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- So the idea with this pot pie episode
is that we wanna get maximum utilization
from one whole chicken.
We're gonna make the stock,
we're gonna make a big old cast iron pot pie
and individual freezer pies.
First, we're going to break down the chicken
into its elemental parts.
We're gonna start by removing the spine,
placing a little snip at the base of the breastbone,
and flattening it out.
Then we're gonna remove the wings.
We're gonna place a radial cut at the base of the joints,
look for the two bones,
run our knife between them, and separate.
And of course repeat with the other side.
Then we have to separate the chicken legs.
There's barely any bone or cartilage
between the breast and thigh,
so they should be very easy to cut in between.
Then we're gonna start very graphically
taking off everybody's skin, but do not discard it.
It's got plenty of collagen to add to our stock.
Then we're gonna remove
all the white meat from the breastbone.
Simply find the breastbone and begin making shallow cuts
down alongside it until you've removed the breast.
Repeat with the other side
and you got yourself a chicken carcass,
yet another essential building block of a good stock.
Then the thigh and drumstick are getting
the same kind of gross skinless treatment, ugh.
To find the joint between these
we're gonna look for this strip of fat,
place a cut right down the center of this,
and it will reveal the joint
that you can run your knife in between and separate the two.
Then to remove the meat from the drumstick,
we're effectively just gonna scrape it down the bone,
again kind of a gross process.
Be happy that I don't record audio.
The thigh's a very similar story.
There's a single bone that we need to cut underneath
separating the meat and again
reserving all the bones for our stock.
Once you have liberated the meat from their bony captors
it's time to start chopping up the meat.
I'm just cutting everything into bite-sized pieces
and keeping the breast meat and leg and thigh meat separate
because the breast meat is gonna be better
for our day-of pie, and the dark meat
is gonna be better for the freezer pies.
Go ahead and refrigerate these
until we're ready to use them,
for now it's time to make stock.
We're gonna want to cut the spine and carcass
down into more manageable pieces,
gather everybody into a big, gory pile,
and toss them with a little bit
of neutral flavored oil like vegetable or canola.
Then we're spreading them out evenly
on a generously greased rack
set in in aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet
and roasting at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for about an hour or until deeply brown
whilst we prepare our vegetables.
Vegetables are where you can start
to be truly creative with your stock.
The absolute essentials are carrots, celery, and onion
but feel free to put your own spin on things
with stuff like parsnips,
which are going to add a bit of earthy sweetness.
Turnips are an inoffensive root vegetable
that will help complement the carrots.
Maybe even a little bit of woody spice.
Leeks bring a very mellow
but slightly more complex onion flavor,
a little sweeter in the white parts
and a little grassier in the green parts.
Fresh lemongrass brings
a lemony, minty flavor to the party.
You should most certainly add a whole head of garlic
chopped in half widthwise,
and then maybe the most optional ingredient,
some fennel fronds, which are gonna
bring a root-y, anise-y vibe.
Lastly, a tablespoon of whole peppercorns,
a few sprigs of fresh parsley,
and a few sprigs of fresh thyme,
and a bay leaf or two if that's your thing.
And of course our freshly roasted chicken parts,
each one packed full of chicken flavor,
none of which will go to waste
when put a use in a stock.
You could of course cover these guys with water
and slows simmer for anywhere from four to 24 hours,
but you can achieve a very close approximation
with 60 minutes in a pressure cooker,
which cooks its contents at a much higher temperature
and extracts their precious flavors
in a fraction of the time.
Now we need to release the pressure and drain our stock,
but first we have to make every effort
to try to creep out our camera guy.
I think it's working.
Drain this liquid gold and you're good to go.
Homemade stock is one of the essential parts
of an amazing chicken pot pie.
What's the most important part?
That's right, the flakey, buttery pastry crust.
We're gonna start by measuring out
150 grams of all-purpose flour,
tiny whisk together with one teaspoon of kosher salt
and one stick or about 113 grams
of refrigerator cold butter.
The objective here is to get the butter
down into pea-sized pieces.
You can do this with a couple of knives,
but that's kind of really annoying to do so,
so if you have a pastry cutter around the house
that's gonna make quick work of our butter
into tiny little globules of flaky-making goodness.
The next objective here is to add just enough ice water
to make the dough come together.
I found that 50 grams is a good place to start
adding a tablespoon or two at a time as necessary.
We're gonna start by bringing things together
with a rubber spatula
and eventually using our hands to massage things
into a barely cohesive ball of dough.
Take care not to over-knead.
That's how you get a tough pie crust.
Once it holds its shape when pressed together,
we're gonna wrap it tightly in plastic wrap,
press it into a disk, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
This is both going to allow the gluten to relax
and prevent the butter from melting prematurely.
If you were fortunate enough to get a food processor
for your birthday last year,
this is the absolute easiest way to make a pie crust.
Simply combine the same amount
of flour and salt in the bowl of the food processor,
affix your shredding disk, and feed a frozen stick of butter
down through the feed tube.
This will shred the butter
into perfect little uniform shreds
which will translate beautifully
into nice flaky layers in your pie crust.
Pour the flour and butter mixture into a large bowl,
add the ice water as before,
and coax into a cohesive disk of dough.
Now that our pie crust is in the fridge and ready to go
it's time to configure our filling.
We're gonna start by melting
two tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet.
Once nice and sizzly and foamy,
we're gonna add our chicken breasts,
sauteing for two to three minutes
just until we get some nice color.
Then we're gonna fish them out and set them aside
and add yet another two tablespoons
of butter to the skillet.
That might seem like an awful lot of butter
but we're gonna need it to formulate our sauce.
Into the butter goes half a chopped onion
that we're gonna saute for two to three minutes
before adding some aromatic vegetables.
Chopped carrots, celery, and parsnips
are my personal preference.
We're gonna saute those over medium heat
for about five minutes until they soften
and just start to pick up a bit of color.
Then we're adding a tablespoon of freshly chopped thyme,
sauteing for another 30 seconds or until fragrant,
and then it's time to begin the thickening.
To the skillet we're gonna add
four tablespoons of all-purpose flour,
which we're gonna saute together
for about one to two minutes.
This along with all the butter is gonna make
a sort of makeshift roux.
Then optionally, we're gonna deglaze
with a quarter cup of white wine or dry sherry.
Cook that for about a minute
until the alcohol smell wears off,
and then it's time to start slowly adding our stock.
A little splash at a time at first,
mixing until a thick paste forms.
We eventually want to add
about two cups of our homemade stock,
which is gonna come together to form
a thick, velvety, flavorful sauce
to which we're gonna add our previously sauteed chicken
and any of its accumulated juices.
Bring to a simmer, letting it cook for about five minutes
until the chicken is cooked through.
Then it's time to start the finishing process.
A few generous pinches of kosher salt,
some freshly ground black pepper.
Tasting for seasoning, adjust as necessary.
Remember, you can always go forward,
you can never go back.
It's time to kill the heat
and add a few tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley,
half a cup of frozen peas,
and a quarter cup of heavy cream.
This way the flavor of the peas and the parsley
will stay nice and fresh
and the heavy cream will not split in the simmering skillet.
Give this one last mix, taste it for seasoning,
and then set it aside and keep it covered
while we prepare our pie crust.
First, we're gonna remove
our well-chilled dough dough from the fridge
and generously dust it and our work surface
with all-purpose flour
and begin to bang it out with a rolling pin,
whacking repeatedly until
it's about twice it's original size.
Then we're gonna start rolling
until it's around about an eighth of an inch thick,
which we're gonna cut into a round
that we're gonna place on top
of our cast iron skillet pot pie.
Now, this carries with it a few complications.
First off, shrinkage.
George Costanza was right, shrinkage is very real
and it must be accounted for.
If you just grab your pie dough
and throw it on top of your filling, cut a few vents,
brush the whole thing down with egg wash,
and throw it in the oven,
one of two things is going to happen.
If you have a very moist, saucy filling,
your crust is going to capsize.
It will shrink and fall beneath the waves
like so many sailors of yore.
If you try to overcompensate and make a less saucy filling,
you're gonna end up with a picture-perfect very dry pie,
which is gonna look very good on Instagram
but very bad on your resume
when you're forced to give a job interview
in the form of a dinner party,
which I'm sure has happened at least once in human history.
On the other hand, you could borrow this amazing trick
from the folks over at America's Test Kitchen.
Their idea is to precut and pre-vent your crust.
They don't say to use heart shapes, but I am my own man.
Then place your crust in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
after forming to help the gluten relax
so it doesn't shrink as much.
Brush the whole thing down with a beaten egg.
Maybe place your heart cut-outs back on top
in a decorative fashion.
Sprinkle with flaky finishing salt
and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit
for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly golden brown.
Cool completely for 10 to 15 minutes on a wire rack
and then gently shuffle on top
of your completed pot pie filling
and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 400
until bubbly, golden brown, crisp, and absolutely beautiful.
Now there's a pot pie that's as fantastic
as it is photogenic.
All there is left to do is grab a big old spoon and dig in.
You'll find that unlike most pot pies,
this crust is shatteringly crisp,
set prettily atop its saucy, flavorful filling.
It is quite simply the best chicken pot pie experience
you will ever experience.
But you ask, what about the dark meat?
Well, I think that that responds better to being frozen.
So we're going to cut it up into the same bite sized pieces
and prepare it very much the same way
as the white meat filling,
this time using just a little oil
instead of all that butter,
sauteing until they have a little bit of color,
adding our aromatics and then our stock,
and letting the whole thing simmer for about 20 minutes.
This way the dark meat gets a chance
to braise and break down.
Then to thicken, instead of the flour
we're reaching for two to three tablespoons of corn starch,
which we're gonna mix with about a half a cup of cold stock.
Otherwise the cornstarch is gonna get lumpy.
Mix until completely homogenous
and then slowly stream into the filling
while mixing constantly so it doesn't clump up.
We're gonna cook that for about three more minutes
until the desired consistency is achieved,
season to taste, add some parsley,
and then set aside to cool.
If you're making these freezer pies,
you can either double up your pie crust recipe
or use the scraps from the original recipe
to cut your little rounds.
We want these to be just a little bit larger
than our intended serving vessels.
I'm going with ramekins.
And then we're gonna simply divvy up our filling
and top with the crusts, wrap in plastic wrap,
and freeze for up to three months.
When it comes time to reheat,
we're gonna bake them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 30 minutes wrapped in foil,
then unwrap, brush with a beaten egg,
and bake for another 20 minutes
until golden brown and bubbly.
So there you have it folks,
chicken pot pie that makes use of the whole chicken
and you can taste it in every bite, whatever that means.
Hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
I hope you try it for yourselves.
And now I have a special announcement from the BCU.
What's up guys? I'm (mutters) I'm not Sohla El-Waylly.
What's up guys? I'm Andrew Ray.
- And I'm Sohla El-Waylly.
- Thanksgiving may look a little different this year,
so on November 19th, Sohla and I
are going live on the BCU channel
to teach you how to cook up a special dinner.
- How special, you ask? Try one of a kind.
We use Blue Moon's bright flavors
to inspire a range of unique and simple dishes
that will liven up any Thanksgiving dinner. (laughs)
- Great.
- We use Blue Moon's bright flavors
to inspire a range of unique and simple dishes
that will liven up any Thanksgiving dinner.
- And we want you to cook along with us.
- Tune in, it's gonna be fun.
- Who knows, you just might learn a thing or two.
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