Chicken pot pie is an absolutely delicious comfort food for these cold winter days. Our version makes meaty chicken pies using the meat of a whole chicken and makes the stock for the stew base out of the carcass. It’s not a lot of work, but with the time it takes to cook the chicken and make the stock, the elapsed time is probably an hour a half. However, there is very little actual labor. In this version, the crust for our pie is buttermilk biscuits, from this recipe.

• One whole frying chicken, 3 ½ to 4 pounds
• 5 cups water, or more
• 3 carrots, peeled
• 1 whole leek, split
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt, pepper
• 4 Tb butter
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ cup light cream
• 1 recipe buttermilk biscuits.

1. Cut the chicken into serving sized pieces, pulling off as much of the skin as you can.
2. Put the chicken pieces in the Instant Pot, on the trivet and add the water and salt.
3. Cook in the Instant Pot, using the Poultry setting for 15 minutes, 20 it the chicken is really big.
4. Use Natural Release to let the chicken and water cool so it doesn’t spurt when you release the pressure.
5. Remove the legs, thighs and breasts and cut the meat off and reserve. Put the bones back in the pot.

1. Add 2 carrots, the leek, the bay leaf and 1 stalk of celery.
2. Close the pot and cook using manual for 30 minutes to make chicken stock.
3. Meanwhile, make the biscuit dough and preheat the over to 375˚
4. Cut the remaining carrots and celery into small slices and saute in 2 Tb of the butter in a covered saucepan for about 20 minutes. We usually add the carrots first, and the celery 5-10 minutes later.

1. Open the pot after the 30 minute cooking. Since it isn’t as full now, you probably can use Quick Release. If it starts to spurt, just let it cool another 5 minutes and it will easier to open.
2. Melt the remaining 2 Tb of butter in a large, say 4-quart pan, and add the flour. Cook the flour in the butter for 30 seconds, and then scoop out some chicken stock, a cup or so at a time and cook into the flour. You should be able to incorporate and thicken about 4 cups of stock.

1. Add the sautéed carrots and celery to the developing. If the gravy seems too thin, you can cook a couple more Tb of flour in some butter in the now emptied saucepan and add some stock to it. Combine with the original gravy in the pot,
2. Add the chicken to the pot, the cream, and the frozen peas.
3. Cook until heated through and pour the chicken mixture into a casserole dish

1. Top with about 10 biscuit rounds.
2. Bake in the 375˚ for 15 minutes.
3. Serve the casserole dish with a ladle to life out the biscuits and chicken. Serve with butter for the biscuits.

Note: Another approach is to put the chicken mixture into soup crocks. For a crust, roll out some puff pastry, and brush with a small of egg-water mixture. Bake for 15 minutes as above.

Either way, this serves at least 4 people. We put the other half of the chicken mixture in these soup crocks to freeze for another meal.

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