Barbara's Chicken Pot Pie

Tom loves chicken pot pie, so I am happy to put the effort into making one from scratch.   I parboil the veggies separately in chicken stock with an herb or spice to suit each, and then make a blonde sherried roux for the sauce.  

Normally, we buy our chicken pot pie, frozen, from the Mennonites at Oak Hill Grocery near Penn Yan.  They make a good pie, but not as good as mine.  :)

---Barbara

Barbara's Chicken Pot Pie

Make a 10-inch pot pie

1 double crust pie dough 

Cooked chicken, picked (approx. 3 cups) -- 

    mostly white meat, fat and bones removed, jelly saved, 

    shredded into bite-size pieces

2 cups scraped carrots, cut into 1/4" rounds

1 cup defrosed green beans, 1 inch pieces

1 cup pearl onions, defrosted and drained well

2 15-ounce cans unsalted chicken stock

salt and pepper

2-3 T. unsalted butter

3-4 T. Wondra flour

1/8 t. dried French thyme

1/8 t. dried tarragon 

pinch of Porcini powder (optional:  see post)

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 T. dried Sherry

2 pie dough crusts

flour for rolling out the pie dough

1 egg, beaten

Pick and shred the chicken.  Discard the fat and bones.  Save the jelly.  Place chicken and jelly in a small bowl.  Sprinkle with porcini powder, toss and set aside.

Defrost the veggies in separate bowls.

Defrost the pie dough.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prep the carrots:  scrape and cut into rounds.  Set aside in a small bowl. 

In a saucepan, bring 1 of the 2 cans of chicken stock to a boil.

Add the carrots and dried thyme.  Boil for 4 minutes.  Fish out the carrots with a spider or slotted spoon and return to their bowl.

Do not discard stock.

Using the same saucepan with the hot stock, add the green beans and the tarragon, and boil for 4 minutes.  Fish them out and return to their bowl.

Do not discard stock.

To the same saucepan with the hot stock, add the pearl onions with the grated nutmeg and boil for 8 minutes (onions need more time to cook through), fish out and return to their bowl.

The stock will have reduced to half or less and be a dark golden brown.  Add the remaining can of stock --- you need about 2 cups of stock in total.   If you are unsure, first pour the hot stock into a Pyrex measuring cup, then fill it up to the 2 cup mark with the extra stock.  You want 2 cups stock in total.

Keep the stock warm until needed for making the sauce.

In a separate small saucepan or in the microwave, gently reheat the chicken pieces, just until the jelly melts, stir, to coat the chicken.  Keep warm until time to fill the pot pie, but not too hot, or the chicken will dry out.  If you don't have any jelly leftoever from picking the chicken, you can use chicken stock to moisten the chicken.  

Roll out the bottom dough.  Place in the 10-inch pie plate, unfluted (i.e., leave the dough hanging over the edge) and place it in the refrigerator until needed.

Roll out the top dough.  Roll it around the rolling pie and place it in the fridge until needed, too.

Now make the sauce.  This requires your full attention for 10 minutes.

Measure out the Wondra flour and add lots of pepper to it.  In a saucepan, preferably with rounded edges, melt the butter.  When the butter starts to bubble, sprinkle with Wondra flour over the top, and whisk it quickly together until smooth and it becomes the color of baked cookies, a golden brown.  You will smell that the flour smell is gone and it will almost smell nutty.  Approx. 2 minutes.

Carefully, add the 2 T. of sherry, and quickly whisk together.  It will spit.  Quickly, add the hot stock in a stream, stirring the whole time with a whisk, to make a smooth sauce.  

Keep whisking for about about 6 minutes, probably 8 minutes, until the sauce thickens and becomes creamy.  Set aside.  

Now fill the pie.

The first layer is the chicken.  Evenly spread it out.

Then the carrots.

The the drained onions.  Avoid any excess liquid from the veggies or your pie will be watery.

Then the drained green beans.

Evenly pour the sauce over the top.

Place the second pie dough on top.

Bring the bottom pie dough up and over the first and crimp all along the edge to make a tight seal.  (It will be a thick edge.)

Brush the pie with the beaten egg on all edges, including the crimped seal.

Using a small sharp knife, cut 3- 5 vents in the center of the pie.  Short, deep slashes.  

Place the pie on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hours 10 minutes until deep golden brown and the juices are bubbly in the vent holes.

Remove and let the pie rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Slice and lift a big wedge into a deep serving bowl.

You can see that inside the pie how the crust and the veggies are not soggy.  This makes all of the steps of parboiling before assembling, worth it.  

---Barbara