Chicken Pot Pie

This year, for the first time, we bought 1/4 of a pig.  With it, I bought the leaf lard so I could render it, because I've always heard that lard makes the best pie crust, but I've never tried it.  After I rendered it, the whole house smelled, well, piggy, as did the lard, and I knew I wasn't going to be using it for fruit pies! 

Yesterday I pulled some of that wonderful snowy white lard out of the freezer and decided to try it out.  I made up the crust and, sure enough, it smelled piggy, enough so that I had to bake a test piece to make sure it wasn't just going to be disgusting.  In fact, it was delicious!  Just a hint of pleasant porkiness and wow - the texture!  Amazing!  So I decided to make this recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted from Allrecipes
Makes 1 9-inch pie

Crust for a 9-inch pie (my recipe is very similar to this one)
1/2 large onion, diced
1 c. sliced celery
2 large carrots, sliced
4 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/4 c. butter
4 cloves minced garlic
2 1/2 c. chicken broth
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/3 c. flour
2/3 c. water
2 cups shredded chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare crust, placing the bottom crust in a pie pan (I made this in a deep-dish 9.5 inch pan and it would go just fine in a regular 9 inch pan).

In a large skillet, saute onions,celery, carrots and mushrooms in butter until carrots are just beginning to soften.  Add garlic and saute two minutes more.  Add chicken broth, celery seed, and thyme.  Simmer for five minutes.  Add chicken.  Mix the flour into the water until smooth.  Pour into vegetable mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils.  Turn off heat and let cool for 15 minutes.  Transfer to pie crust.

Add top crust, crimping however you prefer.  Cut 4 - 6 slits in the top crust for ventilation.  Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned and you can see the filling bubbling under the slits. 

If the edges of your crust start browning too quickly, make some 4-inch wide strips out of aluminum foil and wrap them around the edges of your pie pan.  This will help keep it from burning.