How to Make Chicken Pot Pie in a Cast-Iron Skillet | America’s Test Kitchen

Chicken pot pie is the perfect comfort meal during fall and winter months. Today, Julia Collin Davison shows Bridget Lancaster how to make a chicken pot pie more quickly by using a cast-iron skillet.

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– Chicken pot pie. It’s got to be on the top 10 list of all time greatest comfort foods. And just when I think that this dish cannot be improved upon, Julia walks in. And I think you’re gonna
make a great chicken pot pie. But what’s different about it? – We’re gonna make this
in a cast iron skillet. We’re gonna start with
the homemade pie dough. – Okay.
– Here we have a food processor filled with some all purpose flour,
one and a quarter cups, because we’re just making the top crust. – Okay.
– So it’s a one crust. We’re gonna add some sugar, tablespoon. Little bit of salt,
half a teaspoon of salt. Just gonna buzz this together real quick. Get those ingredients combined. There we go. All right. This is shortening, four tablespoons. It adds that flaky texture, but
it doesn’t have much flavor, and that’s where the butter comes in. So this, again, is four
tablespoons of shortening cut into half inch pieces. We’re just gonna let this
rip for about 10 seconds until it’s nice and incorporated. – [Bridget] Okay. (food processor whirring) – Now also, I wanna point out that the shortening and the
butter have both been chilled. So I cut them up and I chilled them. That way they don’t break down as fast in the food processor. – Right.
– So here we have the butter. This is six tablespoons
of unsalted butter. Cut it into a bit smaller size cubes. Quarter inch. Butter does have some water in it, unlike the shortening. So you really want it to pulse in quickly, ’cause once that water comes out, you start getting a tough pie dough. So we’re gonna pulse
this in, about 10 pulses. We’re looking for coarse crumbs. – [Bridget] Okay. – So now we’re gonna add the water. We’re gonna do it in a big bowl. Again, this helps keep
a nice flaky pie dough. Into a big bowl this goes. So here we go with the water, ice water. We’re gonna start with three
tablespoons of ice water, just the water. This is looking pretty good. At this point, depending on the
environment, how humid it is, how you weighed everything
out, like the flour. You can add more water as you want to, but just do it a teaspoon at a time. I just want it a little more wet. – Okay.
– So now, we need to chill this in the fridge. – Okay.
– We’re gonna chill it in a round shape. That just makes rolling out easier. So here I have a nice
piece of plastic wrap. Now I’m gonna wrap it up nice and tight. Going for about a four inch round. – Okay.
– We gotta let this chill in the fridge at least an hour. And before we roll it out, I’m gonna let it sit on the
counter about 10 minutes, just so that it’s easier to roll. – Okay, great.
– Into the fridge it goes. This dough is nicely chilled, and I’ve let it hang out on the counter. Again, about 10 minutes. Firm in the middle, but on the outside, it’s nice and soft. Two nice big sheets of parchment paper. Sometimes a little bench flour. All right, parchment on top. We’re looking for an 11 inch round. Start in the middle, roll out. All right, let’s see. Look again for about 11 inches. See how if we did. Oh. Time to give this dough
a pretty crimped edge so our pot pie looks good. We’re gonna do that by
folding the dough under. And this dough has so much fat in it that it melts so nicely in the oven. So it has that little
crack around the edge. It’s no big deal. – It’s self-healing. – It is. All right. So many ways you can crimp a pie dough. You could use a fork, you
could use your knuckles. I’m partial to the
fingertip method myself, so I’m gonna use two fingers on one side and a pointer on the other. – There you go.
– I like that look. – Yeah. So we’re gonna cut a few
vent holes in the top. I’m gonna make a pretty petal pattern to help prevent the pie
dough from getting too soggy. So a key to making sure
the crust on the top of this pie doesn’t get soggy, is to bake it before you
put it on top of the stew. So we’re gonna par bake
this, blind bake this all on its own. – Hmm.
– Ya-ha. So sliding it onto a rimmed baking sheet. Now you really wanna chill
this before you bake it. It really helps sturdy up the dough so it doesn’t melt too much. So into the fridge for about 15 minutes. – [Bridget] Okay. – Here is the pie dough
that has been chilling for 15 minutes. We’re gonna put a little
bit of an egg wash. Now, this is just an egg
that we whisked together with a couple tablespoons of water. We’re gonna brush it on, gives
it a nice glossy appearance. Now is your opportunity also to add any flourishes if you would like. Some fresh herbs, some pepper, or some nice flaky sea salt, which is what I’m gonna do. So just a little bit goes a long way right on the top. And that’s it. Into a really hot oven. 400 degrees. About 20 minutes till it’s
nice and golden brown. Oh, it smells like pie dough. – [Bridget] Let me get a look at that. Absolutely beautiful. – You can see it’s baked
all the way through, and it has a little bit of
golden right around the edges. It’s gonna go back from the oven on top of the pot pie for a bit. So you don’t want it
fully baked at this point. – Okay. – So we’re gonna let that hang out while we build the stew. So as I mentioned, we’re
gonna build this in a skillet, a cast iron skillet. This is a cute little ten incher, and I’ve been heating
this up over medium heat for three minutes. So in goes some butter. This is four tablespoons
of unsalted butter. – [Bridget] Woo. – [Julia] So now we’re gonna add some basic aromatics here. I have two stalks of celery. – [Bridget] Beautifully diced. – Thank you. I have an onion, nicely minced. Let’s get it all out of there. I don’t wanna waste any. Here, I have some carrots. Four carrots peeled and cut into quarter inch thin slices. Quarter teaspoon of salt, and a quarter teaspoon
ground black pepper. So we’re just gonna let
these cook about five minutes or so till they’re softened
or just lightly browned. I’ll leave you in charge, captain. – Fantastic. I’m in charge of gravy. So now we’re gonna talk about the chicken, the star of the show. Here I have one and a half pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts. One trick to helping it
cook evenly in the pot pie is to pound the thicker edge. Because the thicker edge
really does take twice as long to cook as the thinner edge. Easy to do, put between
two pieces of plastic wrap. You don’t have to go crazy. Just gently pound the thicker end. There we go. – [Announcer] At Cook’s
Illustrated, we’re food nerds. That’s why every recipe we
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and ingredient reviews. Our step-by-step photos and hand drawn illustrations show you exactly how to succeed. So are you ready to become
the best cook you know? Subscribe to Cook’s Illustrated magazine at cooksillustrated.com today. – It’s looking pretty good. – Nothing smells better. – It’s true, right? Now in we’re gonna add
a little fresh thyme. This is a teaspoon of minced fresh thyme, but this is a perfect place to use dried thyme if
that’s what you have. But you wanna use less. You wanna use about a
quarter of a teaspoon if you’re using dried. – Okay.
– We’re just gonna give this about 30 seconds. – [Bridget] Oh. – Till so you can smell it. Oh yeah. All right. Now it’s time to add some flour. This is six tablespoons
of all purpose flour, and this is how we’ll thicken
the sauce into a nice gravy. So you just wanna stir this around. Make sure there’s no big clumps, and we’re gonna cook it
for about two minutes. Drive off that raw flavor
and make it a little toasty. And again, that adds flavor to the gravy. – [Bridget] Gorgeous. – That flour’s incorporated. It’s starting to stick to the bottom of the skillet and toast. That’s how you know it’s
time to add the liquid. Here I have some chicken broth, two cups. Add it slow to start. Make sure you don’t get a lumpy gravy. – [Bridget] Right. – All right. Just whisking to
incorporate all that broth. Scraping up any of the brown bits on the bottom of the skillet. Oh, that looks pretty good. All right. Time to add the chicken. We’re gonna nestle the chicken right into the skillet and poach it. So slipping the chicken
right into the sauce. All right, it all fits, I promise. Let’s spoon a little bit of the sauce over the top of the chicken. We’re gonna cook this at a
gentle simmer under the lid. About 15 minutes until the
chicken’s cooked through. When it’s cooked through, it
registers about 160 degrees. Chicken’s been simmering away. Oh. Oh, it smells so good. All right. Again, we know the chicken’s done ’cause it registers 160 degrees. Lovely. Turn the heat off. Now I’m gonna take the chicken out. I’m gonna let it cool ever so slightly before we start to shred it. Chicken has cooled and I’m shredding away. Easiest way to shred, I
find, is to use two forks. All right. That looks pretty good. Now we can add all of this
back to this pot pie skillet. Into the sauce it goes. Oh yeah. There we go. Stir that in. We’re gonna have just
a few more ingredients. – [Bridget] Okay. – Some peas. You gotta have some frozen peas. There’s half a cup. No need to thaw them. They’ll thaw in the oven. Little bit of cream just
to enrichen everything. Quarter cup of heavy cream. – Oh yeah.
– Some parsley, a little bit of green. Three tablespoons of
freshly minced parsley. And the flavor of chicken
pot pie is not complete without a little bit of sherry. – That’s true.
– Yep. So just a tablespoon of dry sherry, we’re gonna stir this in. Oh, hello. All right, that looks pretty good. Okay. Now it’s time to put the crust on the pie. Now this is a great spatula. Perfect for this. Any large spatula will do. Just take the pie crust. All right. So into the oven this goes. You want it to hang out in the oven only about 10 minutes, still in a 400 degree oven. We’re gonna finish browning this crust. The peas will heat through and the filling will
get all nice and bubbly. – Oh.
– Let me get the rack there for you.
– Thank you. – A little bit, there.
– Oh, thank you. You can see it bubbling. – Oh my goodness.
– All right. Oh. – The smells are amazing. – Right? I’m gonna cover this handle ’cause it’s hot.
– Yes. You can see it bubbling around the edge. – So you’re gonna let it cool just 10 minutes. We’re gonna get it while it’s warm. – Right.
– But not this hot. Time to dig in. – [Bridget] So this serves two, would you say? – [Julia] I know, right? – It smells so good.
– I’m not holding back. I’m giving you a whole big wedge of this. – [Bridget] Oh! – [Julia] Oh, look at that filling. – All right.
– Absolutely gorgeous. That’s my kind of food. Absolutely gorgeous. Hmm, okay. I’m gonna get a little
bit of that filling first. – [Bridget] Yeah. – It’s simple but flavorful. – Really flavorful. – Yeah.
– My fork’s too small. That’s the only problem. The chicken is super tender. The shredded pieces, they grab onto that gravy and they don’t let go. – [Julia] And the pie dough,
super crisp and flaky, – [Bridget] But buttery. – Yeah.
– Light and buttery. – [Announcer] For full episodes of your favorite cooking shows, head over to at ATK’s full
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