The chicken pot pie test

I was chatting with my father the other day. Currently he's 86 and my mom is 90. Because Mom is getting a little more unsteady on her feet, Dad's been doing a lot more of the cooking – and rather finding he's enjoying it. (Mom is so proud of him!)

Somehow we got on the subject of chicken pot pie, something both my parents enjoy eating. But Dad said it was easier to purchase this fare (as take-out) from a nearby restaurant because it was so difficult to make the pies from scratch.

This puzzled me at first, because chicken pot pie is one of my easiest go-to meals for company. It was a standard recipe whenever we hosted the neighborhood potluck at our old place. What's so hard about making chicken pot pie?

Then Dad started going down the ingredients list and I realized he's right. From scratch, it's a bear. First you have to get a chicken, de-bone it, and cut (or shred) it into appropriate size pieces. Then you have to peel and dice carrots (or other vegetables), peel and dice potatoes, cut onions, make the sauce, and make the crust.     

Of these steps, arguably the most time-consuming is the chicken. But the reason making chicken pot pie was never an overly difficult dish for me to make is because I already have chicken breasts canned up. Canned chicken shreds beautifully, making it ideal for a pot pie.

This led me to thinking about the advantages of a deep pantry. I just wrote an article for Self-Reliance Magazine entitled "Pantry Independence" which underscores the importance of having component ingredients preserved for a variety of recipes. (It's a pretty good article, if I do say so. You might want to grab a copy of the current issue.)

I'm starting to think of this as the "Chicken Pot Pie test." Can you make a chicken pot pie from scratch with ingredients found in your pantry and/or found fresh on your farm?

From the article, I included a list of what we have in our pantry. The pantry is roughly 75% home-preserved food (canned or dehydrated) and 25% dry staples and baking/cooking aids. It's organized roughly by categories: meats, vegetables, fruits, sauces, spices. On the floor under the lowest shelves are bulk containers of things like rice, flour, beans, etc.

I tend to purchase bulk quantities of things we can't (or won't) produce ourselves, and then re-can them into more convenient pint jars that we can keep refrigerated once opened (this is especially helpful now that we're empty-nesters and don't go through the volume of food we used to).  Examples include mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce. I have beans preserved in two forms (canned and dry), and plenty of dehydrated broccoli (my favorite veggie).

I went through our pantry and took a rough inventory of what's currently in storage. Here's what I came up with:

• Meats: Canned chicken, ham, pork sausage, beef, tuna.

• Sauces: Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, chicken stock, beef stock, salsa, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce.

• Vegetables: Dry beans (some dry, some canned), green beans, corn, carrots, peas, mixed veggies, mushrooms, broccoli (dehydrated), chopped canned garlic, onions (some fresh, most dehydrated), tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes.

• Fruits: Peaches (some sliced, some puréed), apples (sauce, diced, or pie filling), blueberries, raspberries (canned in water for making fruit salads), pears, strawberries (some dehydrated, some as preserves), raisins (homemade).

• Dry staples: White flour, whole wheat flour, oatmeal, cornmeal, dry beans (several types), lentils (red and brown), rice (white and brown), popcorn (homegrown), pasta (several types), granola.

• Baking/cooking aids: Baking powder, baking soda, vinegar (distilled, apple, and homemade fruit-scrap vinegar), cheese powder, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, walnuts, cream of tartar, cornstarch, vanilla, powdered milk, powdered eggs, peanut butter.

• Fats: Olive oil, lard, shortening.

• Sweeteners: Honey, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar.

• Convenience meals (often leftovers which I later canned up): Navy bean soup, chili, lentil stew, chicken in orange sauce, curry chicken, roast beef with gravy, chicken soup, dirty rice mix.

• Spices: Salt, pepper, poppy seeds (homegrown), cinnamon, garden herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley), paprika, berbere powder, Montreal steak seasoning, curry powder, chili powder, red pepper (crushed homegrown cayenne), powdered ginger, garlic powder, nutmeg.

I also store potatoes and onions in the pantry in separate crates.

In light of increasing supply-chain issues and the rising cost of food, it might be worth giving yourself the Chicken Pot Pie Test and see how you do.

A good day

Have you ever had one of those good days where you get lots done and nothing goes wrong? Yesterday was one such day.

We've had about a week of unrelenting rain, often for 36 hours at a stretch. Obviously this limited any outdoor work. So when yesterday turned out to be dry, Don and I exploded outside and got stuff done. (I'll have more on each task in future blog posts.)

Don cut a great number of firewood rounds.

Later in the afternoon, I split the wood into an enormous stack.

Don fired up the tractor and did something he'd wanted to do for several weeks: clean out the manure that had piled up under the barn awning. It was a task that we didn't get done before the snow got deep, and it had piled up even more through the winter, so it was long overdue. We shooed the livestock down into the pasture for the day and he spent many hours scooping poop.

This is primo material to enrich a lucky pasture or garden once it's composted.

I made two chicken pot pies for our neighborhood potluck (it's our turn to host).

Then I released Matilda and Sean into the driveway area to let them stretch their legs...

...while I planted two thin twigs which are actually bare-root sweet cherry bushes we got in from a nursery this week.

The day even ended on a pretty note: Deer against a setting sun...

...and swans flying overhead.

Perhaps our accomplishments yesterday seem modest, but in comparison to days and weeks of not being able to get anything done outdoors, we were left tired but smiling by evening. Yep, a good day.

I just LOVE modern technology

I am happily learning the art of woodstove cookery with our new Baker's Choice wood cookstove. I think I'm in love.

So far this stove is amazing. It heats the whole house and -- get this -- uses half the wood our old antique parlor stove used. As far as I'm concerned, that in itself is worth the price.

We're also using less propane since we're not using our propane stove as much. Since the wood cookstove is already heated anyway, we simply use it for cooking and baking.

Being air-tight, the stove has a number of features letting us adjust things as necessary. There are two knobs on the side which, when screwed closed, buttons things up for long-term slow heating (Don sets these before going to bed at night so the house is cozy warm in the morning when I get up).

In theory opening these knobs allows more air to flow and makes for a hotter fire, but we've learned this lower door, where the ash tray can be found, works better. (We empty the ash tray about every three days.)

When we want a slow steady fire, the door stays closed. When we want a faster, hotter fire, we open the door a bit, which allows air into the fire box and really gets things rippin'.

Using the stove's surface is simple.

However I hadn't used the oven, and needed to start figuring that out.

There is a knob in back to circulate hot air around the oven box. The knob goes IN when the oven is in use (our mnemonic memory aid: OV-IN -- oven -- get it?), which diverts heat around the oven box before it goes up the stove pipe.

The oven has a thermometer, but so far -- and granted my experience is limited -- I'm learning it really isn't important (to an extent) what the temperature is.

My first baking attempt was a simple tortilla pizza. I put it on a cookie sheet...

...and tucked it into the stove. I didn't know how fast it would cook. I didn't know if I should rotate the tray to prevent one side from burning.

It cooked a bit slower then a regular oven, but I didn't have to rotate it at all. And it came out beautifully browned all over.

In a conventional oven, particularly for some fussy short-bake foods such as cookies, temperature and timing are critical. One thing I quickly realized is this: time has no meaning to a cookstove. When it says on the recipe that such-and-such should be baked at 375F for 12 minutes, that doesn't apply to a cookstove, even those with temperature gauges.

For example, I wanted to bake a large chicken pot pie for our neighborhood potluck. Just in case, I put the pie in early -- around 2 pm (dinner is at 6 pm) so if it was still half-raw by, say, 5 pm, then I still had time to bake it in our conventional propane oven. We didn't stoke up the fire any more than normal; we just let the pie bake at its own pace.

As it turns out, it was done by 5 pm. Not just done, but beautifully done. The crust edges didn't burn (something I normally need to watch for in the regular oven), and it was an overall golden-brown.

I was then tasked with keeping the pie warm until dinnertime. But this wonderful cookstove takes care of that. I simply put it on the warming shelf, and it stayed hot until dinnertime.

Cookstoves call for thinking ahead. Some of our potluck guests like a cup of coffee after dinner. I put the full teakettle on the stove -- farthest from the heat source -- just as people started arriving. By the time dessert rolled around, the kettle was hot. Alternately, of course, I could have opened the damper and fired up the cookstove hotter, but the room was already warm and I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortably hot.

This morning I made biscuits for breakfast.

The cookstove oven is small and only has one wire shelf. I have three small cookie sheets that fit in the oven. I put one on the shelf, one on the oven bottom, and one stayed out until the other biscuits were baked.

I didn't fire up the stove any more than usual, so the biscuits took about half an hour to bake. The sheet of biscuits that fit on the wire shelf baked beautifully.

The sheet that I placed on the oven bottom caused the biscuits to get a bit too brown on the bottom. We ate them and they tasted fine, but I should have been more vigilant.

The third sheet of biscuits -- well, I slipped them into the oven (on the wire shelf) and then clean forgot about them. Can't blame the stove for this; it's what is euphemistically referred to as "operator error" (otherwise known as a "learning curve").

I was enthusing to my brother about the joys of this new stove, expounding on its efficiency and utility. "I just LOVE modern technology!" I told him.

It might sound silly to refer to a wood cookstove as "modern technology," but there you go. My statement stands.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention something with regards to this cookstove and how we installed it. By itself -- just standing on the tile -- the cooking surface is only about 32 inches high. This is extremely comfortable for my short (5'2") frame. A taller neighbor (who has a Pioneer Maid, the next model up from this cookstove) commented our stove was set too low for him. His stove is on a platform, which makes cooking easier. For readers considering this stove, unless you're a shorty like me, you might want to install an elevated platform of whatever height to bring the cooking surface to a comfortable level.

Deep dish chicken pot pie

It was our turn to host the Sunday neighborhood potluck. What to make? I decided on a deep dish chicken pot pie.

Although I made it the morning of the potluck, this pie can easily be made ahead of time and frozen until needed. (Often I'll make two and freeze one for later.)

I start with the pie dough. I kind of "one-and-a-halfed" the dough recipe to make enough to fit into a larger dish.

I wished I doubled it, as I had to roll the dough pretty thin.

I always transfer pie dough from the cutting board to the dish by loosely rolling it onto the rolling pin...

...then unrolling it over the dish, ready to press down.

Next up: the sauce. It's a white sauce, starting with butter and flour...

...then adding half-and-half...

...then chicken broth, salt, and pepper, and letting it thicken on low heat.

Next is the filling. Besides chicken, the recipe calls for carrots and peas. I cheated and used both canned chicken and canned mixed veggies.

I like using canned chicken in chicken pot pies...

...because it shreds so beautifully.

Once the veggies were drained and added, I diced a potato and an onion...

...and added them to the mixture.

Then I added the sauce...

...gave it a good mixing, and scooped it into the pie crust.

I rolled out the pie top and unrolled it over the top of the dish.

Pinched the edges, pricked a few holes, and it was done.

Into the fridge, since dinner was not for several hours.

I preheated the oven to 375F. Just before baking, I brushed the top with milk. I usually foil the edges too, to keep them from browning too fast. I just bake until it's brown, about 30 to 45 minutes.

I meant to take a photo of the pie when it was finished, but frankly it disappeared too fast. This was all that was left by the end of the evening.

Because it was a self-contained meal, cleanup was easy. My kind of potluck dish!