chicken pot pie, redux

stike

nothing new here... did a roasted chicken last saturday. got the bird from a local farm, and noticed a bit of extra fat on the breast under the wings, and a lot more fat near the edges of the cavity. trimmed off the fat at the cavity opening, and tossed it in the stock pot with other stuff (backbone, trimmings) for some gravy.



this was a small bird. really nice flavor. i don't believe the farm is 'organic' per se (otherwise i think they would have trumpeted the fact), but it was local, and good. wish i could feel more comfortable that it was organic. still, great flavor, more so than the supermarket mass-produced variety.

since it was just me and 'the boys' (5 and 7) we had some left over, which i made into a pot pie the next morning. made more gravy by simmering the carcass, added some veggies (onion, left over corn off the cob, celery, etc.) and flopped a leftover piece of puff pastry (from the christmas wellington opus), and tossed it on the egg for sunday dinner when mom got home after a night away with the gals.



that chicken was six bucks and gave us three dinners (if you include the left over pot pie on monday...)

hopefully the pics show up. still haven't solved the pic rubric.

Big'un

That's one way to stretch your "clucking" dollars and clean out the fridge at the smae time.LOL. As always, looked great. Do you have any pics of the chicken pot..chicken pot..chicken pot pie after digging into it?

fishlessman

nice looking pie. how does a family of 4 get leftovers from a chicken. in my house that feeds me a dinner, a sandwich, and just enough leftovers to make the dog happy.

stike

well. the little guy has trouble trying anything new. drives me crazy. at least he eats veggies. the older boy eats well, he's just small. i made mashed potatoes, corn, etc. so we had a little food to go around the first night.

the pot pie was more like a stwe, and i added a pantload of stuff into it. not a lot of chicken.

you know, i actually thought you might say something. i know how you eat. i have a pic here of the pie sitting on the stove top, and behind it are 8 or so beers i drank during the pats/chargers game. that was a bit filling, too.
hahaha

stike

no pics of the chicken pie after digging in... it took me a loooooooong time to get over the odd habit of photographing my food, but it's still rare for me to take a pic of an "everyday" meal at the table. the wellington and anything 'involved' i might take a pic of on the plate, but i think my kids would thunk i'm more mental than i am if i snapped a pic of the pie with a scoop taken out of it.

Darnoc

That looks real good and was one of my favorite dishes till got married.The better half loves chicken any way but not a pot pie.Gonna have to whip one up when she is out with the gals and I am fending for myself.Did you do the cook on a raised grid indirect for around 30 minutes?Seems like the right amount of time to heat things up and brown the crust at 350
maybe?Pictures came out great.

gdenby

Looks great.Am I guessing right from the pics, the pie was over an inverted 'setter, and the pie is maybe 4" thick? Did you just cook till golden brown?

Maybe the seller was just being honest, because its really rather hard to be authentically organic. I frequently buy poultry from a place that just says "chemical free," and another vendor that just sells eggs as "from scratch chickens." The flavor for both easily makes up for the cost difference, and the chicken seems to cook faster.

gdenby

stike

thanks...

um. maybe was 350 or so, indirect (platesetter). wanted to warm the pie through before the crust got too brown. found the crust inna freezer with a real wimpy wrap of loose plastic wrap, one layer, and it was open (WIFE!). figured the crust would be dried and useless, but it worked still, no freezer burn either. weird.

i would say it took 45 minutes, maybe an hour. was a lot of liquid, and went on cold.

i fail to mention this every time, but the thing about using left over chicken from the egg for pot pie is that you get a real subtle (not at all off-putting) hint of smoke from the chicken.

it's stuff like this that reminds you how bland simple food has gotten over the years. or why when you go to an upscale joint that has something pedestrian like this on the menu , it can blow the roof of your head off (in a good way). nothing here extra but salt and pepper. and yet it tastes like something ten times better than you'd expect.

stike

you guessed right on the cooking points. it was a thick pie. lotta mass to getup to temp, and the reason we got so many meals from it. i told flashbackbob (who called during the cook) that i had maybe an inch of room to fill her up so that the crust could lay on top even with the rim. so i diced up FOUR frikkin potatoes and tossed them in. hahaha they were starting to get soft, too. i was on a tear, tossing sh!t in there to clean out the fridge.

the po-tats raised the filling up, and the crust sat nice and level.

Big'un

I know. Haha. My wife now patiently goes and sits in the livingroom until pic time is done. Pics and prayers before we eat.LOL.

RRP

You sure that's all you put in that pot pie? I mean seeing that you seem to dwell on Leopold Bloom and all! BTW eggers...here's the rest of that quote.
"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."

FlaPoolman

LMAO Makes you wonder :S

stike

favorite chapter is 17, personally. now, didja know that was Joyce right off the bat? could there be another U. fan on this board?

i wanted to put the whole quote, but it was a bit long. always reminds me of a joke my dad told (yells) over and over whenever someone mentions kidneys:

"how do you cook kidneys? you boil the p!ss out of them."
ba-dum pum!

[Deleted User]

Jefe,
Have you finished that book yet?

Anyway, I gots a simple question-

When you toss chicken stuff in a "stock pot", what's the deal with that? a covered pot with water simmering to which you add the carcass, organs, salt, pepper and trimmings? Then just save it for later with which to make the pie or soup?

I waste too much chicken stuff and need to attempt a pot pie and/or soup with the trimmings.
In fact, I'm gonna post a question about making soup.

[Deleted User]

BTW-
the leftovers from my 500F/6.5# bird are excellent!

I'm a big dark meat man and I tell you the breast is still moist and fantastic! Had some last night with spring greens and balsamic (we/ I still remember you in our/my prayers, thank you).

Anyway it's a good and easy cook that I would recommend.

stike

you got it, bobby-b.
i pulled the chicken meat off, then tossed the carcass in a simmering pot of chicken stock (swanson, from the pantry). added some sage from the withering pot in the back yard (still green, it's up against the poorly insulated house, so it's not totally frozen). salt, pepper, whatever sounds like it belongs in chicken soup.

i poured the simmered stuff over a strainer into a smaller pot, thickened it, and added the gravy from the day before (which had shrooms, and was already made from the simmered fat, trimmings, herbs, etc when i roasted the bird), dumped in the chicken, veggies, etc. and into the final casserole dish, which is actually a small roasting pan, believe it or not.

as for the book... yeah. i read it once a year or so. maybe 12 times so far. different every time, frankly. has more than enough in it to keep a reader busy. got a reading copy of the '86 version, a first of the '86, a first randhom house, and about 30 other JJ/U books to support it. hahaha

nerd alert.

i know that there exists a first edition (1922, Shakespeare and Co.) in a stikeman binding. if i ever find it, i'ma haxta mortage the house. saw a first edition in 1989. it was $7000. i told my wife a guy would have to be an idiot to spend $7k on a book. it now sells at upwards of $75k. did better'n my 401k.

i beieleve we are officially off-topic now.

stike

somehow i knew you were a dark meat man.

YB

Nice looking pie Jeff...I need to cook one myself.
Larry

stike

thanks... it's a simple cook, the way i do it anyway. no measuring!

[Deleted User]

To continue OT- I just finished a Graphic Novel "Fun Home" which is a woman's memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional household with lots of baggage. Her father is an English teacher and has a fixation on JJ/U. Has her reading other texts to enhance her appreciation of the story.
It's a quick read if you're innerested for reference.

WooDoggies

That looks delicious, stikeman. Chicken pot pie has to be the best comfort food of all... pastry, chicken, veggies, gravy and the aroma that fills the kitchen.... what's not to love?

Rascal

That's one fine-lookin' pot pie! 8 - 0,,,,

stike

spot on, bruther.

in the end, it's this simple stuff too that i want to pass along to the boys. i don't want them eating out everyday meals and staying home to cook fancy stuff. if they just see dad making beef wellington, they might get a skewed perspective on food!

i think they should see home-cooked simple stuff too, so that their expectation among friends becomes "what? you mean you BUY mac-n-cheese in a box? your mom and dad DON'T cook roasted chicken at home?" etc.

stike

did you just invent the "drooling" emoticon?!?!?!
hahaha

thanks

stike

those 30 some odd other books were all so that i could understand U. hahha

hey. we've had coincidental cooks lately. salmon the same day, roasted chicken too. what are you cooking for dinner? i need to know what i'm having tonight.

Boxerpapa

Looks great. Mind sharing the recipe? It will be raining all week here in Ca. and wanted to attempt the pot pie.

Thanks

stike

no recipe, unfortunately.

i did crack the fanny farmer cookbook to see what they tossed in the chicken pie. sorta followed that. no "amounts" though. i just tossed stuff into the pot that sounded like it belonged, and in the amounts that were essentially what i had on hand...

sorry for being so obtuse. i generally use recipes as a rough guide. hahaha
can be good and bad

WooDoggies

You're a wise poppa, stike. There are countless important things to teach kids but I think one of the more important ones is to teach them how to cook.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a family where my mom and grandma would make nearly every meal from scratch. They allowed us to watch and help and experiment and they made the whole process a lot of fun.... over time, we were cooking our own dishes for the family.

One thing I tell my nephew who is getting into cooking... Everybody loves a good cook!

Boxerpapa

Hey, many thanks. I guess I could open my Betty Crocker book and find out. Happy Eggin'

Beanie-Bean

That is a nice looking crust on that pie. Yummy!

stike

i can take no credit for the crust, alas. thank the good folks workin down at the pepperidge farm!