If not chicken, change out with turkey, making this potpie after Thanksgiving. Nothing else needs to be substituted, just the meat if you want to do so, but the chicken is meant for this potpie.
Chicken Potpie ~
~ Skirt in the Kitchen ~
For the pastry: In a food processor, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon dried celery. Cut in 1 stick unsalted butter and 1/2 cup lard, very cold, as well as the butter. Both fats keep the crust flaky and true to the shapes of the crust impressions, to dress it up, but the butter is mainly for flavor. Pulse to a crumble. Drizzle in 1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water while machine is running. You may have to add a little at a time, more flour. Don’t be worried– that sometimes happens when using lard, but you really can’t mess up this crust when lard is the center of attention. Just find the right consistency. Flatten into 2 disks and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. You can hurry up the process by freezing it for half an hour or so.
Have a roasting chicken already baked. I usually bake up more chicken than what I need for a specific recipe, just to make several different food dishes out of one roaster, sometimes freezing the finished dishes for meals in the upcoming weeks.
Go ahead, though– season your chicken before baking, to insure that the meat is going to taste fantastic in your potpie. Every little step is important. You might not think it necessary to bother with seasonings since it’s going into potpie, but you should. I like to cut thick slices of white onion and lemons to make a bed in the bottom of the pan for the chicken. Wash the chicken, pat-dry, cover it with olive oil, salt and pepper it, even squirt lemon juice over all sides. Don’t forget to do the cavity, also. Pull back the top skin around the neck and near the cavity to butter between the skin and the meat. Fill the cavity with onions and lemons before baking at 375 degrees. If I were to serve this as the main course, not into a potpie, I might dress it up more with herbs. I also enjoy different marinades and sauces to brush over the skin, but today, it’s potpie!
After the chicken has been baked and is resting to set up its juices, melt 1 stick unsalted butter in a heavy-bottom pan. Cook until tender–
1/4 of a medium onion, and 1 celery stalk thinly sliced.
Add 4 ounces green chiles with its juices. Stir in 1/2 cup flour. Pour in 3/4 cup whole milk and 8 ounces chicken broth. Bring to a slight boil.
Stir in dark meat of the baked chicken, torn in small pieces– 1 cup. Add 1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning, 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric and 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco hot sauce. Taste for the right amount of salt and pepper, a little at a time. (The turmeric gives it a yellow color.)
Del Monte Fresh Cut Fiesta Corn is my selection because it is moist, just tastes better for potpie. Add 1/4 cup. Measure out and add 1/4 cup frozen green peas. Microwave sliced carrots of the same equivalence, making sure they are tender before stirring into the mixture, since it takes carrots longer to cook than it does the peas and corn. Microwaving them instead of cooking them over the stove, prior to adding them, will lock in the juices and full taste of the carrots. You don’t want a diluted carrot taste for potpie– just my thinking, excuse me…
Roll out the dough and place into a pie plate; refrigerate while making the top crust. Then take out of the refrigerator and place the top crust in the ‘frig while you fill the bottom crust. Keep the crust chilled as much as possible, even right up to the point of crimping and cutting out the chickens with the cookie cutter; makes a prettier and more manageable dough. Add a little water to 1 whisked egg; brush lightly over the top crust but not on the edge.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until flaky and golden-brown. Let it set before cutting for serving, 15-20 minutes.
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