Southern Charm & the Magic of Chicken Potpie

I’m on a lot of email lists...one is for Reed Smythe & Company.

I landed there out of my deep admiration for southern writer Julia Reed (who has since died). I love her books, and she founded Reed Smythe with her longtime friend, a woman named Keith Smythe Meacham.

I love browsing the curated, pricey collection of home and entertaining items (also jewelry by Helen Bransford)....I saw a beautiful garden table with scalloped edge there, and I moon over Bransford’s chain necklace and solid gold lunar charm. But all cost hundreds of dollars, or a thousand plus. Out of loyalty and Julia love, I have ordered one of her books on the site, and a little glass votive, too.

Above: Madison Table ($1,000 plus shipping) inspired by 18th-century shutter paint color used by James and Dolley Madison. Here is product link. Oh, I just know my summer flowerpots would look so pretty on that table.

Anyway, today my email brought a recipe from Keith--her Mama’s Chicken Pie, with an endorsement from Julia (now in potpie and garden heaven, I trust).

https://www.reedsmythe.com/mary-macks-chicken-pie/

I started to follow the recipe--had Dan get the Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup on his blizzard run to ShopRite today. (I used Cream of Mushroom since Dan doesn’t eat chicken, and I was making two filling versions, one for him.)

I used Mary Mack’s technique of simmering the chicken in a stockpot with water to cook. And I loved Keith’s suggestion of pairing the pie with "blanched haricots verts with plenty of coarse salt and lemon zest.” Very good.

But then I remembered the perfect chicken potpies Punchy and I made on Christmas Eve afternoon 2020, following the book So Much to Celebrate by Katie Jacobs. The crust was so good....and easy.....I wanted to go back to that. (Katie’s filling recipe brilliantly calls for two rotisserie chickens, meat removed and shredded.)

I started cooking at 3:30 and didn’t finish until two+ hours later. It felt good, therapeutic--Cat Stevens playing on Google Speaker. Punch is at Mimi’s. Peaceful, must say.

It’s an easy, forgiving dough. I don’t have a food processor, so I adapted it here to use an electric mixer.

I would put my filling recipe here but I doctored it today to make one potful vegetarian for Dan and one with chicken for me (and the little pie I froze for Sis). So it was a mix of Mary Mack’s and Katie J’s. 

But here is the crust from Katie. It makes enough for two standard pie tops, or six individual potpie tops--or even one double-crusted pie, if you were in the mood for fruit instead.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup Crisco (get the sticks, follow markings on wrapper)

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water (with ice cubes in it)

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (for egg wash)

In large bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking powder. Add Crisco and butter and using electric (I used handheld) mixer on low, mix until the fat is the size of peas. Pour in the half-cup ice water (it should be enough) and mix again just until the dough just starts coming together into a shaggy mess (to use the words from a favorite Fine Cooking crust recipe). Dough should not come together in a ball. If you need more water, you can drizzle a little more on. 

Press dough together into a large disk. Wrap disk in plastic wrap and put in fridge for up to 30 minutes.

Then divide disk into two and roll each out on lightly floured surface.

Potpie (or any pie) tops are not picture-perfect in my book--mine are often patched up and a little raggedy. But good ones taste like heaven on a plate.

Thanks to Katie Jacobs (who suggests brushing the tops with the egg wash after they are placed on the filling, and cutting 4 steam vents into each).

Her recommended potpie baking guide is one hour at 375 degrees (place the pies on a baking pan to prevent drips).

LMK if you try it.

Enjoy. It’s tender and delicious, one forkful after another of homespun comfort.