How many times have you heard someone say, “Back in The Day, life as so much simpler…”? That’s true. And it’s especially true of food and recipes. So today we’re kicking off a week-long series of recipes from the 1950s that deserve a 2020s comeback!
My Mom made chicken Pot Pie at least a couple of times a month. Usually after we’d had a roast chicken Sunday din-ner. Regardless of the circumstances, Mom always followed the same formula. And I’m digging into her personal recipe box for today’s go-to how-to…
Surprisingly simple
Her Pot Pie recipe was dead simple.
First, she’d make up a double batch of her famous short pastry – big enough to line and cover a 9 in x 12 in / 22.5 cm x 30 cm casserole dish – and set it aside to rest on the fridge.
Then, she’d set a large sauce pan on the biggest burner on the stove and dump in the following ‘standard’ ingredients:
1 small can of green peas, drained
1 small can of ‘Niblets’ corn, drained
1 small can of carrot ‘coins’, drained
2 medium-sized yellow (waxy) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. / 1.5 cm cubes
2 hefty handfuls of leftover chicken meat, shredded small or cubed the same size as the spuds
2 cups chicken ‘stock’ (usually made from a packet of dry chicken soup mix dissolved in warm water)
… and heat them all together until simmering. Then, she’d thicken the liquid with a corn starch slurry to produce a clear, glossy sauce.
While the filling simmered (and the root veggies had the chance to par-cook), she’d roll out her past-ry and prepare the casserole dish.
While Mom was putting the dish together, the oven was pre-heating to 425 F. That was to make sure the pastry set fast enough to avoid the bottom being soggy. After the first 15-20 minutes, Mom turned the temp down to 530 F so the pastry didn’t burn before the filling was fully cooked.
Tips and hacks…
You can, of course, use fresh or frozen veggies in place of the canned ones Mom relied on. Just refer to the ‘small can’ descriptor as an indication of how much to add. I usually just default to 1 cup = 1 can.
DO use general purpose white or yellow potatoes, rather than potatoes or ‘mealy’ spuds such as Russets. I prefer Yukon Golds for this dish.
If you don’t have tour own chicken sock on hand, use half a box of supermarket stock. I prefer the low- or no-salt stocks so I can control the sodium content and the overall flavour of the dish.
I assume you won’t be using dried soup mix… So you’ll want to add some classic chicken flavourings – your choice of parsley, sage, rosemary andor thyme, along with the usual salt and pepper to taste.
You can pay homage to the old days by substituting two cans of condensed Cream of Chicken soup for the stock. Add only half the water recommended on the label. Or your sauce will be too thin – and too abundant.
And, as the photo above left illustrates, you can just as easily make up individual servings rather than a single large pie. French White ramekins, as shown, are perfect for this application!
My take
I felt this classic throwback casserole was the ideal way to inaugurate our week of celebrating the Good Old Days. I hope you agree. And I hope you’ll join in the celebration!
~ Maggie J.