BethAnne on a Budget: Chicken and Potato Pie

On Sunday I made a Slow Cooker Roast Chicken. As is our custom, we set the breast meat from the chicken aside for use in another meal, and I made stock from the chicken carcass and the drippings in the pot. A couple of days later, I made this pie from the leftovers.

Pies like this one are a wonderful way to take leftover meats and/or vegetables and turn them into something new. I didn’t mix vegetables into the filling of this pie, but you can easily do so. It’s a great way to use up any small portions of leftover cooked vegetables you may have on hand.

I often top savoury pies like this one with potatoes. Potatoes add more nutrients than pastry would and they help to make each portion more filling, thus extending the number of servings.

To make Chicken and Potato Pie, you’ll need:

1 to 1-1/2 cups chicken gravy (You can use prepared gravy, gravy mix, or even condensed soup but I used gravy made from my homemade chicken stock. You’ll find the instructions for making it, below.)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 cup cold lard
1/4 cup very cold water
2 cooked chicken breasts, diced
About 2 cups of leftover mashed potatoes

I made the gravy for my pie with 1-1/2 cups homemade chicken stock thickened with 2 heaping Tablespoons of cornstarch.

As you can see, my stock had quite a lot of gelatin in it from the chicken bones. I stirred the cornstarch into the cold stock until it was dissolved and then heated the mixture in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it boiled and thickened.

I tasted it and adjusted the seasonings. The stock was quite flavourful already so all I added was salt but you can play with flavours here, adding whatever spices you like best.

I set the gravy aside to cool completely before making the pie.

To make the pie, begin with the pastry. Mix the seasoned salt into the flour then cut in the lard until the larger pieces are about the size of a pea.

Add in the cold water, stirring it in first with a fork and then working it together very gently with your hands until it holds forms a mass but is still slightly crumbly.

Wrap the pastry dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes. Form the dough into a flat disk and then place the disk between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll the dough out between the sheets of waxed paper, with no added flour, until it’s between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick.

Use the pastry to line an 8-inch pie plate, crimping the edges and trimming away any excess.

Fit a piece of foil inside the pastry, folding it over slightly to protect the edges. Be careful not to damage the pastry in the process of covering it. If you have them, you can put pie weights or beans in the foil to keep the crust from puffing up, but I find that the crust is usually fine even without the weights.

Bake the covered piecrust at 425˚F oven for 12 minutes.

While the piecrust is baking, put the cubed chicken in a bowl and stir in some of the gravy. You want enough to moisten the meat but not a lot of excess.

I ended up using about a cup of gravy to make the filling. I put the rest aside to use in another dish.

When the piecrust is baked, take it out of the oven and carefully remove the foil. The pastry may have puffed up a bit but it usually sinks back down after it cools for a few minutes.

Once the pastry is settled, transfer the chicken and gravy mixture to the pie shell.

Cover the filling with mashed potatoes, leaving a vent in the center to allow steam to escape.

Bake the pie at 350˚F for 50 to 60 minutes. The potatoes won’t take on a lot of colour but the pastry will brown a bit and the filling will be hot and bubbly.