Chicken pot pie, topped with a tasty pastry crust, comes filled with chicken and vegetables.
Wrong.
The dish described is a meat pie, but the chicken pot pie in question is a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy. As a Pennsylvanian, I know this pot pie is without crust, and is most certainly not made in the oven. It's simply a soup.
The Pennsylvania Dutch are German immigrants who settled in the state beginning in the late 17th century, and with this group came a new food culture. Many dishes use lesser-eaten parts of animals and have names related to their German origin. Some of the most popular include scrapple, shoofly pie, whoopie pies, spaetzle, apple dumplings and the beloved winter favorite, chicken pot pie.
A hearty comfort food that knocks chicken noodle soup off the table, chicken pot pie is perfect for cold, snowy nights that threaten to keep everyone indoors. Growing up in the Pennsylvania Dutch area, nothing said home for the holidays more than this dish.
Though Bay area residents don't have to fear for a snow day, the stew is a delicious way to celebrate the family being together.
Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Pot Pie
Serves 6, from Joan Swinehart
Dough:
2 cups flour
1 level tablespoon shortening (not butter; must be Crisco)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
Mix shortening and flour thoroughly with hands. Add egg, salt and baking powder. Mix well. Add water gradually and knead until a ball of dough is formed. (Dough should be sticky.)
Divide dough in halves or thirds, then flatten and dust one at a time with flour. Roll out dough very thin on well-floured board. (Dough should feel rubbery and be difficult to roll.) Cut into 2- x 2-inch squares.
Dish:
Whole chicken
1 onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
4-5 medium to large potatoes, diced
Dough squares
Fill a pot with water and keep at a rolling broil throughout the duration of cooking. Cook chicken in pot on the stove with celery and onion until chicken can be pulled off the bone.
Remove chicken from broth, take off the bone, cut into small pieces and return to broth.
Add potatoes to pot and stir occasionally. When potatoes are almost done, add dough squares. Cook for 25 minutes or until dough is done. Stir often and push dough down to keep pieces from drying.
This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2015.