heirloom recipes

The key to my chicken pot pie recipe is having crust on the top and bottom—and getting that bottom crust browned and crisp before it gets soaked with sauce.

Chicken Pot Pie (without Soggy Crust on the Bottom!)

sugar

table salt

water

(2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

all-purpose flour,

Flaky butter crust (from above)

canola or other neutral oil

yellow onions, diced

carrots,

celery ribs,

thyme

sage leaves

rosemary

bay leaves

salt and black pepper

chicken stock broth

chickens,

unsalted butter

all-purpose flour

heavy cream

baby peas (2 cups)

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and salt in the water. Refrigerate until very cold, about 30 minutes. During that time, refrigerate your butter, flour, mixer bowl, and paddle, too.

Make sure your butter’s cut into 1/2-inch dice. Bigger pieces will make your dough puffy. In the chilled bowl, combine the cold butter and flour. With your hands, toss the butter in the flour until each cube is lightly coated.

With the chilled paddle, beat the flour-butter mixture on low speed to just break up the butter, about 30 seconds. Add the water mixture all at once and raise the speed to medium-low. Beat just until the dough comes together in big chunks, then immediately turn off the mixer.

Divide the chunks of dough in half and very gently pat each group into a round 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour, before rolling. You can refrigerate the disks for up to 1 day or freeze for up to 3 months.

For the flaky butter crust: 

To make the pie crust: Divide each disc of dough into 4 pieces (so that you have 8 total), flatten each piece into a disk, and wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place one oven rack near the top of the oven and one near the bottom. Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Roll each disk into 1/8-inch-thick round (they don't have to be perfect circles). Transfer to parchment paper–lined half sheet pans. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the water. Brush the egg wash over all the dough rounds. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes, switching the positions of the pans halfway through baking. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool completely.

To make the filling: In an extra large Dutch oven or a stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, thyme, sage, rosemary, and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper, then cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Add all the chicken pieces, return to a boil, then lower to heat to maintain a bare simmer. Cover and cook until the chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes. Begin checking the chicken after 15 minutes; pull pieces out and transfer to a large platter as they’re finished. Smaller pieces, like the wings, will be done first.

Strain the stock through a sieve, reserving the vegetables and stock separately, but removing and discarding the herbs. Keep the broth hot.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and bones and pull the meat into bite-size pieces.

In a very large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Whisk in the hot stock and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally. Continue cooking until the sauce has the consistency of heavy cream, then stir in the heavy cream. Bring to a boil again, then stir in the chicken pieces and vegetables until well coated. When the filling is hot, stir in the peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Break each pastry round to form two half-moons and place one in the bottom of each serving dish. Divide the chicken filling among the dishes and top with the other half of pastry. Serve immediately.

For the pot pies: 

This cranberry horseradish relish recipe&#39;s infamy might come from the strange ingredients—raw onion, cranberries, and sour cream, frozen and partially-thawed.

Mama Stamberg&#39;s Cranberry Relish

whole raw cranberries, washed

onion

sour cream

horseradish

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," says Stamberg. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind—not a purée.")

Add the ground berries and onions to a bowl; then add everything else and mix. 

Put the mixture in a plastic container and freeze. 

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from the freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some icy slivers left.")

The relish will be thick, creamy, and shockingly pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink. It has a tangy taste that cuts through and perks up the turkey and gravy. It's also good on next-day turkey sandwiches, or with roast beef.")

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/mCeFb2zg.mp4

Why did I pick this recipe to be remembered for?  When I was a kid one of the best things about Christmas was the caramels my mom would make.  She would cut them into the tiniest pieces, and we kids would help her to wrap them.  Many never made it into the wrapping paper.  She still makes them to this day, and every year sends them out to all of her kids.  Two Christmases ago I tried my hand at making salted caramels.  They came out a bit too hard, but tasted delicious.  Last Christmas I went on a huge caramel making extravaganza and really played with different flavor profiles. These caramels are my favorite of the many iterations I tried.  I'd like to think I'm keeping a tradition alive in my own fashion, though I've veered away from my Mom's recipe.These caramels are a good representation of me—a good balance of sweet and salty, a little bit fickle to make, and just unusual enough to be interesting! - hardlikearmour

Smoked Tea Caramels

Pine Smoked Black loose leaf tea (or other lapsang souchong tea)

alder smoked salt

cream of tartar

corn syrup

vanilla extract

coarse fleur de sel or chocolate finishing salt (optional)

In a medium sauce pan heat the cream, butter, tea, and salt over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. The goal is to infuse the cream with flavor, but keep it below a simmer. Mixture should taste like salty smoked tea. Increase heat to medium low. 

While cream mixture is heating, line a 9- by 13-inch pan with parchment paper, so the paper is only going up 2 opposite sides (essentially forming a sling to remove the caramel with later). Spray with neutral-flavored cooking spray. 

Dissolve the cream of tartar in the water in a 6-quart stock pot. Add in the sugar and corn syrup, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat swirling pan occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar is dissolved and mixture is boiling you will need to keep a pretty close eye on the pan. If you are using a candy thermometer you will notice the mixture hovers near the boiling point for a while then starts to climb fairly rapidly. As the mixture approaches 310°F, you will want to start swirling it fairly frequently as caramelization is imminent. Once caramel color is to your liking, remove pan from heat. The pan will retain some heat so I like to remove the caramelized sugar mixture from the heat at about 325-330°F, or when it is a golden brown color. 

Slowly pour the warm cream mixture through a mesh strainer into the the sugar mixture. It will boil violently and create hot steam, so use caution. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar has all dissolved into the cream.

Return caramel mixture to medium to medium-high heat and bring the mixture up to 244-245°F, or lower end of firm ball stage (if you drop about a 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture into a bowl of refrigerator cold water it should form a ball, that is not soft but still malleable.) Stir often, scraping the bottom of the pan. As you get close to your target temperature you may want to turn the heat down to low if you are using a gas stove, or off if you are using electric to slow things down. Your caramels can go from too soft to tooth breaking within a short time frame. You will also want to stir close to continuously as you get close to your target temp to prevent burning. 

Remove from heat and quickly stir in the vanilla and liquid smoke. (Note: I like to put the drops of liquid smoke into a tablespoon measure, and add the vanilla to it. You don't want to add the liquid smoke directly from the bottle to the caramel mixture as it would be easy to add more than you want.) Pour caramel mixture into prepared 9- by 13-inch pan. After 10 to 15 minutes sprinkle with fleur de sel or chocolate finishing salt if desired, ideally getting several grains per piece of caramel. Allow to cool to room temperature. Use parchment paper to remove from the pan, then cut caramel into 1-inch squares, or whatever size pieces you prefer. Wrap individually with waxed paper, and store in an airtight container.

Note: Caramel making is a bit trial-and-error based on humidity and other factors. If your caramels come out too soft, modify the final temperature up 1-4 degrees. If they come out too hard, modify down. This recipe scales down by half to an 8-inch square pan if you want to make a smaller amount or feel like experimenting!

Top 3 heirloom recipes recipes from across the web

The most viewed heirloom recipes recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

Chicken Pot Pie (without Soggy Crus...

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relis...

Smoked Tea Caramels

Top 3 heirloom recipes recipes from across the web

The most viewed heirloom recipes recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Chicken Pot Pie (without Soggy Crus...

Mama Stamberg&#39;s Cranberry Relis...

Smoked Tea Caramels

The most viewed heirloom recipes recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relis...