(upbeat music) (chill music) - So the idea with this pot pie episode is that we wanna get maximum utilization from one whole chicken. We're gonna make the stock, we're gonna make a big
old cast iron pot pie and individual freezer pies. First, we're going to
break down the chicken into its elemental parts. We're gonna start by removing the spine, placing a little snip at
the base of the breastbone, and flattening it out. Then we're gonna remove the wings. We're gonna place a radial
cut at the base of the joints, look for the two bones, run our knife between them, and separate. And of course repeat with the other side. Then we have to separate the chicken legs. There's barely any bone or cartilage between the breast and thigh, so they should be very
easy to cut in between. Then we're gonna start very graphically taking off everybody's
skin, but do not discard it. It's got plenty of collagen
to add to our stock. Then we're gonna remove all the white meat from the breastbone. Simply find the breastbone
and begin making shallow cuts down alongside it until
you've removed the breast. Repeat with the other side and you got yourself a chicken carcass, yet another essential building
block of a good stock. Then the thigh and drumstick are getting the same kind of gross
skinless treatment, ugh. To find the joint between these we're gonna look for this strip of fat, place a cut right down the center of this, and it will reveal the joint that you can run your knife in
between and separate the two. Then to remove the meat
from the drumstick, we're effectively just gonna
scrape it down the bone, again kind of a gross process. Be happy that I don't record audio. The thigh's a very similar story. There's a single bone that
we need to cut underneath separating the meat and again reserving all the bones for our stock. Once you have liberated the
meat from their bony captors it's time to start chopping up the meat. I'm just cutting everything
into bite-sized pieces and keeping the breast meat
and leg and thigh meat separate because the breast meat is gonna be better for our day-of pie, and the dark meat is gonna be better for the freezer pies. Go ahead and refrigerate these until we're ready to use them, for now it's time to make stock. We're gonna want to cut
the spine and carcass down into more manageable pieces, gather everybody into a big, gory pile, and toss them with a little bit of neutral flavored oil
like vegetable or canola. Then we're spreading them out evenly on a generously greased rack set in in aluminum foil-lined
rimmed baking sheet and roasting at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour or until deeply brown whilst we prepare our vegetables. Vegetables are where you can start to be truly creative with your stock. The absolute essentials are
carrots, celery, and onion but feel free to put
your own spin on things with stuff like parsnips, which are going to add a
bit of earthy sweetness. Turnips are an inoffensive root vegetable that will help complement the carrots. Maybe even a little bit of woody spice. Leeks bring a very mellow but slightly more complex onion flavor, a little sweeter in the white parts and a little grassier in the green parts. Fresh lemongrass brings a lemony, minty flavor to the party. You should most certainly
add a whole head of garlic chopped in half widthwise, and then maybe the most
optional ingredient, some fennel fronds, which are gonna bring a root-y, anise-y vibe. Lastly, a tablespoon of whole peppercorns, a few sprigs of fresh parsley, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and a bay leaf or two
if that's your thing. And of course our freshly
roasted chicken parts, each one packed full of chicken flavor, none of which will go to waste when put a use in a stock. You could of course cover
these guys with water and slows simmer for anywhere
from four to 24 hours, but you can achieve a
very close approximation with 60 minutes in a pressure cooker, which cooks its contents at
a much higher temperature and extracts their precious flavors in a fraction of the time. Now we need to release the
pressure and drain our stock, but first we have to make every effort to try to creep out our camera guy. I think it's working. Drain this liquid gold
and you're good to go. Homemade stock is one
of the essential parts of an amazing chicken pot pie. What's the most important part? That's right, the flakey,
buttery pastry crust. We're gonna start by measuring out 150 grams of all-purpose flour, tiny whisk together with
one teaspoon of kosher salt and one stick or about 113 grams of refrigerator cold butter. The objective here is to get the butter down into pea-sized pieces. You can do this with a couple of knives, but that's kind of
really annoying to do so, so if you have a pastry
cutter around the house that's gonna make quick work of our butter into tiny little globules
of flaky-making goodness. The next objective here is
to add just enough ice water to make the dough come together. I found that 50 grams
is a good place to start adding a tablespoon or two
at a time as necessary. We're gonna start by
bringing things together with a rubber spatula and eventually using our
hands to massage things into a barely cohesive ball of dough. Take care not to over-knead. That's how you get a tough pie crust. Once it holds its shape
when pressed together, we're gonna wrap it
tightly in plastic wrap, press it into a disk, and
refrigerate for at least one hour. This is both going to
allow the gluten to relax and prevent the butter
from melting prematurely. If you were fortunate enough
to get a food processor for your birthday last year, this is the absolute easiest
way to make a pie crust. Simply combine the same amount of flour and salt in the
bowl of the food processor, affix your shredding disk, and
feed a frozen stick of butter down through the feed tube. This will shred the butter into perfect little uniform shreds which will translate beautifully into nice flaky layers in your pie crust. Pour the flour and butter
mixture into a large bowl, add the ice water as before, and coax into a cohesive disk of dough. Now that our pie crust is in
the fridge and ready to go it's time to configure our filling. We're gonna start by melting two tablespoons of butter in
a 10-inch cast iron skillet. Once nice and sizzly and foamy, we're gonna add our chicken breasts, sauteing for two to three minutes just until we get some nice color. Then we're gonna fish them
out and set them aside and add yet another two tablespoons of butter to the skillet. That might seem like
an awful lot of butter but we're gonna need it
to formulate our sauce. Into the butter goes half a chopped onion that we're gonna saute
for two to three minutes before adding some aromatic vegetables. Chopped carrots, celery, and parsnips are my personal preference. We're gonna saute those over medium heat for about five minutes until they soften and just start to pick up a bit of color. Then we're adding a tablespoon
of freshly chopped thyme, sauteing for another 30
seconds or until fragrant, and then it's time to
begin the thickening. To the skillet we're gonna add four tablespoons of all-purpose flour, which we're gonna saute together for about one to two minutes. This along with all the
butter is gonna make a sort of makeshift roux. Then optionally, we're gonna deglaze with a quarter cup of
white wine or dry sherry. Cook that for about a minute until the alcohol smell wears off, and then it's time to start
slowly adding our stock. A little splash at a time at first, mixing until a thick paste forms. We eventually want to add about two cups of our homemade stock, which is gonna come together to form a thick, velvety, flavorful sauce to which we're gonna add our
previously sauteed chicken and any of its accumulated juices. Bring to a simmer, letting it
cook for about five minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Then it's time to start
the finishing process. A few generous pinches of kosher salt, some freshly ground black pepper. Tasting for seasoning,
adjust as necessary. Remember, you can always go forward, you can never go back. It's time to kill the heat and add a few tablespoons
of freshly chopped parsley, half a cup of frozen peas, and a quarter cup of heavy cream. This way the flavor of
the peas and the parsley will stay nice and fresh and the heavy cream will not
split in the simmering skillet. Give this one last mix,
taste it for seasoning, and then set it aside and keep it covered while we prepare our pie crust. First, we're gonna remove our well-chilled dough
dough from the fridge and generously dust it
and our work surface with all-purpose flour and begin to bang it
out with a rolling pin, whacking repeatedly until it's about twice it's original size. Then we're gonna start rolling until it's around about an
eighth of an inch thick, which we're gonna cut into a round that we're gonna place on top of our cast iron skillet pot pie. Now, this carries with
it a few complications. First off, shrinkage. George Costanza was right,
shrinkage is very real and it must be accounted for. If you just grab your pie dough and throw it on top of your
filling, cut a few vents, brush the whole thing down with egg wash, and throw it in the oven, one of two things is going to happen. If you have a very moist, saucy filling, your crust is going to capsize. It will shrink and fall beneath the waves like so many sailors of yore. If you try to overcompensate
and make a less saucy filling, you're gonna end up with a
picture-perfect very dry pie, which is gonna look very good on Instagram but very bad on your resume when you're forced to give a job interview in the form of a dinner party, which I'm sure has happened at
least once in human history. On the other hand, you could
borrow this amazing trick from the folks over at
America's Test Kitchen. Their idea is to precut
and pre-vent your crust. They don't say to use heart
shapes, but I am my own man. Then place your crust in the
fridge for at least 30 minutes after forming to help the gluten relax so it doesn't shrink as much. Brush the whole thing
down with a beaten egg. Maybe place your heart
cut-outs back on top in a decorative fashion. Sprinkle with flaky finishing salt and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 15 minutes until
lightly golden brown. Cool completely for 10 to
15 minutes on a wire rack and then gently shuffle on top of your completed pot pie filling and bake for an additional
10 minutes at 400 until bubbly, golden brown,
crisp, and absolutely beautiful. Now there's a pot pie that's as fantastic as it is photogenic. All there is left to do is grab
a big old spoon and dig in. You'll find that unlike most pot pies, this crust is shatteringly crisp, set prettily atop its
saucy, flavorful filling. It is quite simply the best
chicken pot pie experience you will ever experience. But you ask, what about the dark meat? Well, I think that that
responds better to being frozen. So we're going to cut it up
into the same bite sized pieces and prepare it very much the same way as the white meat filling, this time using just a little oil instead of all that butter, sauteing until they have
a little bit of color, adding our aromatics and then our stock, and letting the whole thing
simmer for about 20 minutes. This way the dark meat gets a chance to braise and break down. Then to thicken, instead of the flour we're reaching for two to three
tablespoons of corn starch, which we're gonna mix with about
a half a cup of cold stock. Otherwise the cornstarch
is gonna get lumpy. Mix until completely homogenous and then slowly stream into the filling while mixing constantly
so it doesn't clump up. We're gonna cook that for
about three more minutes until the desired consistency is achieved, season to taste, add some parsley, and then set aside to cool. If you're making these freezer pies, you can either double
up your pie crust recipe or use the scraps from the original recipe to cut your little rounds. We want these to be
just a little bit larger than our intended serving vessels. I'm going with ramekins. And then we're gonna
simply divvy up our filling and top with the crusts,
wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze for up to three months. When it comes time to reheat, we're gonna bake them at
400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes wrapped in foil, then unwrap, brush with a beaten egg, and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. So there you have it folks, chicken pot pie that makes
use of the whole chicken and you can taste it in every
bite, whatever that means. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I hope you try it for yourselves. And now I have a special
announcement from the BCU. What's up guys? I'm (mutters)
I'm not Sohla El-Waylly. What's up guys? I'm Andrew Ray. - And I'm Sohla El-Waylly. - Thanksgiving may look a
little different this year, so on November 19th, Sohla and I are going live on the BCU channel to teach you how to cook
up a special dinner. - How special, you ask? Try one of a kind. We use Blue Moon's bright flavors to inspire a range of
unique and simple dishes that will liven up any
Thanksgiving dinner. (laughs) - Great. - We use Blue Moon's bright flavors to inspire a range of
unique and simple dishes that will liven up any
Thanksgiving dinner. - And we want you to cook along with us. - Tune in, it's gonna be fun. - Who knows, you just
might learn a thing or two. (chill music)
I love this. The only thing it's missing for me is potatoes. I also prefer to have pie crust on the bottom too, but this looks great and I'm sure it would be.
I'm wondering, what's the big deal with cutting and roasting the chicken first? We've always just booked the chicken while, then take it apart later. What's the flavor difference?
My 3 favorite things!
How dare you. This is why I was on reddit instead of youtube.