An adaptation of Craig Claiborne's Chicken Pot Pie.

When a small woman roasts an $8.00 chicken for just herself she needs a plan for the leftovers. I decided to make a chicken pot pie. I tried to find a recipe for it in Mark Bittman's " How to Cook Everything". I tried the same author's "The Best Recipes in the World". I looked in Ruth Reichel's massive "Gourmet Today". I knew I could find one on the Internet, but with the number of cookbooks I own it seemed ludicrous I could not find a recipe. Craig Claiborne, in his "Southern Cooking" came through for me. The pie dough I made came from his "New York Times Cookbook", the 1990 revised edition. I picked it because I was going to make my first pie dough ever, and the recipe called for lard or Vegetable shortening rather than butter.

This pie, full of a nutritionist's nightmares, is one of the most delicious dishes I have ever tasted. But there is a caveat- You must eat small portions or you will feel as though you have been stuffed and force fed. It is that rich.

The Crust:

2 cups of flour
1/2 tsps salt
2/3 cup of shortening
1/2 cup cold water (I used iced- I saw it recommended elsewhere).

Put the flour, salt, and shortening in a food processor. Start pulsing and add the cold water slowly at the same time.Use only enough water to make the dough easy to shape into a ball. This dough ball will be just enough to cover a pie in a 10 inch pie plate. Chill for 30 min in the refrigerator.




The Filling:

1 1/2 to 2 cups of diced up chicken white meat (left-over roast chicken)
2 cups of peeled white pearl onions that have been cooked whole till tender.
Most of an 8 oz can of spring baby peas. This was not in Claiborne's recipe, but I decided to use it up.

5 strips of crispy bacon, cut up into 1 inch pieces.
1/2 cup cooked carrots preferably pre-cooked in chicken broth and butter and seasoned with herbes de provence.
1/2 cup of green beans cooked the same way as the carrots. Go ahead and cook them together if you like. Mine were leftovers I had in the freezer.


1 cup of diced cooked potato- I used left over butter roasted potatoes from my
roasted chicken dinner.


Mix chicken and vegetables in a bowl. Set aside. Hold on to that bacon- we are not ready for it yet. Taste the chicken-vegetable mixture. Add salt or a little more butter if you like. Then put the mixture into a 10 inch pie plate, being careful not to overfill. Put the bacon pieces on top.



White sauce:

4 tbsp flour
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
A few drops of Tabasco sauce
4 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of heavy cream


Combine the chicken broth and cream in a sauce pan. Cooking over medium heat add the flour and whisk it in until the sauce is creamy and starts to thicken. Add the vinegar and Tabasco. Whisk this in. Pour the sauce over the vegetable mixture. Do not overfill the pie plate or it may bubble over onto the floor of your oven. Leave enough room for the crust.



On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough and shape and coax it into a 10 inch circle. Fold it in half then gently lift it onto the pie plate and unfold it so it covers the pie/ Press it down gently onto the sides so it fits. Make a small hole in the center to let steam out. Brush the crust with a beaten egg, then bake the pie for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

This pie differs from Craig Claiborne's in not using hard-boiled eggs in the filling. In this adaptation the chicken is already cooked and not poached in white wine and broth. I cannot imagine gilding the lily by adding eggs to this! It would be so rich then that one would only be able to eat a few bites.


As you may see from my last photo, this dish has the Beagle Seal of Approval!