Chicken Pot Pie

A chicken and mushroom pie with homemade stock

• CuisineWestern
• CategoryChicken
• CourseMains

Ingredients

• 1 kgChicken breast, diced
• 150 gmsSpeck or bacon, chopped
• 200 gmsOnion, sliced
• 50 gmsGarlic, minced
• 500 gmsMushrooms
• 2 cupsChicken stock
• 300 mlCream
• 4 tbspPlain flour
• 4 sheetsPuff pastry
•  Oil
•  Ground pepper
•  Salt
•  
• Chicken stock
• 1 kgChicken bones
• 100 gmsOnion, quartered
• 100 gmsCarrot, sliced
• ½ tspWhole peppercorns

Preparation

1. If making chicken stock from scratch, make as per description below
2. Heat oil in a pan and add chopped speck and fry
3. Add sliced onion, garlic and fry till soft
4. Add diced chicken breast and mushrooms and stir till chicken is no longer pink
5. Add chicken stock and cream and simmer for 20 minutes
6. Add ground pepper, salt and the flour dissolved in some water
7. Simmer for another 20 minutes
8. Distribute into 8 ramekins and cover with two layers of puff pastry
9. Put in a 220°C oven for 30 minutes

The watery, salty stock that comes out of a pack on a grocery shop shelf is nothing like chicken stock made from scratch. Usually, it does not matter but in a chicken pot pie, a good stock adds a lot.

Every chicken stock recipe is different. This stock will end up in a pot pie. So I can take a few shortcuts. I start with chicken carcasses. They are mostly bone with a bit of meat. There is a lot of fat but that will end up being skimmed off. So you can wash and dry it but I leave it all alone. This is about 3kgs of chicken bones. That is a lot but chicken bones are a $1/kg. This will make way more stock than I need for the pie but I have other plans for it. I have adjusted the quantities in the main recipe to give a little over the required amount.

Spray it generously with oil, both inside and out. Place it in racks in the oven and put a plate below to catch any drippings.

Run the oven at 220°C for about an hour. The chicken bones should now be nicely browned.

Put it in a large pot and add 5 litres of water. Add the drippings as well (the Cub insisted on this one). Add quartered onions, sliced carrots, garlic and whole peppercorns. The bones may not be completely covered but that is fine - at some point, the bones will start falling apart.

Simmer it uncovered over 4 hours. Letting it bubble a bit does make the stock cloudy but as it goes into a pot pie, it does not have to be clear. Strain it with a sieve into a bowl and put it in the fridge.

There is a lot of fat and it will float to the top in a thick layer and harden. This forms a seal and preserves the stock for several days in the fridge.

When you are ready to use it, remove the layer of fat and spoon out the stock. As there is a lot of bone, it is jelly like with all the gelatine.

As I don't need a clear stock, I haven't put in steps to clarify it. I have heard of egg whites being used for this purpose, but haven't tried it out myself. Use the chicken stock as per the recipe and you will end up with a chicken pot pie like the one in the picture below.

Once the pie crust comes off, the chicken and mushrooms in the stock made from scratch should be worth the extra effort.