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Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie

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So, when the weather turns cooler, we break out the cool weather food. chicken & dumplins, pot roast, and of course, pot pies. I have a pretty excellent and easy pot pie recipe that I made on the reg, but since we had some leftover quail meat AND my mama had been teaching me about the ease that is bechamel sauce, I decided to spice things up a little. Enter this baby.

Not only was I able to pull it together in about 30 minutes (minus baking time) my mama lent her artistic talents to supper and covered the top in tiny, pretty leaves of crust.

If you don’t have quail, sub in a little extra chicken, and make SURE to serve it with sweet potatoes and butter beans. Happy fall, y’all!

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Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie
 
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Author:
Serves: 6
What You Need
  • FOR THE FILLING
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • Wings and Legs from 10 quail
  • 4½ Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
  • 1½ Cups Milk
  • ⅛ teaspoon dried Oregano
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (onions, peas, carrots, celery), Thawed
  • 6 button mushrooms, sliced
  • FOR THE PIE
  • 1 package of premade pie crusts (2 crusts total)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tablespoons Milk
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Boil the chicken and quail until cooked all the way through
  3. Shred the chicken and pull the quail meat from the bone. Discard the bones.
  4. In a sauce pan, heat 4 Tablespoons of the butter until simmering, and whisk in the flour quickly
  5. Stir and let it bubble for about 1 minute while it thickens. Add in the milk a little at a time, stirring.
  6. Cook for about 2 more minutes to let the sauce thicken, then season with salt, pepper, and oregano.
  7. In a separate pan, heat ½ tablespoon of butter
  8. Add in the thawed vegetables and fresh mushrooms and sautee until softer but still slightly firm. Season with salt and pepper.
  9. Place one of the two pie crusts in a pie plate or deep, round casserole dish.
  10. In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken and quail meat and the vegetables, then pour the mixture into the casserole dish.
  11. Pour the Sauce over the top and allow to seep down.
  12. Cover with the second pie crust.
  13. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and the 2 tablespoons of milk to make a thin egg wash.
  14. Using a pastry brush, paint the top of your crust for a golden brown color.
  15. Bake the pie for at least 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and bubbling. If you find the top is turning TOO brown, cover with a piece of foil while it continues to bake.

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Fried Quail with Country Style Gravy and Grits

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Back when Jill & Ruffin got married, they sent us home with possibly the best party favors on the planet… 2 jars of honey from their beekeeping efforts and 22 frozen, cleaned quail that Ruffin had hunted earlier in the spring. Talk about hospitality! The first time I remember eating quail was around the holidays around my mother’s mother’s large, fancy, beautifully set dining table with all my aunts and uncles, so I mostly associate quail with feast days. It doesn’t HAVE to be that way. Quail are a very lean source of protein and have a lovely, mild, chicken-like flavor. Plus you can get them EASILY down south (For starters, you can get expensive ones in the grocery store, but then if you want to get more local, all over Texas, Alabama, & Louisiana people have set up quail hunting farms, and locally in Laurel, MS are some good folks raising, cleaning, and selling them straight to customers.)

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Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I’m Gonna Eat a DRAGON THUMB

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My little guy turned two a couple of weeks ago, and y’all, somehow he IMMEDIATELY become more stubborn, and picky, and all-around-harder-to please overnight. We’re STILL crashing with my mama and daddy (Going on month 5 now. Cross your fingers that we don’t devolve into House of Cards over here.) so this new development isn’t really helping everyone’s sanity.

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He used to eat everything that we ate (minus some green veggies and spicier foods) but now he’s more interested in animal crackers and jelly rolls than really anything else. Unless my dad’s invention of Dragon Thumbs are on the menu. In THAT case, they are devoured and licked clean and then seconds are requested. And what’s even better than a clean plate is that he repeats a funny rhyme from Jack and the Beanstalk that’s modified to fit dinner… “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I’m gonna eat a Dragon Thumb!” (which is way better than  “the blood of an Englishman” in my book.) Anything to get them to eat, right?

What’s awesome about Dragon Thumbs is that they work really well for meal-eaters of all ages–grown folks, too– can be seasoned in tons of different ways, plus we’ve also served them as appetizers (think like chicken wings). Read on for our favorite version and please leave a comment if you find a seasoning recipe you’d like to try!

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Dolly Parton, Chicken & Dumplings, and Food that Comforts

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When we had our son, Wagner, my entire church and most of our coworkers kept our bellies full and our freezer stocked for nearly three months. We had cassaroles, salads, fruit, cold-cuts, rolls, cakes, venison burgers… oh, and PIES. So good pies. This was the most wonderful gift we could have been given, especially since we were sleep deprived, cranky, and barely functional. It’s a tradition that’s not unique to Mississippi for people to “fix you something.” All over the south, when someone has a baby, or someone gets sick, or someone’s family member dies, food appears on the doorstep with prayers and love. It’s the most amazing thing. I’ve had people send love (also known as food) when my own grandmothers and grandfather died, and as my mother was battling (and winning) lung cancer.
Food comforts in ways that words can’t in certain situations. My favorite thing to take in situations where comfort food is called for is chicken and dumplins (it also happens to be one of my favorite things to eat in the world, so I figure it’s probably everyone else’s, too, right?) They are warm, and fill your belly, and just right. Honestly, “fixing you something” is this incredible act of love and hospitality that is one of my most favorite things about our south.

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Homecook How-to: Homemade Chicken Broth

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If there’s one thing that every down-home cook needs to know how to do, it’s how to make homemade stock.  Thankfully, it’s SUPER easy, economical, and adds incredible flavor to any dish that calls for chicken stock. Here’s how to do it.
 
Homemade Chicken Stock
Makes about 12 Cups
What you need:
-4 whole large carrots or 1/2 to 1 cup of baby carrots (OR you can also use 1/2 to 1 cup of carrot ends and tops that you’ve saved & frozen from other cooking)
-4 large celery stalks (OR 1 cup of celery tops and ends, saved & frozen from other cooking)
-A large stock pot
-1 whole hen (I had a roasting hen, which works fine, but is MUCH bigger than a regular old hen. ALSO I am VERY partial to Sanderson Farms chicken, as the chicken is super juicy, the company is based in my hometown, plus all of the staff and the Sanderson family are just great people.) OR, if you aren’t using the chicken meat for another recipe (see Chicken and Dumplings),  You can use a chicken carcass/saved bones from other cooking that you’ve done.
-Enough water to cover your hen and veggies
-1 large bunch of parsley and thyme
-1 whole red/yellow onion cut into 4ths or 6ths. (Also, if you have onion skins saved, those can be thrown in as well to give the broth a richer, deeper color)

What you do:

Salt the pot, then Put it ALL in a pot, pouring water over until the hen is entirely covered (or nearly covered) and boil for 30 minutes, then simmer for at least 3 hours. If you’re using a whole hen, this will make the meat just fall off the bone and be ready to shred for other recipes.
 
Once it’s ready, remove from the heat and strain the broth, retaining the chicken and letting it cool so that you can easily (and safely without burning your fingers off) remove the meat.
Throw the vegetables away, and place the broth in a container in the refrigerator overnight or until the fat rises to the top and becomes firm.
 
Once the fat has floated to the top and hardened, you can VERY easily skim it off the top, making it a bit healthier.
 

See? It’s SO easy once everything has cooled. However, don’t throw this down your sink. Make sure to put the fat in a plastic bag or jar so that it doesn’t clog up all of your pipes.

You’ll be left with a gorgeous colored gelatin that can be frozen OR used immediately in your soups, stews, or other recipes. it’s SO cheap to make, especially if you’ve been saving your vegetable odds-and-ends in a plastic bag in the freezer. Also, don’t be alarmed about the gelatinous texture… once you heat it up it’ll turn back into a liquid.

The Perfect Comfort Food: Chicken and Rice

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Chicken and Rice
Serves 6-8
My grandmother was known for her comfort food. She was also one of the warmest, softest, most comforting women that I’ve ever known, so it makes sense that her food would make you feel warm and loved, too. In the summer we snapped fresh green beans together for her to cook all afternoon, and when I’d spend the night with her when my parents were out of town she’d make me chicken & dumplins or creamed chicken and we’d pile up in her bed with my cousins and watch Golden Girls, M.A.S.H. or Designing Women and she’d sew.
I miss her everyday.
It’s to her credit that when Boone and I got married that the first meals I cooked him as a bonafide wife were things out of the notebook she gave me.  It started out as a place for her to write down my favorite recipes in her perfect little cursive handwriting. It turns out that the recipes tell me to measure in units like “pinches” and “a little bit” but I watched her enough times to be able to figure that out. One of those recipes, and the one that my mom also makes that is perfect for blanket weather and when you need a hug. Chicken and rice is one of Boone’s favorites, and I made it a few weeks ago on one of the first cold nights.
 What you need:
4-6 pieces of chicken (dark meat is best here)
1 stick oleo (I used 1/2 stick of butter since I LOVE the flavor…although no healthier. boo.)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cans beef consomme pluc one cup water (or 3 tablespoons beef stock dissolved in 3 cups water…i use better than bouillon)
1 Tablespoon onion flakes (i go with 1 chopped onion instead)
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1 can mushroom stems and pieces
1 package of slivered almonds
What to do:
Preheat your Oven to 350 degrees.
Season and brown the chicken in the butter in a large stock pot or dutch oven. Set the chicken aside. pour a bit of the beef stock into the pan to release the goodness from the chicken. Using a little of the butter, saute’ the onions in the same pan, and melt the rest of the butter in the pot. Pour in the rice and stir it for a few minutes to brown it. Once the color has turned a bit brown in color (which somehow releases this really delicious flavor of the rice) then combine all of the other ingredients into the dutch oven…but wait on the almonds.

After you’ve poured in the stock, the seasonings, and the mushrooms, check to make sure that you have enough liquid in the pan with the beef stock to cover the rice just a bit. Put the Chicken on top of all of the rice mixture, and then sprinkle the almonds on the top. Cover and bake for about an hour, at 350 or until the rice is cooked all the way through and the liquid has been absorbed. It’s all i can do not to eat forkfulls of uncooked rice in anticipation of the finished product.

the almonds add the perfect crunch and the rest is warm and comforting. our family serves this with sweet potato sticks and butter beans. something about the sweetness of the potatoes and the saltiness of the butter beans and the savory chicken and rice makes the PERFECT autumnal night.

 

Do you have a favorite comfort food meal?

chicken on flying biscuits

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boone and i have a road-trip tradition (if you can call it that). if it’s 10:31am OR if we’ve just passed an exit it’s a given that i’ll turn to him and say, “hey, we should get a chicken biscuit.” which sets off a crazy craving for one AND is at that moment, totally impossible.
i have the worst timing.
just thursday we watched adam richman’s (of man vs food) new travel channel show as he searches for the best sandwich in america and he highlighted a chicken cheddar biscuit from time out, some chapel hill, nc establishment and ever since we’ve been dying for this perfect southern breakfast combo. since we were having folks over for brunch this weekend to watch the olympics we decided to try to make one ourselves. we used a chicken recipe from some show on CMT that promises to help folks recreate fast food staples (BTW, whoever thought “country music and fast food, that’s the PERFECT combo” is definitely encouraging obesity AND making hank williams senior and johnny cash turn over in their graves). to top it off, we pulled out my favorite atlanta cookbook (the flying biscuit) for their world-famous biscuit recipe. no lie, it was a giant mouthful, but pret-ty delish.
What you need for the chicken:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 cups peanut oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons salt
What you need for flying biscuits:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons granulated sugar (3 tablespoons for the recipe, 1 for the topping)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups light cream (or 1 1/2 cups half and half if you can’t get light cream)
1/3 half-and-half
What to do:
for the biscuits, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. cut the butter into small chunks. work the butter into the dry ingredients until its all about the size of small peas. smushing the flour and butter together feels wonderful, so just relax and enjoy it.
 

 

make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and butter and pour in the light cream (or half and half) and stir it using a circular fashion until all the ingredients are wet and sticking together, “until the dough comes together in a sort of sticky ball.” don’t over handle it, but put it on a floured surface and knead it lightly until into a ball, then roll it out using a lightly floured rolling pin to about a 1 inch thickness. use a 2″-3″ cookie cutter to cut the dough.  (turns out i don’t have a cookie cutter, BUT a wine glass or plastic cup works just the same)

 

brush the tops of the biscuits with half and half and sprinkle the sugar on the top. (now, i didn’t do this last part since I wasn’t sure about the sugar and chicken, but if you’re making authentic flying biscuits, then it’s a must.) once this is done, bake the dough at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes until golden brown.
For the chicken, i’m turning things over to boone, since i had no hand whatsoever (which is why there isn’t one single prep photo. oops.) anyway, here goes.
Boone: heat the peanut oil in a deep skillet to 400 degrees, this takes a long time, so it’s best to start here. then, cut the breasts in half and (if you’re smart, pound them to be a bit flat and make it easier to eat). to make the batter, mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. beat the egg and stir in the milk in a separate bowl.  submerge the chicken in the egg mixture, then drop it into the dry batter and coat the entire breast. fry in the oil and cook for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown. perfect.

 

ok, i’m back. once the chicken is done and the biscuits are baked, cut them in half and make your sandwich…the time-out version calls for cheddar cheese melted on top, so if you’re feeling decadent, you can go that route. serve with fruit or roasted potatoes and ta-da!
   
 doesn’t looking at this make you feel as fit as our olympic swimmers or divers?  i know… me too. 😉