CHICKEN POT PIE
Serves 8
Nourishing to the soul as well as the body, chicken pot pie is the best winter food I (Kate) know. On those rare evenings growing up when I stayed home alone, my grandma would heat up a Swanson turkey pot pie before she left. I loved those things (although, every time, I wished they were just a little bit bigger). Strangely, they don’t taste as good to me now. But the one below? It’s my favorite of all the world’s pot pies.
I (Kate) developed this recipe when Sam and I were newly married. My cousin Kelly gave me the idea to put biscuits on top, and Sam requested the peas. I added white beans to make the dish extra creamy, but those last additions are both optional. Every member of the family is happy when they smell this baking in the oven, and the youngest might love it most of all. She’s the one who loves hamburgers and macaroni and cheese, so this makes a happy compromise in which child and adult palettes meet for creamy sauce, soft biscuits, and the homiest of vegetables.
A couple of weeks ago, when my mom met me for our weekly brown bag date, she showed me the chicken in her sandwich. “This was supposed to go in the pot pie,” she said. She’d had friends over for dinner, precooked the chicken, then forgot to put it in with the vegetables! No one noticed until she she herself realized and told them. “Even without the chicken, it’s the best chicken pot pie I’ve tried,” one of them replied.
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1/4 cup flour
1 can chicken broth
1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, cooked and sliced into bite-size pieces
1 small onion, chopped into 1/4-inch dice
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped small (optional)
2 red or other variety boiling potatoes, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (we often use one red potato and 1 orange-fleshed sweet potato)
3–4 carrots (1/4 pound), chopped into 1/2-inch dice
1 15.5-ounce can white beans (optional)
1 teaspoon oregano
Thyme or rosemary (1/4-teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon fresh, chopped)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup frozen green peas (optional)
Freshly ground pepper and a dash of paprika (optional)
biscuit dough (recipe here) or 1 package Hungry Jack buttermilk biscuits
Melt the butter in a two- or three-quart saucepan over medium heat, then saute the onion in butter for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, if you wish, then immediately add the flour and stir, cooking until the flour is fully incorporated and acquires a golden smell. Add broth a few tablespoons at a time, stirring after each addition, three or four times or until about half the can is empty. Then pour in the rest all at once. Add the oregano, thyme or rosemary, and salt, along with the chopped carrots and potatoes. Simmer until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a fork, 10-15 minutes.
While the vegetables simmer, heat the oven to 450 degrees. If you’re using peas, stir them in after the other vegetables have cooked; the residual heat will be enough to cook them. Prepare the biscuit topping (or open the can of Hungry Jack biscuits). If your saucepan is not ovensafe, transfer filling to a 3 quart casserole container and sprinkle with paprika. If it is ovensafe, just sprinkle with paprika.
Flatten out the biscuit dough and place on top of casserole (or lay the pre-made biscuits on top of the filling). Bake until the biscuits are cooked through and the filling bubbles around the edges, 20 to 25 minutes.
Ready for the oven.