Backyard Chicken Pot Pie

It’s just me and a dead chicken in the kitchen at 4 in the morning listing to the BBC.To mangle Anna Karenina, sleeping people are all alike, but every insomniac is awake in her own way.And my way is to get a head start on a chicken-pot-pie recipe as well to marvel at how circle-of-life-y this all is.From fluff ball to ultra-awkward pullets to egg-laying super mommas to rubber chicken look-a-like to dinner to scraps to chicken food. Dorothy, as she and her sisters are all named, was the smallest biggest chicken bully you’ve ever met. Despite being smaller than the others, she was at the top of the pecking order and for her abbreviated life, attacked everything and everyone: buttons, freckles, her fellow hens, Erik.  This is why we ‘volunteered’ Dorothy and her evil sidekick, Other Dorothy, to pioneer the butcher block followed by the soup pot. We decided on this for two reasons: first, to test our mettle by eating a creature we had raised from a fluff ball, and second, to give respite to the remaining poor, bloodied hens.We have Buff Orpingtons, the yellow Labradors of poultry. Generally affable, unflappable (ha ha), hardy and huge, they’re ‘dual purpose’ birds raised for both meat and eggs. Generally meat birds (‘broiler hen’ is the joyless term) meet their end early – as young as 5-7 weeks old. Our chickies were old hags in comparison and lived literally ten times that long before the curtain closed.Other Dorothy, who was much plumper, became Coq au Vin right away. Reviews were mixed: flavorful, yes; chewy, definitely. I was less-than-inspired by this experiment, so Mean Dorothy sat un-nibbled in the freezer for many months.But a recent craving for chicken pot pie jolted me to action. It was time to try again.I’ve read dozens of recipes and have come to several conclusions.

1. There is no way in hell I’m going to make puff pastry from scratch. It clearly takes forever, and I can buy all-butter, preservative-free frozen puff pastry down the street, so that’s what I’m going to do. The end.
2. In various combinations, the ingredients are the same: BUTTER, carrots, peas, mushrooms, potatoes, chicken stock, wine/cognac, herbs, a butter and flour roux and salt and pepper.
3. You need a chicken.

So here’s the recipe for turning a tough old (and mean) bird into Backyard Chicken Pot Pie:(Please note: this takes a long time, but it’s fun and worth it.)Ingredients:

• 1 chicken (the older and meaner the better)
• 1 package all-butter puff pastry (DuFour Pastry Kitchen) Defrost in fridge for 3 hours or on counter for 1 hour.
• small handful of dried woodland mushrooms
• 1-2 cups button mushrooms, any kind (halved or quartered depending on size)
• 1-2 cups carrots (cut into ½ inch medallions) - Ours were from our yard!
• 1-2 cups frozen peas
• 1 cup pearl onions
• 1-2 cups fingerling potatoes, diced ¼ or ½ inch cubes
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• ¾ cup flour
• booze: I used brandy and white wine
• fresh herbs: sage, rosemary and thyme (I used dried rosemary; no one died)
• egg, beaten to blend with 1 tsp water
• coarse salt and pepper

Cooking the bird and making the stock:The basic idea here is to cook her as long as possible on very low heat. I used my crock pot on the ‘low’ setting. At first, I just stuck the bird in the pot with a tad of olive oil, covered it and set it to cook for 8 hours. But then I checked the meat, and though it was ‘done,’ it was too tough. So I covered the bird entirely with water and simmered on low for another 6 hours. In the future, I will skip the dry poach step and just simmer the bird on low for 8 hours or so. The meat really does just fall off the bone.

• Put bird in pot (crock pot works great)
• Cover with water
• Cook on LOW for 8 hours or so (temperature not to exceed 180˚)
• Remove bird; keep broth in pot (you’ll use this to make the stock, which you’ll need every bit of in the recipe)
• De-bone/de-gristle/skin the chicken, placing all discards back in the pot with the broth
• Shred the meat by hand; store in refrigerator for later
• Cook the broth on higher heat (“HIGH” setting on the crock pot) for the next 3-5 hours, or until the mixture is opaque and a bit thick
• Strain off the solids and reserve the broth. The fat will rise to the top. If you do this ahead of time, you can refrigerate the broth and then easily scoop off the fat with a spoon once it hardens. If not, then you can use a turkey baster to siphon off most of the fat once it separates.
• Feed scraps the grateful animals at your abode (we made our cat and remaining chickens very happy) - Moral hazard to be discussed at length in future post.

Preparing the filling:

1. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the dried mushrooms. Steep for 20ish minutes; reserve liquid and mushrooms separately.

You’ll need to par-boil the veggies so they have the right texture. At the same time, you can enrich the stock you made by doing this in the stock.

2. Heat up a bunch of the reserved stock to boiling in a large sauce pan3. Simmer carrots in stock until tender-crisp (1-2 minutes); remove with slotted spoon and place in bowl3. Simmer potatoes in stock until tender (2 minutes); remove with slotted spoot and add to carrots4. Save the broth (you’re about to use it again in 10 minutes)5. Pour boiling water over the pearl onions in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes and then allow to cool6. Once cool, peel pearl onions; halve or quarter if large. Place in bowl with cooked veggies.

Sauté the mushrooms:

7. Wipe out large sauce pan; Melt 2 T butter in pan over medium/high heat8. Add fresh mushrooms, sauté until browned9. When nearly finished, add a generous glug of brandy, cook until absorbed10. Place mushrooms in bowl with cooked veggies.

Prepare the roux:

11. Using the same pan, melt the remainder of the stick of butter in pan over medium/high heat12. Whisk in slowly: ¾ cup of flour. Keep cooking and whisking for 10 minutes until it turns golden brown. It will be thick, but if it’s too thick, you’ve added too much flour, so just add more butter.13. Toss in several sprigs each of rosemary, sage and thyme14. Pour in most of the chicken stock, the rehydrated mushrooms, the broth from the dried mushrooms (but not the sandy grit that has settled to the bottom), and about 1 cup of white wine.15. Simmer on low for 20 minutes16. Set strainer over pot. Pour mixture through strainer into pot removing solids.17. Add cooked shredded chicken, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, pearl onions, frozen peas18. Bring to simmer and adjust flavors: I added generous amounts of salt, cracked black pepper and ever-more brandy (yay!)

Place oven rack in lower 2/3 of oven. Pre-heat to 375˚Prepare the oven-safe cookery

19. Roll out puff pastry on floured surface to ¼ inch thick20. Place cookery on top of pastry to ensure it will generously cover it. Cut to fit with 1” margin or so. This does not have to be perfect.21. Fill cookery with yummy filling to within ¾” of top.22. Brush edges of cookery with beaten egg mixture (this helps it stick)23. Place pre-cut puff pastry sheet atop filled cookery; pinch edges to seal.24. Cut 1” x-shaped vent in center of each crock25. Brush tops with egg mixture

Bake!

26. Place all crocks on rimmed baking sheet or you’ll have a disastrous mess to contend with27. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes until very golden brown and bubbly28. Allow to rest for a while – it will stay super hot for at least 25 minutes.

Serve, enjoy with loved ones, and marvel! PS: Like I said, this takes a long time. If you're brave enough to try it, send us a picture of the finished meal and we'll post it here!