I first came across "Aunt Cleo's Chicken Pie" while digging through my fiancé's tattered purple recipe folder, filled to the brim with handwritten index cards that his mother, Tina, had originally sent with him to college. We were only in the beginning phases of dating when I rummaged through the file, but I figured out pretty early that he was a sucker for his mom's home cooking.
The very Southern recipe was inherited from Tina's childhood nanny, the beloved "Aunt Cleo." It was a dump-in-the-pot-and-stir dish if there ever was one (canned cream of soup, canned veggies, hardboiled eggs), but dang if it didn't make my fiancé swoon.
The part about this particular chicken pot pie that made me swoon, however, wasn't the creamy (i.e. store bought) filling, but its golden, fluffy biscuit topping. It was like the best part of a crème brûlée, that irresistible crunch you can't wait to tap, tap, tap with a spoon. After just one bite, I knew the puff-pastry pot pie crusts of my past were for the birds.
I've since turned good ol' Aunt Cleo's original recipe on its head, leaving only the biscuit topping (and the hard boiled eggs) the same. My new-and-improved "chicken pie" bathes poached chicken and fresh vegetables in a rich, flavorful sauce. It's pure, delicious comfort food in its best form. This chicken pot pie is perfect for a cold winter night, whether it's for your family or all of your closest friends. I think, no, I know, Cleo would approve!
Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping
Serves 6For the filling
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large leek, chopped
1 cup chopped onions, small dice
1 cup chopped carrots, small dice
1 1/2 cups green beans, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot chicken stock, preferably reserved from cooked chicken
1 cup whole milk, warmed
2 teaspoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken (see note)
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
For the topping
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk
Preheat oven to 425°F.
For the filling, heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot on medium heat. Add the leeks, onions, and carrots and sauté until the vegetables are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the green beans in a pot of salted boiling water until tender and bright green, about 5-7 minutes (see note). Drain the beans and set aside.Transfer the sautéed vegetables to the same bowl as the green beans, season with salt, and set aside.
Melt the butter in the Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the flour and cook until a thick paste forms. Continue stirring for a minute or so. Add the chicken stock and milk and cook, whisking constantly until thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the sherry, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the vegetables and cooked chicken into the cream sauce. Season generously with salt and pepper. (Seriously, don't go light on the salt here, but taste as you go.) Pour the filling into a 2- to 3-quart greased casserole dish. Arrange the boiled egg slices over the top.
For the topping, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and milk, and whisk until combined. (Just a warning, the batter will seem fairly runny. That's okay.) Pour the batter evenly over the casserole dish.
Bake the pot pie for 45 minutes, until the biscuit topping is light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes:
• I poached 4 pounds of bone-in chicken thighs with aromatics--carrots, celery, onions--until cooked through. I shredded the chicken and used the stock for the pot pie. (I also added the remaining bones and extra chicken back to the pot with more water to make additional stock for using later.)
• For extra flavor, blanch the green beans in the reserved stock from poaching the chicken instead of boiling water.
Related: Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings
(Images: Nealey Dozier)
A Real Dinner, Fast: 5 Favorite Types of Almost-No-Work Meals
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Mmm mmm mmm. I've always done my chicken pot pies with frozen regular pie
crust (or more recently, puff pastry). Have always wanted to do a homemade topping but making pastry crust has never been my thing. I had the idea of doing a cobbler-type topping after making Mark Bittman's fruit cobbler several times--kept thinking I could just "un-sweeten" it--but never got around to trying it. So I am adding this recipe to my list to try instead!! Looks great.
I like to add in some paprika just to add a richer color to the sauce. There's just something about anemic white pot pie filling that looks unappetizing to me.
Mark Bittman did something very similar in 2010. Both recipes look terrific!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/dining/10mini.html?ref=dining&_r=0
Unnnngh I'm dying, that looks AMAZING.
Do the egg slices add something besides filling? Could they be omitted successfully?
Wow you got me there with the biscuit topping. I will definitely try that. I sometimes use corn bread as a stew topping.
My grandmother has always made her pot pie with biscuit crust- with extra biscuits on the side-
I have copied her recipe and tweaked it a bit- and it's a staple in my home.
My version is vegetarian!! CHICKPEA pot pie!!
http://outoftheordinaryfood.com/2012/11/20/chickpea-pot-pie-sweet-potato-hashbrowns/
That looks awesome. Perfect winter comfort food.
Looks great--the only thing I think I'd do is brush the top with melted butter before it goes in the oven. That would help the crust brown a little better.
Oh, this sounds divine! Definitely a "must try"!
I made this last night and I have several questions/suggestions:
1. I salted the concoction like I never salted before. The fact was that my boneless poached chicken couldn't produce a flavorful stock. If I had tasted it in my rush to keep the ingredients moving, I would have used the store bought broth I got.
2. Not sure what the sugar did to enhance the recipe; I kept tasting the sweetness of the onions, leeks, carrots. Perhaps it was my flavorless aromatics stock that enhanced the sweet (I used Martha Stewart's basic poached recipe). Does it serve a purpose that I can't see?
3. My batter was never runny; it pretty much sat there in clumps. They baked beautifully crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and perfectly browned after 45 mins. Biscuits like i never tasted before. The only kicker was that I had to make two batches of batter to cover the mixture. I do anything wrong? Mixed 1.5 cups flour, with 1.5 ts salt, 1.5 ts baking powder, then put in 0.5 cup of milk and microwaved butter. Tasted great but wondered about the lack of runny and the lack of depth in the final product.
4. I tried the paprika to hinder the "anemic" look, but with all the chicken in the cream, it still looks somewhat anemic. I do love this idea though.
5. In the future, I will cook the beans less (I used frozen beans). Even with 5 minutes of boiling and though the end product was amazingly tender, I missed the bright green and texture. Color came out like canned beans.
6. Chopping and cooking took a long time. During the critical sauce phase, I asked my bf to help out measure the sherry, sugar, lest I burn it when stopping the stirring.
Overall, a great indulgent recipe I would make again. Tasty, filling, and a chicken pot pie I'd recommend to others.Thanks!
Oh I didn't use the hard boiled eggs for this one, in response to a commentor's question. Didnt feel like anything was missing. I would try it next time.
Martha White the historic southern flour company promoted a chicken pie recipe many years ago with an easy topping called a "pour batter crust" that's similar to this recipe. Here it is. I think it's too salty. Use milk instead of chicken broth in the filling. Otherwise it's delicious.
Easy Pickin' Chicken Pie
Filling
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 1/3 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1 (10 1/4 -oz.) can condensed cream of celery soup
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Crust
1 cup Martha White¨ Self-Rising Flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
Heat oven to 400° F. Grease shallow 2-quart baking dish. Spread chicken and vegetables evenly in bottom of greased dish.
In medium bowl, combine soup, broth and pepper; mix well. Pour evenly over chicken mixture. In another medium bowl, combine flour and milk; stir until smooth. Add butter; stir just until blended. Pour over chicken mixture.
Bake at 400° F. for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
6 Servings
I have a chicken pot pie recipe that I like quite a bit, so I may borrow just the topping recipe (in place of frozen pastry) and combine the two. I agree with commenters who add paprika. I also add quite a bit of ground SAGE to mine. That also helps enhance the flavor and the golden color of the roux. And when in doubt, more black pepper (but I say that about a lot of things lately, partly for its own sake and partly in response to cutting back on salt).
I like to add cooked peas, corn and potatoes to mine as well (no green beans). I'd personally skip the cooked eggs (and probably the sugar, though that has me intrigued!)
I made this last night. I also skipped the eggs (can someone explain their purpose?). My biscuit batter was not runny, very clumpy. I even added an extra 1/2 cup of milk and it was still not very runny. Tasted fine though. Substituted peas for green beans. Skipped the sherry because we didn't have any.
All in all, this was delicious! I'll definitely make it again. :)
Also made this last night. Skipped eggs, no sherry and added some tyme and tarragon to the sauteed veggies. Skipped the green beans and after the onions and carrots had been sauteeing for about 10 minutes added cut up asparagus for the final 5 minutes. Also used a rotesserie chicken for the chicken. Biscuit topping also very clumpy, almost like drop biscuits but turned out well. Good flavor but could use a little oomph, with what? Just not sure yet...
Hey everyone, after reading your comments I noticed there was an typo in the ingredient list! The recipe should call for 1-1/2 cups milk (not 1/2 cup). I apologize for the confusion, but I am happy to hear it still tasted great.
@minjujube - Thanks so much for your helpful input! Here are some notes: (1) I would imagine that your stock didn't have a lot of flavor since you used boneless breast (I use thighs.) I'd definitely suggest using store bought stock if you aren't cooking meat on the bone. (2) A pinch of sugar is often used to balance out flavors. In this case, it doesn't sweeten the dish, and leaving it out isn't going to change the recipe in a drastic measure. Adding it really just comes down to personal preference. (3) Yep, chopping is definitely the most time-consuming part of this recipe. If you're in a hurry, feel free to use pre-chopped or frozen veggies, adjusting cooking times to your tastes. (4) As for the hard boiled eggs, I know it seems really random, but trust me, they really work here, although the dish still tastes great without them.
Made it this week. I browned some chicken breast (all I had) with the onion, used diced frozen veggies, and added a pinch of herbs de provence since I had no sherry. STILL turned out delicious. My picky kids gobbled it up. Thanks!!