My Husband's Pot Pie FOMO

Remembering TV dinners, Curious about Hand-Raised Pies, As American as Chicken Pot Pie

Last week, for Issue #38, I was trying to decide between writing about Thai green papaya salad and chicken pot pie. The papaya salad was great, and simple, I thought, but Nate was sure the pot pie, which was also delicious, would be more popular with readers. I even thought about doing a Twitter poll to ask the metaverse its preference. Well, if opening rates are any indication, you were not very interested in green papaya salad, despite how delicious you may know it to be. Or maybe you love the salad, but think it’s outside the realm of what’s possible to produce in your kitchen (which, tbh, was the point of my recipe…you can do it!). Last week’s newsletter had the lowest viewing rate of any newsletter I’ve sent in months, by far. So this week we are going to test Nate’s #everyman hypothesis, that more people want to know about American classics like chicken pot pie than southeast Asian salads, however ubiquitous, easy, and delicious they may be. Now, with Issue #39, you can make your pot pie and eat it too! If you’d like to request a specific recipe, please do so in the comments.

But before I get to the pot pie, I wanted to direct you to an interview I did with Steven Shalowitz for The One Way Ticket Show. Steven is the producer of my new What’s Burning podcast, but his own show is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. He invited me on as a guest to think of a place to which I wanted a one-way ticket. I told him I wanted to travel back to early 1950s Vienne, France (near Lyon) so I could become a regular at La Pyramide, Fernand Point’s temple of gastronomy, when and where as-yet-unknown chefs Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Pierre Troisgros, and many others, cooked, met, and were inspired by Point’s spontaneous, market-based cooking to go on to create the Nouvelle Cuisine movement. Steven also asked me to share a list of my ten most memorable meals, one for each year of his show. He asked great questions. It was a fun conversation I think you will enjoy. Listen here.

Zooming with Steven Shalowitz (right) on his One Way Ticket Show to La Pyramide in early 1950s Vienne, France.

The other day Nate spotted a colleague of his digging into a pot pie and he got it into his head that this is what he wanted me to make for him to eat while he was up at the lakehouse on his own for a week of continuous conference Zooming. At first I thought he was kidding. About the pot pie, I mean. But the craving persisted and so I made him a chicken pot pie.

Chicken Pot Pie, bakehouse edition.

Although I included a recipe for pot pie in my Kitchen Sense cookbook (2006), it’s been years since I made one. More than 15, I know, because Nate had never had one of mine. I’m not sure why it fell out of my repertoire, as a pot pie can be very delicious and it isn’t much of a production—especially if you have some pie pastry and chicken stock in the freezer, which I usually do. What’s more, I was reminded that pot pie is another dish that allows you to use up things in your fridge—an obsession of mine, as you know. #wastenot

When I was a kid, I confess, I used to love Swanson’s Chicken Pot Pies, as well as their other TV dinners, like Fried Chicken, Roast Turkey, and Salisbury Steak (whatever that is), which were a treat for us when my parents were away, much to my mother’s chagrin. (I don’t recall the American classic Marie Callender’s pot pies being available in Canada when I was growing up.) For the TV dinners I liked how you pulled back the foil so that certain compartments could bake while others steamed, evidence of an attention to detail that impressed the budding gastronome in me. I was a “husky” child, so of course, I always opted for the “Hungry Man” size. Many years ago, more than 20, we were doing a photo shoot about the future of food for a cover of a publication for the James Beard Foundation and I thought it would be great to use one of the retro aluminum frozen TV dinner trays with the different compartments in the photo. It had been so long since I had one that I didn’t realize TV dinners no longer came in aluminum trays to heat in the oven, but instead were sold in plastic trays for the microwave. When I was growing up, only one friend’s family in our suburban Toronto neighborhood had a microwave, a large, hulking, expensive, scary Amana Radar Range. Needles to say, for the JBF shoot we couldn’t find an aluminum TV dinner tray anyplace, not even at a prop shop.

I wonder whether the popularity of the Great British Bake Off has led to an uptick in interest in savory meat pies. One challenge each season always seems to be a “hand-raised” meat pie made with boiled water crust, as if to remind us we are watching a British show. These pies always sound a little weird to me, but they look delicious. Still, I haven’t been tempted to make one for myself in part because I keep looking up recipes and they just don’t seem as delicious as the judges seem to think they are. (Mostly, if I’m honest with myself, I just want an excuse to buy a wooden pie dolly, which is apparently needed to raise that crust by hand.) Were I to jump deeper into the genre of fancy meats in crust, I think I’d attempt a French pâté en croute first. Regardless, neither the solid, sturdy English meat pie, nor the fancy French pâté en croûte are what a pot pie is meant to be.

Just a fancy pot pie? Last year Laurent Gras’s was working on his pâté en croûte for several weeks, for which Nate and I were often beneficiaries.

Basically, a pot pie is a vélouté (a roux-thickened sauce made from stock) studded with vegetables and meat and baked in a crust. Think Chicken à la King en croûte. I find it unnecessary and near impossible to have a crust that goes all the way round a potpie that is cooked through and crisp. So, I just make a rich, thick filling, place it in a deep-dish pie plate or other baking dish, and top it with a generous crust that I baked until flaky and browned. To make sure that the top crust is evenly cooked and crisp, I think it is best to start baking it when both filling and crust are chilled. My preference is for a standard pie crust, but I’ve used biscuit dough and puff pastry, to good visual effect.

As for what to put inside a pot pie, just about any vegetable and/or meat is fair game, including game. You just have to be sure that everything will be cooked at the same time, say, after an hour or so of baking, which is what it will take for the crust to be done. That’s why I parboil potatoes, sauté mushrooms, and use cooked, leftover meat or cook it first, myself. For Nate’s chicken pot pie, I boned some skin-on chicken thighs, seasoned and sautéed them until the skin was nice and crisp before I cut them into bit-sized chunks to stir into the filling. A pot pie makes good use of frozen vegetables, too, especially peas.

As with most of my recipes, this one is intended mostly as a guideline. Use what you have, or what you crave. I had some rendered duck fat in the fridge out our lakehouse, so I used that instead of butter to make the roux that thickened the sauce. This was a tasty alternative. White wine is nice (red okay if you are using beef), sherry even better. You can also stir beans, leftover chunks of stuffing or cornbread, or other tasty, ingredients. Any vegetable, especially root vegetables, will work well.

For a perfect pot pie, the crust should be fully baked and flaky.

RECIPE: Chicken Pot PIe

(Makes one 9-inch, deep-dish chicken pot pie or similar, serves 6 to 8)

• 4 boneless chicken thighs or 2 boneless chicken breasts, preferably with skin, or 2 to 3 cups cooked chicken

• Salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Avocado, peanut, or other neutral vegetable oil

• 1 large potato, peeled and diced

• 4 tablespoons duck fat, bacon fat, butter, or a combination

• 1 medium onion, diced

• 1 stalk celery, diced

• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced

• 2 or 3 ounces mushrooms, diced

• 1 bay leaf

• ½ cup dry white wine or 1/3 cup dry sherry

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour

• 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

• 4 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

• ½ cup frozen peas

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme, or other herbs

• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire, soy sauce, or white miso, for an umami boost

• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, optional

• ½ recipe flaky pie crust, or your favorite crust, biscuit, or puff pastry

• 1 egg

If using fresh chicken, thighs or breasts, season with salt and pepper. Heat a large Dutch oven or wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken in the hot pan, skin side down, and sear until the skin is crisp, about 8 minutes. The skin will stick at first and then release, so don’t move the chicken around. When nice and crisp, loosen the meat from the pan and flip to cook the second side, another 5 minutes or so. It doesn’t matter if the chicken isn’t cooked all the way through as it will finish cooking in the pie. But you do want the skin nice and crisp. Remove from the pan, cool, and slice into bite-sized chunks. Reserve while you prepare the rest of the pie. Pour off the oil in the pan but do not wipe clean. You will use this same pan to prepare the rest of the filling.

Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan or small, deep, frying pan of water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt and the diced potato. Cook for 7 or 8 minutes, just until the potato begins to soften. Drain and set aside.

In that same, uncleaned pan you used to cook the chicken, heat the duck, bacon fat, or butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the celery and carrot, and cook a few minutes more. Add the mushrooms and bay leaf and continue cooking until the mushrooms are soft. Add the white wine or sherry and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. While evaporating, scrape (“deglaze”) the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to remove any browned bits. When totally dry, stir in the flour and cook, stirring, so the flour coats all the sautéed vegetables and begins to toast. Stir in the chicken stock and let the mixture come to a boil. It will thicken quite stiff. Add the green beans and cook a few minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the frozen peas, cooked potato, diced chicken with any juice that has accumulated on the dish, parsley, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, nutmeg, if using, a generous pinch of salt, and some black pepper, and stir until everything is well mixed and heated through. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. At this point I like to transfer the filling to a deep-dish, 9-inch pie plate or other baking dish, cover with plastic, and chill completely, overnight if I have the time.

The filling comes together like a thick steaming, thick soup.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie crust or other dough, to a 10-inch circle, or whatever shape will cover your baking dish with a 1-inch overhang. Transfer the crust to the top of the chilled filling. Turn the overhang of the crust under to make a thick edge and press with your fingers to form a fluted rim. Cut four or five slits in the crust in the center of the pie to allow steam to escape while it bakes. Chill the whole thing for about an hour or more so that the dough relaxes and firms up.

A double-thick fluted edge makes the crust more substantive and the slits release the steam.

To bake, preheat the oven to 425°F. Beat the egg with a tablespoon or two of water and a pinch of salt to make a wash. Brush the entire crust evenly with the egg wash. Transfer the pie to a baking tray to catch any spillage and set in the oven to bake. I find it takes a good hour of baking to get the crust good and browned and the filling heated through and bubbling. If the crust starts to darken too much, lower the heat to 375°F. or 350°F., and cover lightly with foil to continue baking. For the best flavor, I like the crust to be deeply golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for a good 20 to 30 minutes so that the filling to congeals a little before cutting into wedges to serve.