Chicken Pot Pie

Serves: to serve 6

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cook Time: 2 Hours 30 Minutes

Ready In: 3 hrs

FOR THE CHICKEN AND STOCK

3½ lb - Free Range Chicken

3½ pints - cold water

1 teaspoon - salt

1 large - onion

1 large - carrot

1 stick - celery

1 - leek

- bouquet garni

½ teaspoon - black peppercorns

FOR THE PIE CRUST

6 oz - plain flour (all purpose flour)

½ teaspoon - salt

2 oz - unsalted butter

1 oz - lard or vegetable shortening

3 - 4 tablespoons - ice water

FOR THE PIE FILLING

6 oz - unsalted butter

1 large - onion

3 - carrots

3 sticks - celery

2 oz - plain flour (all purpose flour)

1 pint - milk

1 teaspoon - fresh thyme

4 tablespoons - dry sherry

4 oz - frozen or fresh peas

2 tablespoons - chopped parsley

2 teaspoons - salt

½ teaspoon - freshly ground pepper

1 - egg

First of all, place the butter and lard (or shortening) in the fridge to chill. Now cook the chicken using our Easy Cook Chicken recipe. Allow the chicken too cool for about 15 minutes, then strip off all the meat and set aside. Use the bones to make a chicken stock using our Chicken Stock recipe. Set aside 1¼ pints (½ litre) of the stock for this recipe. The remaining stock you can refrigerate and store for another purpose.
While you are cooking the chicken and making the stock, you can prepare everything else. First off, to make the crust, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Chop the chilled butter and lard (shortening) into ½" (1cm) cubes and add slowly to the flour and salt, kneading with your hands all the time to mix well. If you have a food processor, you can add the chilled butter cubes and pulse five times to combine, then add the shortening and pulse a few more times, until the dough resembles a coarse cornmeal, with some pea-sized pieces of butter.
Slowly stream in the ice water, a tablespoon at a time, pulsing (or hand-mixing) after each addition, until the dough sticks together when you press some between your fingers. Place the dough on a clean, lightly-floured surface. Use your hands to mould into a ball, then flatten the ball into a disk. Sprinkle with a little more flour, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days if you want to prepare ahead of time), before rolling.
To make the pie filling, first cut or roughly break the chicken meat into bite-size pieces. Peel and dice the onion, peel and thinly slice the carrots on the diagonal and thinly slice the celery on the diagonal. Then, in a large frying pan (skillet), melt the butter on a medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, and cook gently until the onions are translucent - about 10 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, one minute more. Whisk in the 1¼ pints (½ litre) of the stock that you set aside, then whisk in the milk. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the chicken meat, thyme, sherry, peas, parsley, salt and pepper and stir well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Divide the warm filling among six ramekins or place into a deep dish if you are making one large pie.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a little less than a quarter-inch thick. Either cut into 6 rounds, slightly larger than the circumference of the ramekins, or one large enough to cover the whole dish. Lay a dough round on each pot pie filling. Fold the excess dough under itself and use the tines of a fork to press the dough against the edge of the ramekins. Cut a 1" (2.5cm) vent into each individual pie (or three vents if you are filling one large dish).
Whisk the egg, adding a tablespoon of water as you do, then use a pastry brush to apply an egg wash to each pie. Place the pies on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated medium-hot oven (Mk 6 - 400ºF - 200ºC) for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling. Allow the pie (pies) to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.