Moravian Chicken Pie Recipes

Steps:

• For Pie Crust, combine flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir in water just until dough forms. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Cover and chill 30 minutes, or until ready to use.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out one piece of dough to cover bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate and place in the plate. Roll out second piece of dough for top crust and set aside.
• Place chicken on bottom crust in pie plate. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and flour, and pour in broth. Dot with butter, if desired. Cover with top crust, moisten edges with a little flour and crimp to seal.
• For Crumb Topping, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Sprinkle over top crust of pie. Cut a few slits in top crust to allow steam to escape. (Unbaked pies may be frozen at this point.)
• Place pie plate on a cookie sheet for easier handling and better browning of the bottom crust. Bake pie 45 minutes to 1 hour, until golden brown and bubbly. (If pie is frozen, bake at 400 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.) If desired, stir a mixture of flour and water into any extra chicken broth, plus salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until thickened to make a gravy to serve with the pie.
• Makes one 9-inch pie.
• Note: Many Moravians make chicken pies with a 10-inch pie plate. To adapt this recipe for a 10-inch pie plate, increase the filling ingredients to 3 cups chopped chicken, 1/4 cup flour and 1 1/4 cups chicken broth, but use the same amounts of all the other ingredients.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make crust: use ½ of crust to cover bottom and sides of pie plate. Use the other half of dough to make top crust. Place chicken on bottom crust in pie plate. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, flour and dot with margarine. Cover with top crust and seal. Cut a few slits in top to allow steam to escape. Pie may be frozen at this point. When ready to bake, put pie plate on cookie sheet; it will brown better. Bake pie 45 minutes to 1 hour or until brown and bubbly. If you like, thicken broth with a little flour, salt and pepper to make gravy, to serve with pie. If you freeze the pie and want to serve it without thawing, place as above in a 400 degree oven for 1-1/4 hours.

Steps:

• For the crust: Combine sour cream and egg in bowl. Process flour and salt in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds. Add butter and pulse until only pea-size pieces remain, about 10 pulses. Add half of sour cream mixture and pulse until combined, 5 pulses. Add remaining sour cream mixture and pulse until dough begins to form, about 10 pulses. Transfer mixture to a lightly floured counter and knead briefly until dough comes together. Divide dough in half and form each half into 4-inch disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove 1 dough disk from refrigerator an d let sit for 10 minutes. Working on a lightly floured counter, roll into 12-inch round and transfer to 9-inch pie plate, leaving ½-inch overhang all around. Repeat with second dough disk and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Cover both dough rounds with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. For the pie: Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook chicken until browned, about 10 minutes; transfer to plate. Pour fat (you should have 2 tablespoons; supplement with butter if necessary) into bowl; reserve. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard skin. Add broth, chicken, and bay leaf to now-empty pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until breasts register 160 degrees and thigh register 175 degrees, 14 to 18 minutes. Transfer chicken to bowl. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred into bite-size pieces, discarding bones. Pour broth through fine-mesh strainer into second bowl and reserve (you should have about 2¾ cups); discard bay leaf. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat butter and reserved fat in now-empty pot over medium heat until shimmering. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until golden, 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in 2 cups reserved broth and half-and-half and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gravy until thickened and reduced to 1¾ cups, 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine 1 cup gravy with shredded chicken; reserve remaining gravy for serving. Transfer chicken mixture to dough-lined pie plate and spread into an even layer. Top with second dough round, leaving at least ½-inch overhang all around. Fold dough under so that edge of fold is flush with rim of pie plate. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with tines of fork to seal. Cut four 1-inch slits on top. Brush pie with egg and bake until top is light golden brown, 18-20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Let pie cool on wire rack for at least 45 minutes. When ready to serve, bring remaining ¾ cup of reserved gravy and remaining ¾ cup reserved broth to boil in medium saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat until slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve pie with gravy.