Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chicken Pie

Hello My Dears!  How are you?  I'm sharing a recipe with you today; it's been awhile since I've done a recipe post.  Do you like chicken pie?  If you're a vegetarian, I realize that question is moot, but if you eat meat, you might like this dish.  First of all let me say that I ate my share of Swanson frozen pot pies (always chicken, never beef) when I was in college, and I certainly don't miss those.  But there is something about that combination of chicken pieces, vegetables, gravy, and pastry crust that has always appealed to me.  Just basic comfort food, I suppose.     After I married, we moved away (not far though) for about eight years, but we saw our families often, especially after our son was born.  Hal's paternal grandmother kept us supplied for years with her homemade chicken pies; sometimes we had four or five in the freezer at a time.  They were so convenient to pull out and pop in the oven for an easy and tasty home-cooked meal.  Fix some vegetables on the side, and sometimes bread, and you have a good meal, winter or summer.  Granny and her sister made many a chicken pie with the United Methodist Women's group at their church over the years.  Granny used to make extras for her family and she put lots of chicken in those.  These ladies made their own pie crust from scratch, and it was awesome.  So flaky and tender; I will always remember those pies.     

      The pies that Hal's grandmother made looked like this.  Around here, they're known as Moravian Chicken Pies.  I grew up in the town of Winston-Salem, and the Moravians founded the town of Salem, which later merged with the town of Winston to become Winston-Salem.  For decades, the women of the local Moravian churches have made chicken pies for church suppers, lunches, and fund raisers.  The local Methodist women adopted the idea of making the pies for fundraisers, too, and Hal, our son, and I have eaten many a chicken pie during our 33 years of marriage.  These pies are not like chicken pan pies, which are made in a long baking pan and have vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and peas) mixed in with the chicken and gravy.  Also, those pan pies usually just have a top crust, but no bottom crust.  The Moravian style chicken pies have chicken, no vegetables, some broth thickened with a little flour, a top and bottom crust, and are baked in a round pie plate, like the picture above.  I hadn't planned to give a history lesson, but there you are.  😉      The recipe I'm sharing today is a chicken pan pie, without the veggies.  However, I was thinking tonight that it would be easy to add some frozen peas and/or carrots to this if you wish.      

These are the ingredients you'll need.  Shredded chicken breasts (I used about four cups of cooked chicken) chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, butter, self-rising flour, salt, pepper, and buttermilk.  This really is an easy recipe, and we had enough left over for another meal.   

   

I used an 8 x 11 1/2 inch Pyrex baking dish for this.  I just put my cooked chicken in the bottom, then poured the gravy on top.   

Then pour, or spoon, the batter on top and pop into a 400° oven to bake for 25-30 minutes.   

When the gravy is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, it's done.   

I haven't made this dish in a long time, and we really enjoyed it tonight.  This is good with potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, carrots, broccoli, or any other green vegetable.  Also, the chicken pie re-heats beautifully in the microwave.   

The recipe I'm sharing comes from Stirring Performances, a cookbook compiled by the Junior League of Winston-Salem, copyrighted 1988.  I love community and church cookbooks, don't you?  My mother-in-law has this cookbook, and she gifted me with one many years ago.  We have both used ours a lot.    

   I didn't use the onion and celery called for when stewing the chicken because I added organic chicken broth from a box, along with some butter and a few seasonings.  I also baked mine at 375° because I've noticed my oven has started cooking a little hot.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.  You should be able to click on this picture to enlarge for easier reading of the recipe.     This is an easy recipe, but it's tasty and it makes for a filling meal when you add a few vegetables.  If you try this, I hope you enjoy it!  Thanks so much for your visit today, and have a wonderful weekend my friends.