Recently the New York Times ran what was deemed a ground-breaking food story on the modernization of chicken pot pie (link). Theirs was a so-called contemporary version “ditching the gummy white filling and frozen vegetables.”
If I encountered such a chicken pot pie it would have been served at an old Howard Johnson’s or out of a box of Banquet brand of frozen chicken pot pie. But the denigration of the old-school formula seemed a bit of a stretch. If all the elements are made well, without the use of processed ingredients or gummy sauces, the classic chicken pot pie is eminently delicious
And if you ever had it at my house, you’d encounter a wonderful pie under a dome of a very special cream pastry dough similar to puff pastry and a filling that’s in a light cream sauce made from chicken stock whisked into the standard roux and further enriched with heavy cream. Gummy? Not a chance.
Chicken pot pie
As for the frozen vegetables I admit to frozen peas. But these are one of the few vegetables that survive flash freezing. They taste nearly as fresh as right out of the shell. As for the typical pile of frozen pearl onions, forget it. If I want those in my chicken pot pie I buy them fresh and take the few minutes to prepare them.
Glaze the unbaked pie with an egg and cream wash
I don’t make chicken pot pie as an original dish but rather when I have a bountiful stash of leftover chicken from a roast. For roasting I usually buy large chickens, anywhere from 6 to 8 pounds. My repertoire of leftovers includes these chicken makeovers: enchiladas; creamed chicken over cornbread or biscuits; chicken hash and on occasion when I’m feeling retro, chicken a la king, which when made correctly with all fresh ingredients can be a wonderful tasting dish. Maine food journalist of yore, Marjorie Standish has a wonderful recipe in her 1973 book Keep Cooking the Maine Way.
But let’s get back to the subject at hand: chicken pot pie. What makes mine so good is the crust. I came across this recipe many years ago in a book by the inimitable Eliza Acton who was a mid-19th century British cookery author, the Fannie Farmer of her day. The book was Modern Cookery published in 1845. The 1974 paperback edition that I have is The Best of Eliza Acton published by Penguin Books.
The recipe is called Cream Crust and at the time I used it as the basis for an article I did in the late 1980s in Gourmet Magazine on English Pastry Doughs. I don’t have a copy of my original article nor could I for many years find that tattered paperback of Acton’s cookbook. But I sort of remembered the recipe as 1 pound of flour and a nice chunk of butter (about 4 to 8 ounces) and about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. I finally found the book under a pile of other books that I rarely use. My memory served me well and my recollection of the recipe is correct.
What is also distinctive about the pastry is that you give it several turns as you would with puff pastry except that these turns are very abbreviated. After folding in thirds (the turn) you chill it for a short while, anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes and give it another 1 or 2 turns. It will puff up nicely when baked and the pastry is utterly light and flaky. The combination of butter and cream is killer in this dough. Season the flour mixture generously with salt, and use the richest high-fat butter you can get and the heaviest cream, which is readily available in Maine from various farms such as the raw cream from Bisson’s, Misty Brook and Highview, and pasteurized cream from Harris and Smiling Hill farms.
Unless I’m baking a really big pie that requires a lot of pastry dough I decrease the flour to 1/2 pound (about a generous 1 1/2 cups) flour and 4 to 6 ounces of butter and 1/2 cup of heavy cream or as needed to moisten the dough.
For the filling I won’t give exact measurements of ingredients because it all depends on how much chicken you have left over. Basically count on 3 to 4 cups of roughly diced chicken (or larger chunks), several each of carrots, celery and potatoes cut into medium- to small-size pieces and other vegetables that you like such as Brussels sprouts, rutabagas, frozen or fresh peas. I do like to add pearl onions, which I prepare fresh.
Sometimes I parboil the potatoes and carrots but not always. Instead I sauté the vegetables in butter for at least 15 minutes, browning them slightly, adding the chicken and deglazing the pan with white wine or Vermouth. The filling is put into a casserole dish such as 8 by 11 Pyrex dish or ceramic baking dish of similar size.
The vegetables might still be al dente after the sauté step but that’s OK because they soften up under the pastry dough lid as it bakes. This basic formula comes out quite well with leftover beef from a stew or pot roast using the remaining vegetables too. You can always add more carrots, potatoes or peas if needed.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound all-purpose flour
- 5 ounces butter, well chilled and cubed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- About 1/2 cup heavy cream
- Egg wash with heavy cream for glazing
- Leftover white and dark meat from a roast chicken, cubed our roughly chopped into large chunks
- Butter
- Carrots, sliced into thick pieces
- Potatoes, peeled and cubed
- Celery, chopped
- Brussel sprouts, cut in half, outer leaves removed
- Sweet peas, fresh or frozen
- Pearl onions
- Vermouth
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pastry dough. Put the flour and salt into the work bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix the ingredients. Add the butter and pulse 10 times or until you have pieces the size of small peas.
- Add the heavy cream slowly, pulsing as you do until the dough just begins to leave the sides of the bowl and comes together. It should be moderately moist. Add more cream if necessary.
- Turn out to a well-floured board and shape into a disk. Roll out to a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Fold like a letter. Give the dough a quarter turn and roll out again, using dusting flour if necessary to a rectangle in the same fashion. Fold as before. Put on a plate and refrigerate for about 5 to 10 minutes. Roll out for its final use.
- Chicken pot pie filling.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Parboil the potatoes and carrots for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Prepare the onions by putting into a pot of rapidly boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and plunge immediately into a bowl of ice water for about 5 minutes. The skins will slip off easily; trim the base.
- Heat the butter in a large skillet until foamy. Add the vegetables, stirring, until well coated with the butter. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until some of the vegetables color slightly. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Deglaze the pan with Vermouth or white wine, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pan. Reduce over moderate heat until liquid is nearly gone.
- Add the filling to a baking dish. Prepare a bechamel sauce and pour over the vegetables in the casserole. For a basic bechamel to cover the contents of an 8 by 11-inch casserole is to melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small sauce pan. Add 3 heaping tablespoons flour and stir into the butter to make a roux. Gradually add about 2 cups chicken stock, stirring until thickened; simmer for 5 minutes until reduced slightly. Add some heavy cream, stirring to combine. Simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Season generously with salt and pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Pour over the chicken filling.
- Roll out the dough to fit the casserole dish, leaving a good overhang that you will fold up and crimp to make a decorative border. Glaze the pastry with a beaten egg mixed with some heavy cream and brush the top and rim with the egg wash. Make three or more diagonal or four-square slits into the pie for the steam to escape and if you like lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with coarse salt.
- Put the casserole on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling inside.
- Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
