Recipe
Easy-to-Make Chicken Pot Pie
You may never eat frozen ones again!
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My family loves pie, in all forms, savory and sweet. My favorite is cherry. My husbands is chocolate cream topped with whipped cream, not meringue (or as he would say — calf slobbers). My sons are chocolate silk. My mother’s was lemon meringue. My father-in-law’s was coconut cream.
When I was around 10-years-old, my mother started making a chicken pot pie, New England style, with oysters. My dad loved it; my brother and I gagged through dinner and ultimately went hungry.
That was when you ate what was put in front of you, and Mom made dinner for Dad, and the kids just ate it. Or not.
Not to worry. My mom quickly realized that chicken pot pie with oysters simply wasn’t kid-friendly and began making a second, much smaller, pot pie for my brother and me. It’s all good.
Years ago, my husband and I ate at Mimi’s Cafe, a French-style bistro, where I discovered another way to make chicken pot pie that was delicious. The secret ingredient — sage. Yum!
This pot pie is so easy to make and takes less than 45 minutes before it is on the table, ready to eat. This recipe easily serves four but can be doubled to serve more or halved to serve only two, as I do.
Make the crust first!
Start by making the crust. There are two options for this pot pie. Because I hate a soggy bottom crust, I almost always only have a top one. As a result, you only need a one-crust pie recipe. If you want a bottom crust, you will need to double my pie crust recipe.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Using the tines of a fork, mash 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter into the flour and salt mixture. The butter should be as cold as possible, so don’t soften it first. Keep cutting the butter into the flour mixture until it has a crumbly texture.
Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of ice-cold buttermilk or whole milk, one tablespoon at a time. Add just enough milk that the dough sticks together easily and no longer crumbles apart. Overhandling the crust will make it tough, so pay attention to when it just begins to hold together.
