Pot pies of all kinds go on the list of Things The Dog Will Eat With Me That My Husband Will Not.

I even love - perhaps mostly in a sentimental, comfort-food, I-miss-my-mom way, Swanson's pot pies. And Campbell's tomato soup with a cheese sandwich. But I digress.

Lately I've been making chicken pot pie for the dog and me when husband is not around. All the recipes I find on line seem to be for one crust on top. I really do like that bottom crust, though, so for my next trick I'll attempt to achieve two-crust pot pie success without explicit recipe help.

To me, a good chicken pot pie has to have crust all around. I love the taste of the crust with the sauce. Yum.

I always hated Chicken pot pie because my mom served the swanson frozen ones. But now I love Marie Callender's frozen pies. The directions have a microwave method but I use a combination method to be sure the inside is done and the crust is nice and crisp. I microwave it and then take it out of the box and put it on a cookie sheet on a high oven and bake it for fifteen minutes. That really improves it. I'd make it from scratch but it is time consuming. I'd eat it more often but it is very high in calories and fat.

Had one of the Marie Callender's frozen pies for dinner tonight - home with Bronchitis while hubby takes his mom out to that newish Kyrgyz place

It was good, but I think I can do better...

The best chicken pot pie we've brought home is the one sold at Steve's Deli. It's even better than the one at Fox & Obel.

I am in the make-my-own w/frozen puff pastry on top camp. Mine is a simplification of Ina Garten's recipe. Someone mentioned it up thread, but the recipe I refer to uses puff pastry instead of biscuit crust. I think secret #1 is the massive amount of butter involved and secret #2 is using fennel.

There is one restaurant where I always order the chicken pot pie called The Great Dane in Madison, Wi. Instead of a chicken gravy base, the chicken and veggies are swimming in mashed potatoes. Mmmm...

If you are buying frozen pot pies, Stouffer's are much better than Marie Callender's, but they are getting harder to find.

LAZ wrote:If you are buying frozen pot pies, Stouffer's are much better than Marie Callender's, but they are getting harder to find.

I'd agree but Stouffers pies have pimentos (or something similar) that offends me a bit. That and the price differential keep me picking up the green boxes.

As a late entry on the crust issue. Didn't Swanson have a "Hungry Man" large pot pie that was top crust only? I remember being disappointed at that.

I had to re-read the whole thread twice to make sure I hadn't missed Hosier Mama. Their pot pie is outstanding. Manny's would be my second.

mrefjl wrote:I had to re-read the whole thread twice to make sure I hadn't missed Hosier Mama. Their pot pie is outstanding. Manny's would be my second.

It's a real pie Hossier Mama offers, thus putting it in an elite group of pot pies that stand alone against the frauds, the casseroles with a pastry cap that claim to be pie. Fraud!!

Okay, I have to go get one of these Hoosier Mama's chicken pot pies. Can you eat hot chicken pot pie there, or do you have to take it home and heat it up? Do I need to call ahead and reserve one to be sure it is available on a weeknight about 6pm or so?

mrefjl wrote:I had to re-read the whole thread twice to make sure I hadn't missed Hosier Mama. Their pot pie is outstanding. Manny's would be my second.

You can add Kaufman's to this elite list!

The newest pot pies on the scene: Small Comfort. Delivered frozen, they go right into your oven (no need to thaw). Top and bottom pie crust too!

http://smallcomfortchicago.com

They are delicious, but I make them so I might be biased!

CindyG wrote:The newest pot pies on the scene: Small Comfort. Delivered frozen, they go right into your oven (no need to thaw). Top and bottom pie crust too!

http://smallcomfortchicago.com

They are delicious, but I make them so I might be biased!

Only delivering west to Pulaski!?

Bummer.

Well, I do deliver to Oak Park once a month. I'll be out there tomorrow!

Very interesting CindyG! I may have to arrange for a pickup since I'm not in your delivery area.

Back in the day (college) I practically lived off of the Banquet Turkey Pot Pies - I could get them as low as 39 cents apiece. The Marie Callendar ones are quite good, but I found some really excellent ones at Mike's Market in Villa Park (don't know if the also carry them at Casey's). They have them in their freezer section - chicken, turkey (I think), beef, and sheperd's pie.

http://www.caseysmarketonline.com/

I no longer live in the nighborhood so I don't get them any more...

CindyG wrote:Well, I do deliver to Oak Park once a month. I'll be out there tomorrow!

I placed my order for six for delivery tomorrow. With The Wife out of town, this seems like perfect temporary bachelor-type food.

David Hammond wrote:

CindyG wrote:Well, I do deliver to Oak Park once a month. I'll be out there tomorrow!

I placed my order for six for delivery tomorrow. With The Wife out of town, this seems like perfect temporary bachelor-type food.

Be sure to let us know what you think of these CPPs. Sadly, I am mere blocks outside of her delivery area, but if it's worth it, I'd figure out a way to get my hands on a pie or two.

stevez wrote:

David Hammond wrote:

CindyG wrote:Well, I do deliver to Oak Park once a month. I'll be out there tomorrow!

I placed my order for six for delivery tomorrow. With The Wife out of town, this seems like perfect temporary bachelor-type food.

Be sure to let us know what you think of these CPPs. Sadly, I am mere blocks outside of her delivery area, but if it's worth it, I'd figure out a way to get my hands on a pie or two.

I will. I got a selection of pies (incl. 2 CPP).

I will often go 3-4 blocks outside the delivery area for no additional fee. I just needed to set some boundaries because I was driving all over the place!

I was just reading through the Harner's Bakery & Restaurant thread, and it looks like Wednesday is Chicken Pot Pie day. I may be tempted to take a trip to the wilds of North Aurora one of these Wednesdays.

Harner's Bakery & Restaurant
10 West State Street
North Aurora, IL 60542
630-892-4400

When I checked outside my door this morning, I found the bag of six Small Comfort pies I'd ordered.

I tried the roasted vegetable one for lunch today:



With pot pies, the pastry may make all the difference. Now, the veg filling was excellent: some tooth to the carrots, which were not overdone but rather cooked pretty much perfectly for pie filling, nice to have cauliflower in there, perhaps a few too many potatoes, and would have liked peas, but these are quibbles. Many of the fake pot pies (casseroles with pastry disks on top) have decent enough filling, but the pie portion of this Small Comfort offering was what made it such a fine lunch. Flaky, tender and nostalgically (and I'm guessing unavoidably) soggy with deliciousness on the bottom, this is a very good pot pie.

Now, if only we had a little more winter so I could have the pleasure of eating a steaming pie while the snow flies.

I find that almost any pot pie will be soggy on the bottom. SO I bake it, then when it is near to done, but not quite, but the top is brown and crispy, I put another baking dish over it, and invert it. So for the last 10 mins or so the bottom is on top and gets a little drier. This is not usually long enough to make the top (now the bottom) soggy, though it is messy if you are not careful.

Illustrating a problem very similar to the one I have with ersatz pot pies, this "baked Alaska" I had a few hours ago at Bistronomic:

Had my best success so far with chicken pot pie. Bottom crust parbaked, tasty filling packed with meat from roasted chicken legs and thighs, peas, and carrots, top crust pricked with fork, baked til golden and filling bubbly. I was so proud.

My picky eater flat out wouldn't eat it. "Too crusty."

Oh well. More for me. And the dog.

Katie wrote:Had my best success so far with chicken pot pie. Bottom crust parbaked, tasty filling packed with meat from roasted chicken legs and thighs, peas, and carrots, top crust pricked with fork, baked til golden and filling bubbly. I was so proud.

My picky eater flat out wouldn't eat it. "Too crusty."

Why cook for such a person? Leave him to his own devices and invite me over for dinner, instead.

I just tried a the Rotisserie Chicaken Pot Pie from Costco the other day. It's a large "Family Style" pot pie, which is the best I can describe it. It will easily feed 4-6 people. It has a bottom crust and a Lattice type top crust. It contains a very generous amount of chicken, along with the other expected vegtables of potato, carrot, peas and mushrooms. The sauce was nicely flavored and the proper consistency and amount. My wife thought that it was way too salty, and while I did notice it being on the upper side of "salty", it was by no means inedibly so. It will be interesting to see how the next one matches up.

Overall, for around $17 it's not a bad buy for a meal that could feed 4-6. It holds up pretty well to rewarming as leftovers also.

This thread just triggered a memory of the old Tap & Growler (a brew-pub from the late 80's somewhere around Green street & Jackson). They had a signature Growler Pie which was grilled salmon with a mushroom/cabbage/leek cream sauce under a pastry cap. Pretty darn good.

spinynorman99 wrote:This thread just triggered a memory of the old Tap & Growler

But the beer wasn't very good.

Hammond sparks another national trend:

Fashion's hottest food fad

Just wanted to second the parbaking recommendation. I've only made pot pie twice, but I basically treated the dough like a quiche dough and weighted it down with foil and beans for 20-25 minutes, then filled, topped and finished it. The only downside was that it was more challenging to get the top layer of dough to merge with the sides without breaking up or deforming the fluted edge.