Chicken pie

1 recipe for buttermilk biscuits OR 2 cups breadcrumbs.

• 1 whole chicken
• 2 onions diced
• 2 carrots diced
• 2 cups diced celery (include the leaves in the first cup)
• 4 carrots sliced
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning or thyme
• Salt and pepper
• Tabasco
• 2 tbsp sherry or white wine or lemon juice or white wine vinegar

1. In large stock pot, add 1 tbsp olive oil and heat. Place 1 cup each of diced onions, diced carrots, diced celery. Include the celery leaves for extra flavor. Sautée until soft. Place whole chicken on top and cover with water. Add 3 tbsp salt to the water. Cover pot and simmer 2 hours
2. The chicken will be falling apart. This is good. Remove the chicken with tings and leave behind bones and wings and chicken skin. Using tongs, pick out all the bone and cartilage from meat and put back in the pot. Simmer uncovered another hour.
3. Pull meat apart with hands or tongs or two forks. You want jagged bite sized pieces. If making biscuits to top pie, make those now but do not bake them.
4. Strain chicken broth into a large bowl or pot and discard the bones, skin, etc.
5. Melt 4 tbsp butter in pot on medium high and add remaining diced vegetables. Sautée until golden.
6. At this point I put the sliced carrots in a bowl and a ladleful of broth and microwave for 2 1/2 minutes to par cook them. I use the auto cook setting in the microwave.
7. Add 3 tbsp flour and cook until golden brown.
8. Add two cups of broth to pour and whisk into flour. Freeze the rest of the broth for future use.
9. Add one cup milk and carrots and 1 tsp poultry seasoning or thyme. Bring to boil and cook for one minute or until thickened.
10. Salt and pepper to taste and add 4-5 dashes of Tabasco or to taste.
11. Add back in chicken. Stir. Add wine (or alternative as listed above)
12. Transfer to a 9×13 casserole
13. Top with biscuits or breadcrumbs (one daughter likes me to use the canned fried onions)
14. Bake at 400 with fan for 20 minutes or 25 without fan.

Chicken pie is super forgiving and you can fudge the measurements for the most part. The broth measurement is the one you need to worry about. If you add too much broth, it will still taste good but it will be more like chicken soup topped with biscuits. Still good, but not as comforting. I added a bit too much broth this time, so it was a little thin, but my husband also likes it on the thin side, so it works for us. If it’s too thin, you can stir in a corn starch slurry and bring to boil to thicken it. You can also add less broth than it calls for and bring to boil. If too thick, you can slowly ladle in the amount to get to the thickness you like, which is what I usually do.

Many people add peas to chicken pie. I hate peas and refuse to add them, but if you like peas, stir frozen peas in just before transferring to the casserole dish.