Winter is the time for cozy comfort fare, like this chicken potpie, from Marion Cunningham’s update of “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook”:
Chicken Pie
From “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook” (1996 edition), by Marion Cunningham. Makes 1 pie, serves 6.
Ingredients
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Salt
4 cups large chunks of cooked chicken
12 small white onions, cooked
3/4 cup peas, cooked
3/4 cup carrots, cooked
3/4 cup celery, cooked
1 9-inch pastry shell
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Slowly add the broth, cream, pepper and salt to taste. Cook for 5 minutes, until thickened and smooth. Put the chicken pieces in a deep pie plate or casserole, cover with sauce, and stir in the onions, peas, carrots and celery. Place the prepared pie crust over the casserole, allowing enough overhang so that the edges can be crimped. Cut vents in the crust to allow steam to escape. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned.
Make it, and you’ll see: It is a lovely pie.
But it’s boring.
Of course, the beauty of good old chicken potpie lies in the boringness of it. It is a lovely dish in the same way Mount Evans is a lovely mountain: solid, graceful, reliable, unchanging. It existed before any of us did, and it will outlive us all. Both cut a fine figure, both exude a peaceful energy, but only very rarely does either the mountain or the dish really surprise.
Like most Denver dwellers, I look at Mount Evans just about every day. It’s inescapable, and a useful navigation tool when you’re wending through unfamiliar neighborhoods. It is always splendid, but there are days when I’d be just as happy if the horizon changed for a while and I was able to look at a different mountain. Pikes Peak, maybe. Mount Rainier. Or Mauna Loa on Hawaii’s big island, for that matter.
But since we can’t change our Mount Evans view, let’s be devils and do a number on Mount Chicken Potpie.
Stripped back to its basics — chicken, vegetables, liquid, crust — it’s clear that chicken potpie is, really, a blank slate. You can sub in whatever vegetables you want — green ones, orange ones, yellow ones, red ones. Make it with wine, water or stock. Doctor up the crust with pepper, Parmesan or paprika. Use a puff-pastry crust instead. Or biscuit dough.
All of these would add a note of complexity, but none would really be surprising. To really bump up the volume — but still be able to call it a chicken pie — you’d have to change the essence of what’s inside. Take it out of the country … and into another country altogether.
Hungary? A chicken paprikash pie. Morocco? A dried-apricot-and-olive chicken pie. China? Garlic and ginger chicken pie. Thailand? Chicken pad pie.
Or, India. Chicken curry pie, like this.
Chicken Curry Pie
Recipe mashed together from two sources: a chicken curry recipe by Mrs. Harold Holcomb of Phoenix, culled from Clementine Paddleford’s 1970 compendium of home recipes, “Cooking in America”; and a pie recipe from Marion Cunningham’s 1996 edition of “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.” Use freshly ground spices for the most vibrant pie. Be sure to use coconut water, not coconut milk. (Make your own coconut water by soaking 1 cup unsweetened coconut in 2 cups water overnight, then drain and save the water.) Makes 1 pie.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped
Chopped chiles to taste (if desired)
1/2 cup chopped carrot
4 cups cooked chicken
1 cup chicken stock, plus more if needed
1 cup coconut water, plus more if needed
Prepared pie crust
1 beaten egg
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat canola oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion until tender. Stir in spices and herbs and cook another 2 minutes. Add chopped chiles, if using. Stir in carrots and chicken, then add chicken stock and coconut water. Stir together, adding more liquid if needed, and cook 5 minutes. Spoon into casserole dish, then top with pie crust. Crimp the edges, then cut a few vents in the crust to allow steam to escape. Brush egg on crust. Bake 25 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned.
The faraway spices and soft-but-insistent heat in this dish transform potpie from an everyday comfort supper into an alluring, satisfying, staccato-sharp meal, as surprising as a fresh snowfall on Mount Evans.
Not a replacement for traditional chicken potpie (never that), but a sparkling stand-in when the routine becomes routine.
Got a recipe you’d like tinkered with? Email dining@denverpost.com
