Chicken Pie Recipe ingredients

To prepare this Chicken Pie Recipe, first for a large pie take 2 nice chickens; cut them at the joints, put them in salted boiling water, and parboil until tender. Lift them out and cut them up as for a fricassee. Some of the larger bones should be taken out.

Make a good pastry, and line a deep earthen baking-dish or "nappy" with a rather thin layer of the paste. Roll out the remainder, spread with butter, sprinkle the butter with flour, and roll it up. Roll this out again about a half an inch thick, and cut a strip and lay around the edge of the dish, first wetting the dough in the dish with milk to make it adhere. Fill the dish with the parboiled chicken. It is a good plan to put a good-sized bone in the centre of the dish to raise the top crust from the chicken and give more room for the liquor. Or a small cup may be inverted in the centre, cutting an X in the crust and bringing the points up around the sides of the cup to hold the gravy.

Season the liquor in which the chicken was cooked with pepper and more salt if necessary. Add a teaspoonful of flour rubbed smooth with a little of the liquor. Let this boil up sufficiently to allow the flour to thicken, pour it over the chicken, having enough to nearly cover it. Put generous pieces of butter over the top, and cover with the paste. Cut slashes in the cover to allow the escape of steam, moisten the edges of the pastry lining well with milk to ensure the adhering of the cover, press together and trim the edge not too closely, pushing the paste up well together, rather thickening it at the edges. Put small bits of butter on the top, and bake two hours in a moderate oven.