken stock. Taste and add salt if needed. When the stock is combined into the roux, BTB RTS, and cook 20 to 25 minutes until it looks like gravy.
While it is becoming gravy, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Ladle gravy over the pies until the dishes are approx ¾ of the way filled up with gravy. Roll out top crust as best as possible and top the pies with it. If top crust really doesn’t cover pies, cover them with tin foil.
Bake until dough is golden brown and inside is hot and bubbly, about half an hour. Remove from oven and serve hot. “MMMM… tastes like chicken,” says Chef Anne. If you use tin foil, make sure you take it off for the last 10 minutes of the baking time so that things have time to get browned. Enjoy your feast!!