Stay Calm and Bake Pie, Episode 5: Chicken Pot Pie

like a piece of homemade pie no matterif you’re laughing no matter if you cryfavorite love and care go ahead takeanother piece if you didoh me oh my say item is American Piehi welcome to stay calm and bake piethis is episode five alreadyI’m Beth Howard and I’m the author ofthis cookbook miss American Pie and I’moffering free pie lessons to you fromthis farm in southeast Iowaaffectionately known as Camp dough andtoday I’m making chicken pot pie why ami making chicken pot pie today becauseit’s snow 2-foot last night in mid-apriland huhhow much more can we take right so Ineed some comfort today and I can’tthink of anything more comforting than achicken pot pie it’s like Chicken Soupfor the Soul in a pie and because it’s asnow day Doug had time on his hands andhe graciously offered to help prep thevegetables for me that’s my leastfavorite part about making this piewhich is why I don’t make it very oftenit’s like a lot of prep you have to chopand peel carrots and potatoes garlic andonion and yeah so I’m gonna make the piedough and he’s gonna do the vegetablesand I have to say this teamwork isworking out pretty wellso I have a few shortcuts I haveleftover chicken that was in my freezerbecause I roasted a chicken probably twoweeks ago and I deboned it and you putthe leftover in the freezer so that Iwould have it for this day and I’m gonnause just chicken broth out of a boxbecause I didn t just make my chickenthe way I would make it first soup forexample like you know boiling it andsave the broth I don’t have homemadebroth so so what I’m just gonna use thisit’s gonna be great and remember this isnot about precision or perfection thisis just about using whatever you have onhand let’s say you don’t have chickenmaybe you have something else you couldthrow and you don’t even need chickenyou can do a veggie potpie let’s say youhave green beans instead of peas usethose right just mix it up you don’thave to have garlic or onion this timewhen we’re stuck at home and this wholewhat they call what they call it thegreat pause right I think it’s a reallygood time to learn how to make do withwhat we have I know that going to thegrocery store has become a big dealthese days and they don’t always haveeverything you need and I just know whenI go to the store like it takes me threehours just to get the groceries and thendisinfect everything before I can putstuff away so this is a good time toreally just you know think like howwould the Pioneers have gotten throughthisgood afternoon we had about six inchesof snow it’s not rigged good day forfarming so now you see a man in thekitchen when he has nothing else to doI’m gonna saute toes[Music]fixing[Music]we’re we’re we’re final sit down soakingthe Beast we gonna chew and real slowburning our teeth then wash it down withvintage wine slip it on a cook[Music][Applause][Music]okay we’re ready to add the peas totheir their potatoes carrots and onionsand garlic it’s winking at yait just says what I it has a patch overthe other one Oh maybe stir these inthere you can see the smiley face itsure helps to have a partner in thekitchen[Music]okay I’m gonna do a quick refresher onthe dough and this is the same dough Iuse for all of my sweet pies so justmakes it easy that way right you justhave one dough for every purpose its Ilike the versatility of that so I’m justgonna do this really quick if you want amuch more detailed dough lesson you canwatch episode 1 with the apple pie andI’m going to actually try to postsomething that’s just the dough byitself maybe cut that I’ll cut thatscene out of the apple pie episode andjust make it a standalone dough prep sobut like I said I’m just gonna run youthrough this really quick two and a halfcups of flour 1/2 you can see I’m notvery precise that’s about a half a cupdon’t forget we want our little bowl offlour for dipping our fingers did Ialready mention this is going to be adouble crust pie we’re gonna do a half acup of butter that’s about that reallyfeeling upside down today we’re 1/2 acup of butter 1/2 a cup of vegetableshortening you can use whatever fat youwant my butter is chilled you want youringredients nice and cold I’m gonna cutthat up into some very good sized chunksand and this is about a half a cup ofvegetable shortening ok so you mightremember that we’re just going tolightly work the Crisco and the butterin the Crisco the sorry to call itCrisco shortening whatever it’s gonnawork in much quicker than the butter soI’m gonna just kind of massage that inI’m gonna take my chunks of butter andkind of squeeze them let them fall backin the bowl I’m gonna fish around forthe big chunks get my bowl centeredthere for you all right so I’m justfishing around to find all the chunksraaahand i want to leave big almond sizedchunks of butter in there so if there’sanything bigger than that like a Brazilnut I want to find that and break itdown just so that it’s a little bitsmaller like this is too bigokay so it’s very light you don’t wantto open your work your dough you justwant to get your hands in and outbecause you want your ingredients tostay cold that’s one of the reasons whyyou want to work quickly and this okayone more big piece of butter to break upokaythen I have my handy little pitcher forice water and I’m just going to drizzlein enough water some big chunks and I’mgonna just toss it in like pretendingit’s salad dressing and I wanted tofocus on getting the stove moisten Idon’t want to focus on touching it andworking it I just want to get itmoistened and get in and out well thisis a really quick process it’s muchquicker than okaythen people expect which is I think thebiggest problem people have with theirdough so again I’m just here that icecubes you want ice water and whateverything really cold and I’m notmeasuring because I can feel with myhands if it’s got enough moisture or notnot a big believer in food processorsbecause I like being able to actuallyfeel what’s going on with the dough Ilike the physical connection with thefood and I like I like the tactileexperience I think that we’ve lost somuch of that with our machinery so let’sdo things the old-fashioned way by handI’m pulling up this stuff that’s you seehow it’s sticking together on its ownand now I’m gonna roll the otherremaining dry parts around and thatlittle extra bit of water I’d put inthere and now as you can see it’s allholding together on its own it’s alittle bit sticky a little bit tackyjust exactly the way I want it it’sstill really cold and you never saw meneeding it I only just worked lightlywith my fingers and now I’m gonna takemy flour mittens like you always see andbreak it into two parts two balls ofdough and then I’m gonna take one balland if it’s still sticky get this gunkoff my hands if it’s still sticky I’lltake a little more flour that’s always areally helpful thing and I have mywrists togetherI am I am rotating it as I go I’mstanding on my tiptoes so I can get abetter angle but I am forming it into adisc and you see how my fingers wraparound so that I can get a nice smoothedge and it doesn’t matter if it’s gotcracks in it because that is going to berolled out flat see I’m doing this withmy wrists together and I’m not using I’mnot doing it like this because there’sso much heat in the palm of your handbut you really just want to get itwarmed into the disc and stop touchingit and if your kitchen is hot you mightwant to put that back in yourrefrigerator for a while otherwise don’tworry about refrigerator in you doughthat’s one of my policies is that I Iskip that step and really in fact it’skind of unnecessary I’m gonna flour mysurface I’m gonna place my dough on toplike I said I don’t need to refrigerateit I’m gonna put flour below it on topand then I’m gonna start rolling and I’mjust gonna use firm pressure and keepchanging direction oh and look there’s ahole see all that butter all thosechunks of butter that’s what you wantyou want it to have a sort of a marbledlook and see that hole that was thereI’m just gonna I’m just gonna push ittogether and then I’m gonna roll it outand it won’t matter it’s gonna be mybottom crust anyway all right I’m gonnabring my pie dish over and I’m gonnabring my little scraper that guy overand I’m going to lift the pie dough fromone edge if it’s sticky I will take someflour from my little dipping bowl hereand sprinkle it on the edge and nudge itin there okay but you want to make surethat it’s not sticking before you gotearing it up off the counter so don’tdo thatdon’t be in a hurry when you’re doingthat now I’m going to lay it halfwayacross in my dish and unfold it and thathole is still there in the middle I’mgoing to show you that in a seconddoesn’t matter to the bottom crest seethat still but now you see it wait asecond I’m gonna move this aroundbecause I want it to be I want it to becentered evenly in the dish okaythat holes somewhere right there whocares right and see all that butter oohYUMall right this is my bottom crust I’mgonna go ahead and roll out the topcrust and have that ready for my chickenpot pie filling and if your rolling pinouts gunk on it make sure you stop andclean that off before the other thing Ididn’t do because I’m rushing is cleanthis coat off my hands I don’t want allthat stuff getting on my nice smooth piedough so underneath flour on top and anice smooth strokes keep changingdirection always change direction goaround the edges coax it into a roundshape well if your pan is round you wantit round you can coax it into any shapeyou want really so go all the way offnice smooth long strokes you don’t wantto go back and forth and be aggressivejust do nice long gentle strokes and putsome weight into it to really get thedough to stretch nice okay so that doughis ready look at that this dough isready from to be my top crust so now weneed to finish making the fillinglike I said I haven’t made this veryoften so bear with me all I know iswe’re gonna melt a little bit of buttertry not to burn it like I’m doing thenyou’re gonna add flour it’s on a quartercup whisk it in two cups chicken brothwe’re gonna slowly add some cream we’regonna turn out fine because it’s highyou know I’m spilling milk all over mykitchen that’s not like too bad I’mgonna add a little bit more chickenbroth just because just stretch this alittle furtherdo you see not about precision and Godknows if I can make this sense in you sohere are my vegetable dug so kindlyprepared for me and I haven’t put theother ingredients in there yet whichwould be a teaspoon of salt half ateaspoon of ground pepper[Music]half a teaspoon of dried sage this issage that 1/2 a teaspoon looks closeenough to me and I think it’s only aquarter of teaspoon of thymeI’m stir that off that’s gonna be niceand spicyby the way I’ve preheated my oven I’m adisaster in the kitchen I put all thespices in the cream sauce instead of inwith the vegetables like the recipe saysbut didn’t matter did it it’s all goingin the same pot in the end anyway okayso I’m stirring all of that togetherthere’s a cream sauce and vegetables Iturned the heat off on the snow thesepieces are way too big to go into thepot high and there’s still a littlefrozen so that’s something I’m gonnahave to go follow these out a little bitmore I don’t have room in my pan foroffice so I’m gonna go ahead and putthis chicken in the bottom of the piedish kind of like when we made thebanana cream pie you put the bananas inthe bottom of the dish and pour thepudding over it I’m gonna try that youknow my memory isn’t very good but Ithink this is how we did it at Mary’skitchen I don’t think that we actuallystirred the chicken and with the sauceseemed to recall building this pie inlayers like we did with her apple pierecipe mmm this is gonna be so full ofchicken and I’m gonna use it all upbecause I can’t refreeze it this isgonna be a big pie you know I wasremembering Mary saying don’t be stingyand now I’m gonna load it with sauce andI’m gonna try to mix that around alittle bit and see if it can get some ofthat chicken mixed in down below so thatis gonna be a much bigger pie than Iexpectedgood okay and now we are gonna put ourtop crust on so I’ve got my crust rightover here to the right and it’s unstuckfrom the counter so I’m just gonna slidethe whole thing overlay it on top and then I need myscissors because this edge here is justa little it’s got a little too muchdough we’re gonna take the bottom in thetop crust and roll it like we did justwith like we did with the apple pieand like you do with the single crustyou’re gonna trim it and roll it as yougo and it’s really helpful to just workover hand at 12 o’clock get your handsat the top of the pie dish and then justkeep turning the dish and not in yourbody alright and just very nimble E withyour fingertips just roll that undertrim as you go if it’s too thick if it’snot thick enough then you can always adda little piece back in just as anexample so you want it kind of uniformall the way around so that it the theedge of the crust bakes evenly mmm I amalready looking forward to eating this Ilove pie people ask me if I ever gettired of pie and I would have to say theanswer is no I guess I don’t especiallywhen there’s so much variety you can putanything in a pie dish our rhubarb isstarting to come upput there’s snow on top of it right nowit seems like it’s gonna survive it’ssuch a hardy plant okay so I’m gonnatake my fingers go under the edge like Ido get this little piece of carrot andpee out of the way okay get my extradough scraps out of the way and I’m justgonna probably not do anything withthose tonight we’ll see all right sothis is all uniform all the way aroundand I’m gonna anything hanging outunderneath and then we can do dippingthe old fingers in the where are youthere you aredip our fingers in the little bowl offlour and do the crimping again all theway around the edges the thumb and theforefinger is like a clothespin and thenyour action finger rocks in on the sideokay it’s sticky you put my fingers backin the bowl and coat them with someflour hmm comfort food we all could usea little comfort right now a lot ofextra comfort if we can’t hug each otherwe can have chicken pot pie it’s like ahug in a pie shell all right I’m notgoing to put any egg wash on this onetonight but I am going to put some ventholes in it just to give that top crustsome some way to let the the bubblingfilling escape so we’re gonna put thatin the oven at 425 for about maybe 15minutes to get it to brown to get thatcrust to just set and then I’ll turn thetemperature down to 75 and let thefilling bake a little bit more[Music]when Doug gets back home from feedingscows have another little job for him[Laughter]clearly I have no idea what I’m doing Iwas trying to follow the recipe and Idon’t think the recipe is actually verygood so but here’s a little tip justtaste it does it taste okay that’s allyou have to know put more time in ormore sage or salt or pepper that’stotally up to you you just lick thesmiley face spoon and you’ll know justcook to tastethis is what it looks like after 15minutes in the oven as you can see myoven is scorching it on one side andit’s a little bit raw on the otheroh and there’s miss peanut my helperthat’s going back in and I’m going torotate it so it doesn’t burn anymore onthe one side[Music]they bring on the comfort baby becausewe all need more of thatwhat can you do to go the extra mile tocheer up your world make everyone smilethese little things go a long long wayso let’s make a little something good toeat todaythere’s nothing like a piece of homemade[Music]love and care go ahead[Music]not as easy as digging abouthere’s your guru here is your gun comeon over to best sounds step inside allthe ticks is fruit and some flowerit’s pretty quick it’ll take about anhourthis and a shake of that you made amasterpiecesgive yourself a chance to fall in lovewith all-american homie bye[Music]devised that eel and Pfizer persuasion afriendly happy byLevi’s for romance Wazza make you wannaI gave yourself a chance to fall in lovewith all-american homemademe oh my say hi to miss American Pie[Music]