I was chatting with my father the other day. Currently he's 86 and my mom is 90. Because Mom is getting a little more unsteady on her feet, Dad's been doing a lot more of the cooking – and rather finding he's enjoying it. (Mom is so proud of him!)
Somehow we got on the subject of chicken pot pie, something both my parents enjoy eating. But Dad said it was easier to purchase this fare (as take-out) from a nearby restaurant because it was so difficult to make the pies from scratch.
This puzzled me at first, because chicken pot pie is one of my easiest go-to meals for company. It was a standard recipe whenever we hosted the neighborhood potluck at our old place. What's so hard about making chicken pot pie?
Then Dad started going down the ingredients list and I realized he's right. From scratch, it's a bear. First you have to get a chicken, de-bone it, and cut (or shred) it into appropriate size pieces. Then you have to peel and dice carrots (or other vegetables), peel and dice potatoes, cut onions, make the sauce, and make the crust.
Of these steps, arguably the most time-consuming is the chicken. But the reason making chicken pot pie was never an overly difficult dish for me to make is because I already have chicken breasts canned up. Canned chicken shreds beautifully, making it ideal for a pot pie.
This led me to thinking about the advantages of a deep pantry. I just wrote an article for Self-Reliance Magazine entitled "Pantry Independence" which underscores the importance of having component ingredients preserved for a variety of recipes. (It's a pretty good article, if I do say so. You might want to grab a copy of the current issue.)
I'm starting to think of this as the "Chicken Pot Pie test." Can you make a chicken pot pie from scratch with ingredients found in your pantry and/or found fresh on your farm?
From the article, I included a list of what we have in our pantry. The pantry is roughly 75% home-preserved food (canned or dehydrated) and 25% dry staples and baking/cooking aids. It's organized roughly by categories: meats, vegetables, fruits, sauces, spices. On the floor under the lowest shelves are bulk containers of things like rice, flour, beans, etc.
I tend to purchase bulk quantities of things we can't (or won't) produce ourselves, and then re-can them into more convenient pint jars that we can keep refrigerated once opened (this is especially helpful now that we're empty-nesters and don't go through the volume of food we used to). Examples include mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce. I have beans preserved in two forms (canned and dry), and plenty of dehydrated broccoli (my favorite veggie).
I went through our pantry and took a rough inventory of what's currently in storage. Here's what I came up with:
• Meats: Canned chicken, ham, pork sausage, beef, tuna.
• Sauces: Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, chicken stock, beef stock, salsa, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce.
• Vegetables: Dry beans (some dry, some canned), green beans, corn, carrots, peas, mixed veggies, mushrooms, broccoli (dehydrated), chopped canned garlic, onions (some fresh, most dehydrated), tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes.
• Fruits: Peaches (some sliced, some puréed), apples (sauce, diced, or pie filling), blueberries, raspberries (canned in water for making fruit salads), pears, strawberries (some dehydrated, some as preserves), raisins (homemade).
• Dry staples: White flour, whole wheat flour, oatmeal, cornmeal, dry beans (several types), lentils (red and brown), rice (white and brown), popcorn (homegrown), pasta (several types), granola.
• Baking/cooking aids: Baking powder, baking soda, vinegar (distilled, apple, and homemade fruit-scrap vinegar), cheese powder, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, walnuts, cream of tartar, cornstarch, vanilla, powdered milk, powdered eggs, peanut butter.
• Fats: Olive oil, lard, shortening.
• Sweeteners: Honey, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar.
• Convenience meals (often leftovers which I later canned up): Navy bean soup, chili, lentil stew, chicken in orange sauce, curry chicken, roast beef with gravy, chicken soup, dirty rice mix.
• Spices: Salt, pepper, poppy seeds (homegrown), cinnamon, garden herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley), paprika, berbere powder, Montreal steak seasoning, curry powder, chili powder, red pepper (crushed homegrown cayenne), powdered ginger, garlic powder, nutmeg.
I also store potatoes and onions in the pantry in separate crates.
In light of increasing supply-chain issues and the rising cost of food, it might be worth giving yourself the Chicken Pot Pie Test and see how you do.
