This turned out to be one of the most comforting dishes I've made in a while, and who doesn't want to remember comfort? So here it is. It's loosely based off of a recipe in Best Recipe of Cooks' Illustrated. It's heavy on the carrots and celery (something I don't usually like too much), but was beautifully balanced in the end and worked both in terms of texture and aroma. (My pie did not actually look like this.)For a 9" pie. 6-8 servings.
Ingredients
pie crust for top and bottom--whatever recipe or prepared version you like
1.25 lb. chicken breast on bone (I used local fresh chicken. So flavorful.)
3 c chicken broth (Used Trader Joe's organic, boxed.)
2T + 4T butter
1 t dried tarragon
1 med potato, peeled and diced to about 1/2 in.
2 T olive oil
3/4 large onion, diced
4 med carrots, diced
5 stalks celery, lightly peeled, dices small (sliced lengthwise 3 or 4 times, then chopped) It will be more celery than the carrots and onion combined.
3T white flour
3t dried thyme
1 1/2 heads garlic, minced (Yes, a lot. Some of mine was a little dried out, so you could use 1 head, but you'll need at least that much.)
1/4 c flour
1/2 c heavy cream
Directions
- Make (or buy) your pie dough ahead and refrigerate.
- Boil the whole chicken breast in the broth for 8-10 min. Remove chicken to cool. Reserve broth. (I did 8 and it wasn't quite cooked through. Also did this a day ahead because the chicken needed to be cooked.)
- After chicken has cooled, shred it with two forks. Discard skin and bone.
- In a skillet, melt 2T butter. Add shredded chicken and tarragon. Mix thoroughly and saute on med-low heat for 2-3 minutes. Leave in pan until needed later. (If you boil chicken ahead, do this later when you're making the rest.)
Preheat oven to 400. - In a medium pot, boil the diced potato for about 3 minutes. Drain and reserve.
- In a large heavy pot, heat onions in oil on high heat until they soften. Reduce heat to med-low and add carrots, garlic, and thyme. Heat through. Add celery. Let cook on low for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Make a well through to the bottom of the pot. Add the flour there and stir a bit until it heats. Add the 4T of butter to that and mix in to make paste. Now be patient, letting it heat through and start to turn light brown and smell nutty. Stir occasionally. When it starts to get the wonderful nutty smell (that's a roux!) then stir into all the veggies and heat through for another minute or so.
- Gradually add the chicken broth, stirring through each time (maybe a 1/4 cup at a time) until it's mixed through and not lumpy at all from the flour. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat.
- Add heavy cream and the boiled diced potato. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. It needs to reduce to a pretty thick consistency as this will be the pie filling with the chicken added.
- While the filling is simmering, roll out your pie dough and line the bottom of the pie dish. (Once in the dish, you may want to put it in the oven for 4-5 min. to set a little. I did this as my bottom dough was too wet--a frozen one I totally messed up getting in the dish, but it came out fine. I used my own dough for the top--and it was better.)
- Roll out or prepare top dough layer.
- Add the chicken to the pot and heat/mix through.
- Ladle the filling into the pie dish until full. (I had about 3/4 cup left--really tasty appetizer eaten with a spoon!)
- Cover with top crust. Seal edge, and but a few fork holes in the top to let out steam.
- Place in oven with a baking tray underneath (next shelf down) to catch drips.
- Bake for 20-25 min. or until top is nicely brown. Remove and let stand for ten or fifteen minutes before serving. It will still be plenty hot!
