As I mentioned in the beef pot pie post from a few weeks ago, Mark has been craving a chicken pot pie for a while now. A long while. I thought that beef pot pie with the cheddar biscuits would scratch that itch, but it only made his chicken pot pie cravings worse.
So I turned to Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home to try out his chicken pot pie recipe. This book has yet to let us down, and this was no exception.
One thing you should know about this recipe, like a lot of recipes from Ad Hoc -- expect to use nearly every pot and pan you own and don't expect it to be quick.
Here's what you'll need:
Filling:
1 cup 1/2-inch pieces red-skinned potatoes (I used regular Idaho taters since we have an enormous bag at home that is not getting any younger)
1 1/4 cups 1/2-inch pieces carrots (cut on the diagonal)
12 white pearl onions
3 bay leaves
3 thyme sprigs
24 black peppercorns
1 1/4 cups 1/2-inch pieces of celery (cut on the diagonal)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I boiled my chicken with herbs for this, but if you have leftover roasted chicken on hand, that would be incredible in this recipe.)
Bechamel:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
Pinch of cayenne
1 egg, beaten
Make your pie crust and get that in the fridge. Meanwhile, chop your veggies. Mine looked like so (minus the celery):
In three separate sauce pans (this is the start of Thomas going through every pot you own) cover the veggies with water, add one bay leaf, eight peppercorns (really Thomas? not nine? not seven?), and one spring of fresh thyme to each pot. Boil until just tender.
As you get those softened up, boil yet another saucepan with water for blanching the celery. Blanche for one to two minutes and then drain and add to an ice bath to stop the cooking. This also helps keep your celery nice and bright green. Very pretty.
At this point I transferred all the veggies to a cooking sheet to wait while I made the bechamel.
In a medium sauce, add three tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add three tablespoons of flour and whisk constantly for two to three minutes. Then slowly pour in your three cups of milk while whisking. Lower heat so this stays at a simmer and let it reduce to about two cups, which takes about 30 minutes, even after accidentally turning the burner off for a few minutes...
In between whisking the bechamel, I took the bottom pie crust dough out of the fridge. It had been chilling for about an hour. I rolled it out and fit it into the bottom of my pie pan:
Mark scattered the veggies and chicken on top:
At this point the sauce was thickened and I strained it through a fine-mesh strainer. I seasoned it with chopped parsley, thyme, a pinch of cayenne and salt and pepper before pouring it on top of the pie filling.
Next, on with the top pie crust:
I brushed it with a beaten egg and made a steam vent, which was an "M" so there was no confusion whose pie this was:
We popped it in the oven for 50 minutes and dug in:
Mark declared it the best pot pie he's ever had. I would have to agree!
Prediction: This whole pie will last less than 48 hours.
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