Chicken pot-pie crust, I need a recipe!

I have volunteered to make a dozen or so chicken pot pies for a kids camp. Anyone out there able to help me with the crust?

Thanks Bob in Alberta

I have volunteered to make a dozen or so chicken pot pies for a kids camp. Anyone out there able to help me with the crust?

Thanks Bob in Alberta

Paté Brisée? Classic choice for liquid fillings.

Mark Lipton

I think I first began to understand advertising at a young age -- someone (Swanson??) was selling little frozen chicken pot pies and the advertising trumpeted "NO SOGGY UNDERCRUST!!" This was the sort of food that appealed to my mother and so she bought some boxes of this wonderful product, expecting a nice crunchy bottom under the filling. It turned out that they were baked with no undercrust at all. There was a metal pan, filled with chicken stew, covered by a top crust that was sealed onto the metal pan. Actually it tasted OK and I think my mother continued to buy them but I was pretty disappointed. I think the bottom crust of a pot pie tends to be a very interesting part of the eating experience, even if it gets a little soggy.

Almost all the recipe's I have read use a top crust only, and I'd think given the circumstances, that's the way to go. I'd use your favorite standard crust recipe without any sweetener. Heck, given that you're making a dozen of them for kids at camp, I'd sure consider a store-bought crust. Will they really care?

[Jenise]

Bob, I adore chicken pot pie and for a crust I use a standard shortening crust which I moisten with water, vinegar and egg. The egg gives your dough a little more integrity--a good thing for a meat pie.

Here's my recipe for enough crust for a large two crust pie:

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 cup Crisco or other vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
1 cup water with 1 tblsp white vinegar and 1 egg stirred in

You probably know how to mix a crust, but here: mix flour, shortening and salt in a good sized bowl. Mix the shortening with a fork, dough cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle the water onto the flour while mixing (you may not need all of it) until the cough just begins to come together. Form into two balls and set aside in a cool place to rest for about 15 minutes or until ready to use.

You can buy frozen puff pastry. Make sure you "stretch" it before cutting it to size and putting it on top - that will diminish the puff a bit. You can also bake it separately and then place it on top of the hot chicken "stew".

Bob, I adore chicken pot pie and for a crust I use a standard shortening crust which I moisten with water, vinegar and egg. The egg gives your dough a little more integrity--a good thing for a meat pie.

Fair enough Jenise, but what do you do to crisp the bottom crust? Or is the soggy bottom just part of the fun as Frank says? As I said earlier, most recipes seem to leave it out.

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 cup Crisco or other vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
1 cup water with 1 tblsp white vinegar and 1 egg stirred in
.

Here's a tangential question for all you bakers out there: with all the concern that's been raised about trans-fat's contribution to heart disease risk, has anyone been motivated to return to lard or suet instead of Crisco for their baking? I confess to still possessing the Crisco, but I bake so seldom these days that it's hasn't (yet) been an issue.

Mark Lipton

I always and only ever use butter.

Well, thanks for all the imput. I thought of buying in but am quite capable of making good dough. Jenise, your recipe seems to be the same as others I have come across.
Will keep you all informed as to how I make out!

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 cup Crisco or other vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
1 cup water with 1 tblsp white vinegar and 1 egg stirred in
.

Here's a tangential question for all you bakers out there: with all the concern that's been raised about trans-fat's contribution to heart disease risk, has anyone been motivated to return to lard or suet instead of Crisco for their baking? I confess to still possessing the Crisco, but I bake so seldom these days that it's hasn't (yet) been an issue.

Mark Lipton

I have some zero trans-fat Crisco. I'm not afraid to use lard, which has the advantage of no water, unlike butter and shortening. And lard's fat profile isn't all that bad. It's high in monosaturates, etc.

I looked at several potpie recipes I have and they're all pretty close to this:

1-1/4 c flour
4 Tbs shortening or lard
2 Tbs chilled butter, cut in 1/4 in. pieces
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbs ice water

Prepared as usual. Roll in ball, chill in refrig for at least 1/2 hr before rolling out.

[Jenise]

Bob, I adore chicken pot pie and for a crust I use a standard shortening crust which I moisten with water, vinegar and egg. The egg gives your dough a little more integrity--a good thing for a meat pie.

Fair enough Jenise, but what do you do to crisp the bottom crust? Or is the soggy bottom just part of the fun as Frank says? As I said earlier, most recipes seem to leave it out.

I blind bake the bottom crust for about 20 minutes before filling the dish. I do that with pumpkin pies too--which is the only custard pie I make--for the same reason.

And Mark--I would worry about that if I did a lot of baking, but I only use it in pie crusts and I rarely make pie crusts, so I haven't been able to get too excited about it.

Here's a tangential question for all you bakers out there: with all the concern that's been raised about trans-fat's contribution to heart disease risk, has anyone been motivated to return to lard or suet instead of Crisco for their baking? I confess to still possessing the Crisco, but I bake so seldom these days that it's hasn't (yet) been an issue.

Mark Lipton

The baker in our family does keep Crisco around for recipes that really need it. These appear to be rare, though, as we've had the same tin of Crisco for years now whereas we go through huge amounts of butter. The trans-fats aren't an issue.

Butter only here, too.

Bob, I had to make about a gazillion of these (with no help and on short notice) for a kid gathering a few years ago. I skipped the bottom crust and just used prepared biscuit mix thinned down some with milk for the top. I wouldn't do that for a gathering of food people, but kids don't care, by and large.

[Jenise]

Butter only here, too.

Bob, I had to make about a gazillion of these (with no help and on short notice) for a kid gathering a few years ago. I skipped the bottom crust and just used prepared biscuit mix thinned down some with milk for the top. I wouldn't do that for a gathering of food people, but kids don't care, by and large.

I'll bet you could peel apart some of those pre-made flakey biscuits you buy in the refrigerator section and glue them together with a little water for a top crust, like fish scales. (I'll bet crafty moms somewhere have been doing this for years.)

Actually that reminds me -- I don't even think of it as "chicken pot pie" but rather "chicken and dumplings"

My wife has made a thick chicken stew, and then a recipe of biscuits. When the stew is done you drop globs of biscuit batter on top of it (in a pot of some sort obviously) and when the top is more or less covered, stick it in the oven and bake until the biscuits are brown on top.

It tastes wonderful and you could just use bisquick. The flavor of the biscuits goes wonderfully with the thick rich chicken stew, and I really love that gooey bready interface between the topping and the filling.

Butter only here, too.

Bob, I had to make about a gazillion of these (with no help and on short notice) for a kid gathering a few years ago. I skipped the bottom crust and just used prepared biscuit mix thinned down some with milk for the top. I wouldn't do that for a gathering of food people, but kids don't care, by and large.

Cyn great to hear from you! Well, using the recipe that Jenise mentioned, I have turned out some great looking tops although I used Crisco lard. That is the same as shortening? Think butter will work OK.
I was not sure about the first mix so added some more water and then flour. It rolled out perfectly after chilling for 30 mins. I did egg wash before placing in oven.
Success eh.

Here's a tangential question for all you bakers out there: with all the concern that's been raised about trans-fat's contribution to heart disease risk, has anyone been motivated to return to lard or suet instead of Crisco for their baking? I confess to still possessing the Crisco, but I bake so seldom these days that it's hasn't (yet) been an issue.

Mark Lipton

Indeed Mark. I've never much liked the ingredient list in Crisco, although it sure is engineered to work well. Good leaf lard is said to make the ultimate pie crust, and I have gone as far as rendering my own, but my wife won't hear of it in my pie crusts (I guess one of these days I'll just have to slip it in on her the way I did the rabbit) so I almost always use an oil based recipe It's easy and delicious and gets around some of the health issues of saturated fats. It's not a flaky crust - I'd call it more nutty - but I've had nothing but compliments.

For each 9" crust (double these quantities for a 2 crust pie):

1 + 1/3 cup flour (I use unbleached white but often mix in 1/3 C WW Pastry flour)
a dash of salt, 2 T sugar if it's a desert pie.

Mix together 1/3 cup oil (whatever you think is healthy and neutral tasting - I've been using grapeseed oil and adding some nut oil to give it flavor, but I've used canola oil, "light" olive oil, and various others, all with good results)
1 T lemon juice, 3.5 T water.
Mix the wet into the dry. Like most crusts, best results are achieved from using only as much water as necessary to get it to hold together. No need to rest it - roll it out immediately between 2 sheets of parchment. Handle carefully as this dough is more fragile than the more standard ones, but I make lattice crusts all the time with it.

Let me know what you think if you try it.