Happy Holidays!... What now?

There's nothing we like more than a post-feast turkey bun, but perhaps you want to take your roast even further after the big meal. Enter Chicken Pot Pie: one of the ultimate catch-all clean-out-your-fridge meals, and a cinch to make and adapt. Whether or not your filling is based on chicken, beef, pork, or completely meat free, you can create a meal for many with humble leftovers.

Puff Pastry

Puff pastry (specifically rough puff) is a type of pastry where dough is laminated with butter or fat. It's similar in some ways to the dough for croissants, but less involved to make. Whereas croissant dough is consistently laminated through multiple layers, puff pastry is only a couple layers with butter smeared through it. Puff pastry becomes flaky due to the prevalence of unincorporated butter in the dough. When baking a puff pastry, the butter melts and begins to cook. The heat of cooking hits the water content in the butter, and begins to evaporate, turning to steam. This steam expands in the pastry, and causes the pastry to develop air pockets, causing it to "puff" up. This is known as "air-leavening" as opposed to "yeast-leavening". The fat content of the butter, simultaneously, begins to crisp the pastry as well, creating the open, decadent texture of the puff pastry.

It's texture is crispy, fluffy, and flaky when done right, and makes for a wonderful textural finish to any chicken pot pie. You can make your own, but we used store-bought for this one, and it worked great.

History of Pot Pie

To talk about pot pies, we need to write about pie history in general first.

Pies began as early galettes in Egyptian times, made of ground grains containing honey, or sometimes chicken. In Roman times, the function of a pie crust on top was purely functional - it was there to shield the meat from the heat of an oven, and keep it from drying out. This makes sense since meat was incredibly expensive in these days, and cooking it into jerky might have made for sour faces at the bathhouse.

Medieval times saw pies rise as an accessible home meal for poor peasants, as you can make them over an open fire. Pie dough at this time was known as "coffyn", and was not intended to be edible. Rather, it was meant to simply contain the filling and extend it's shelf life. This is why early recipes are more focused on filling versus the crust; It wasn't until the advent of puff pastry in the 15th-17th century that the whole pie became edible.

The origins of air leavened and laminated pastry are Moorish and Arabic, which were then adopted by the Spanish during the reign of Philip the II. These doughs were mostly used for game meat pies, but eventually the French would codify the making of laminated dough using the technique of "tourage" (laminating dough with layers of cold butter). This was thanks to one of the top chefs in Louis XIV's court, Francois Pierre La Varenne. From here we could wade into the deep waters of French pastries, but for now we'll just name drop the Portuguese "Pastel de Nata", and move on.

After this point, crust development became more delicious, and frankly edible, thanks to "tourage": the fillings could be sweet or savoury, with spices and herbs a regular inclusion. Queen Elizabeth I had quince or pear pies for New Years, while the great playwright Ben Jonson compared skilled pie cooks to fortification builders who "... Make Citadels of curious fowl and fish" and "ramparts of immortal crusts". We have been to parties that could be described in the same way.

After this, North American pie making began to take hold, and both filling- and crust-making became a weekly task for women at home. This slowed down when women were rightly allowed to join the labour market, but experienced a resurgence in the 80's with premade crusts and instant fillings. Pot pies were a popular way for households to use up leftovers in a delicious, convenient way.

Using leftovers and the versatility of chicken pot pie

It was only around the 15th to 18th centuries that pie crusts became widely edible, due to the adoption of "tourage" and what we now know as puff pastry. At this point, pretty well anything had been used as a filling, especially when the objective was to stretch meager provisions. Indeed, we've enjoyed a delicious mock apple pie that tastes exactly like apples, but is made mostly with Ritz crackers (Chris believes that this is witchcraft, and he's into it). This is the root of pot pies - using what you already have on hand to make a tasty filling, and wrapping that in a satisfying pastry.

A general rule of thumb for a pot pie filling involves two or three things: vegetables, sauce, and meat (this can be optional if you are vegetarian). If  you have some veg lying around, think about what sauce might be good with them: maybe it's a mornay, or a tomato sauce? If you wish to add meat, make sure the meat is either already cooked through, or cut small enough that it will cook through in baking. You can really play with flavor when it comes to pot pies, so we encourage you to go explore and find a set up that you enjoy.

How to make it

Sautee

Heat up some oil in a pan over medium heat and turn the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the oil in the pan is hot, add your veggies and cook them until soft.

Then add your garlic and herbs; cook this until it smells amazing.

Add your flour and cook until the flour smell is gone.

Finally, slowly stir in your stock and cream, and cook everything until thickened.

Bake

Season your filling with salt and pepper to taste, stir in your peas and cooked chicken, and transfer the whole mixture to an oven save dish.

Roll out your puff pastry until large enough to cover the dish, and lay it over your filling. You will have a decent amount of overhang: trim most of this while leaving some overhang, as the pastry will contract a bit as it bakes, and leaving a bit of overhang ensures the filling will covered and won't dry out. Pierce the center of the puff pastry with a sharp knife to allow steam to escape, as this will prevent the crust from getting soggy with excess moisture.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through and golden. Let the pie cool, as the contents straight out of the oven are molten and will annihilate your mouth if eaten too soon. After 15 minutes, serve how you like and tuck in.