Chicken pie makes me think of rainy days, sweaters, and curling up with mom on the couch to watch Jeopardy. This is such a homey, simple dish, and what I love about it is that you can add whatever left overs you like to it: peas, carrots, kale, sausage, cheese, odds and ends of all kinds. This isn’t a super rich chicken pot pie, where the liquor inside the pie is a thick béchamel. This pie strikes a nice balance, and the buttermilk biscuit crust adds the perfect tang to every bite. 

INGREDIENTS

For one 10 inch pie

1 chicken, about 3 pounds, quartered and deskinned

1/2 small onion, thinly sliced

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups half and half, plus a little extra for glazing dough

2 tablespoons parsley

2 tablespoons chervil (if you can’t find chervil, a mix of half tarragon and parsley will do)

2 recipes biscuit dough (recipe bellow)

one 10″ pie or tart dish

DIRECTIONS

Pre heat oven to 425F.

In a large pot, add the chicken, onion, and two cups of water. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. The meat should come off the bones pretty easily, so slice or pull the meat off of the bones, but keep in large pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, half and half, and herbs. Add the chicken and onion, and enough chicken cooking liquid to just cover the chicken.

Prep 2 recipes of the biscuit dough, and on a lightly floured counter, roll the bottom layer dough out to about 1/4 inch thick. Line the pie dish with the thin pie dough, and fill with chicken mixture, about 3/4 full.  Don’t overload the pie! It will bubble out of the vents. Roll out the second pie dough about 1/4 inch thick, cover the pie, cut vents and roll the edges of the dough together to seal the pie together, and glaze with a little extra half and half.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the dough is a deep golden brown.

INGREDIENTS (BISCUIT DOUGH)

The key to fluffy, light biscuits is ice cold ingredients, so make sure your butter and buttermilk are thoroughly chilled, and that you’re working lightly and quickly.  If you need to pause the process, pop the ingredients in the fridge to keep them cold.

4 ounces cold butter, chopped into small, 1/2 inch cubes

2 1/4 cups self-rising soft-wheat flour, sifted, plus more for the counter

1 cup buttermilk, plus more for glazing biscuits

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 450F.

Scatter the butter over the flour in a large bowl. Cut the butter into flour with a pastry blender (or using your finger tips) until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas. Add the buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened and coming together into a ball of dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 3 or 4 times to form it into a ball. With floured hands, press the dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle and fold dough over onto itself in 3 sections, like you would a letter.  Pat down the dough to 3/4-inch-thick, and repeat this entire process 2 more times. This is creating the fluffy layers that will puff and add lift as the biscuits bake. Wrap in plastic or parchment and set aside in the fridge.