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Chicken Pot Pie
Posted by Elise on
Filed under Chicken, Comfort Food, Main Course
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My father’s childhood friends Dick and Doris came to visit us last week from Chicago (by train!) and brought the most wonderful gift – a copy of the Marshall Field’s Cookbook (sometimes available on eBay), from the famed Chicago department store (recently bought out by Macy’s). The book has a photo of the store’s famous “Mrs. Hering’s Chicken Pot Pie” on the cover, so tempting, we had to try it. If you are looking for an old fashioned, traditional chicken pot pie, made from a whole chicken, freshly cut vegetables, and a flaky homemade crust, this is it (with a few minor adjustments to the original recipe).
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Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
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Ingredients
Chicken and stock ingredients:
- 1 (3 1/2 pound) frying chicken
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 small onion, halved
- 2 teaspoons salt
Pie crust ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced into 1/2-inch cubes (best to chill cubes in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before using)
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
- 3 to 4 Tbsp ice water
Filling ingredients:
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 large onion, diced (about 1 1/4 cups)
- 3 carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
- 3/4 cup green peas, frozen or fresh
- 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Egg wash:
- 1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water
Special equipment needed:
- 6 10-ounce ramekins
Method
1 Cook the chicken and make the chicken stock. Combine the chicken, carrot, celery, onion and salt into a large stock pot. Add cold water until just covered and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and let cool for 15 minutes. While the chicken is cooling, continue to boil the remaining water and vegetables in the pot. When the chicken has cooled enough to touch, strip away as much of the meat as you can. Place the meat on a dish, set aside. Return the chicken bones to the stockpot and continue to boil, on high heat, until the stock has reduced to a quart or quart and a half. Set aside 2 1/2 cups of the stock for this recipe. The remaining stock you can refrigerate and store for another purpose.
2 Prepare the pie crust dough. Combine the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the chilled butter cubes and pulse 5 times to combine. And the shortening and pulse a few more times, until the dough resembles a coarse cornmeal, with some pea-sized pieces of butter. Slowly stream in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the dough sticks together when you press some between your fingers. Empty the food processor, placing the dough on a clean surface. Use your hands to mold into a ball, then flatten the ball into a disk. Sprinkle with a little flour, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days, before rolling.
3 Prepare the filling. Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large skillet, melt butter on medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, one minute more. Whisk in 2 1/2 cups of the chicken stock. Whisk in the milk. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the chicken meat, thyme, sherry, peas, parsley, salt and pepper and stir well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Divide the warm filling among six 10-ounce ramekins.
4 Prepare the crust. Roll out dough on a lightly flour surface to a little less than a quarter-inch thick. Cut into 6 rounds, slightly larger than the circumference of the ramekins. Lay a dough round on each pot pie filling. Fold the excess dough under itself and use the tines of a fork to press the dough against the edge of the ramekins. Cut a 1-inch vent into each individual pie. Use a pastry brush to apply an egg wash to each pie. Line a baking sheet with foil, place the pies on the baking sheet. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Yield: Serves 6.
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63 Comments
I just recently had lunch at the Walnut Room at Marshall Fields er…Macy’s… and I think they’ve changed the recipe a bit. The filling seems as though it may be the same, but they topped the pot pie with a triangular shaped puff pastry sculpture. It was good, but I would have preferred the traditional crust. I’ll have to make this myself now.
Thanks so much- Brady
I was wondering about making these in little pie pans and freezing them. Can anyone tell me how to do this? Would you bake them first or freeze them with the pie crust unbaked? What about reheating them?
Yum-E, with a capital “E”. Any ideas/hints/suggestions on preparing this as one large individual casserole, Elise? Maybe in a 1 1/2 – 2 qt. dish? Anyone?
I love pot pie, this recipe is so similar to the one I use, except I buy rotisseire chicken and use low sodium chicken stock as a time saver. I use a ten inch pie pan from Chantal, and fill with all the ingredients, roll the crust to fit. Thank you for such wonderful recipes!
Bridget, I was wondering the same thing, although I was considering making them with a bottom crust as well.
Anyone have any thoughts on how to prepare these ahead of time and freeze them?
Thanks!
I almost hate coming to your site. I bet I gain 5 pounds just looking at the photos. And what I wouldn’t give for aome Chicken Pot Pie right now.
Hi,
Any suggestions on making this pot pie without the milk and flour? This sounds delicious but the flour and milk stuff me up.
Thanks
the best chicken pot-pie i have ever had was at a little place in McClean (sp?) VA. It has potatoes in it. Does anyone have any suggestions on making this with Potatoes cut up in it? I’m not sure how it should be cooked, so the potatoes will be cooked evenly. Anyone?
Jonathan, you could use an up turned heat proof egg cup in the middle of a larger pie dish to hold up the pastry, just roll out the pastry to the shape of the top of the pie dish. Just remember the egg cup is there when cutting into it!
This looked so yummy, I just HAD to make it for dinner tonight! It was soooo delicious – really hit the spot. I already had some shredded chicken in the fridge so I used that (and some good quality commercial chicken stock) instead of cooking a new bird. Since I don’t like peas, I substituted a can of corn, which really adds some nice flavor. Also, I added some red potatoes – just make sure to cut the chunks super small and they cook out just fine. I cooked the filling on the stove for maybe 10 minutes before loading the pie pan (I used one pan, not ramekins), just to make sure the potatoes would be done. This turned out EXACTLY as I’d hoped! Yum!
Thanks everyone, for your comments. This chicken pot pie really did turn out well. Regarding some of the questions…
Freezing. Given that chicken pot pie is one of the more popular frozen dinners, I think it would probably freeze up fine. Just make sure that the pie crust is not cooked first. You would need to increase the cooking time, but I would just cook until the top pastry is browned, as the inside is already cooked, it just needs to be heated up.
Large casserole. This recipe can easily be made in a large casserole dish. Just roll out the dough and lay it over the dish like one big pie.
Potatoes. Just dice the potatoes to small cubes and cook with the rest of the vegetables. By the time the entire pie is cooked, the potatoes should be perfect.
Cheers, ~Elise
Oh, oh, OH MY GOODNESS. Yummmmmmm!
P.S. Photos are fantastic.
Made this tonight and it was most yummy. The filling was perfect and I can hardly wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I love your recipes.
Just for anyone who was interested in freezing little pies: I reheated them at 350F for 45 min and they were really good.
The crust was very short and delicious, but I found the filling a bit bland. I prefer something a bit creamier and thicker and with more herbs–not that I know what those would be! Any suggestions?
(I also wished I had added more salt to the filling and crust, but I am a saltaholic.)
Thanks for this wonderful website, Elise!
For make ahead, I use store-bought puff pastry sheets. For the bottom and the top. The bottom soaks up the filling, and the top puffs up and browns gorgeously. I make these for holidays and the only work I have to do is making the filling.
If you are allergic to flour, you can use cornstarch instead. Add about 2 TBS to the veggies, then proceed with adding the chicken stock. You could also skip the milk and use additional chicken stock to avoid the dairy. It should work out fine.
Someone wanted suggestions for additional seasonings … in her crustless variation, Rachel Ray uses tarragon (a classic flavouring for chicken), as well as poultry seasoning, bay leaf and white wine which she boils off before adding the stock … one of her readers used thyme instead of tarragon … she also uses asparagus as one of the vegetables … some of her readers substituted broccoli for the asparagus which they reported worked well … if you freeze them, I personally would do so without the crust … they can then be thawed in the microwave and finished off with a layer of store-bought pastry in a conventional oven (12 minutes or so at 400ºF) … prefer a creamier version? many recipes use cream but one could also use more milk and less stock with additional butter enrichment …
Fantastic! I substituted Pheasant for the Chicken and used the small pie tins vice the Ramekins. turned out absolutely wonderful. A great way freeze them for long term. Put the pie tins into the freezer (Uncooked) for 24 hours. Once they are frozen I take them out & seal them in a food saver bag. This takes all the extra air out & Protects from Freezer burn. Looking forward to having a Wonderful Pheasant Pot Pie for lunch in July
This was spectacular!