Chicken Pot Pie Without Vegetables

Debbie R.'s Note:

This recipe didn't use to strike me as rich but, after having made it today, I think it is. It's good, but you'll want to serve something crunchy and fresh with it, like a salad or fruit for dessert. The cheddar crust is essential for the finished overall flavor.

• Total Time: 3 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

Pastry

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons cold water

Filling

• 1 roasting chicken
• 1 celery rib
• 1 onion
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• pepper
• salt

Directions:

1. Mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening, butter and cheese till crumbs form. Add water and toss with a fork just until dough just forms a ball.
2. Turn onto lightly floured board. Press large chunks away with heel of hand. Gather and repeat. Shape into thick circle. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 30 minutes.
3. Stew chicken with enough water to cover it, along with the onion and celery, until done. This usually takes from 60 to 90 minutes.
4. Remove chicken from broth. Debone and skin. Chop meat.
5. Skim off fat from broth. Discard the celery and onion. Reserve 3 cups broth for this recipe. (The more concentrated the broth, the better.).
6. Melt butter. Add flour. Cook and stir until bubbly. Add reserved broth and evaporated milk. Don't just dump all the liquids into the flour mixture--work in about 1/4 cup at a time until it is thinned out, and then you can increase how much liquid you can work in each time. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in chicken. Put chicken filling in a round casserole dish.
7. Roll out dough, a little bigger than your dish so that you can have some dough to crimp. Place dough over chicken filling. Crimp edges.
8. Bake at 425 degrees for about 30-60 minutes or until crust is golden. If you check it and the edges of the pie are looking browned before the rest of it is ready, put foil over the edges -- just make like a long little tent and loosely attach over the edges.

Reviews

[kiwidutch]

Debbie, great recipe.. lovely soft taste to the chicken and with the cheddar chhese in it, a different take on the pastry too. Since I had a lot of pastry left over, I pondered putting the chicken mixture into a far bigger, shallower pie dish, but then the filling would have barely covered the bottom of the dish and judging by your photo, I guessed that that wasn't what was intended for this recipe. So.. I went with a smaller dish and made pastry cheese sticks with the rest of the pastry, which my DS refused but my 5 year old ate with gusto. I cooked it for about 45 minutes and the pastry was golden brown, but I think another few minutes would have been better as the last millimeter of pastry wasn't quite fully cooked.. not enough to bother about putting it back in the oven, just a note for next time. Half a cup of flour in the filling seemed a lot to me for the amount of mixture that I had so I cut that in half and it was perfect, I think that the whole chickens here tend to be small. I froze the rest of the veg/chicken stock and it was almost a shame to have not included the onion and celery into the chicken mix... since I wanted to be true to the recipe I left it out this time, but would include it next time as it would make the flavour even better. This was tasty, and our guest and I liked it very much but I would be tempted to put in a but more onion and celery and to include them in with the chicken next time. Definiately a make again recipe. Thanks!