This is Darby’s latest recipe from our farm kitchen and is wonderful just about anytime of the year, but especially nice in fall and winter with root veggies in full swing. All meat and veggie ingredients used are local! While we like to use sweet potatoes and carrots, you can use any veggies you like. Butternut squash is also something we also mix in occasionally, but use what your family enjoys most. If your crew isn’t crazy about regular sweet potatoes, try picking up some locally raised white flesh sweet potatoes – they will never know the difference! This is so tasty that there won’t be much left. Also, to reduce the gluten content consider using half organic wheat flour and half almond flour.
Crust Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon mineral salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup stick butter cut into 1 inch cubes
- 6-8 tablespoons ice-cold water, or more as needed
Filling Ingredients:
- 1 package of chicken frames
- 2-3 large carrots, sliced
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, diced into cubes
- 1 large sweet onion, diced, divided
- Any other veggies you enjoy!
Sauce Ingredients:
- 2 cups chicken stock, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon mineral salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- Any other fresh chopped herbs you enjoy!
Directions:
- Completely thaw chicken frames, then rinse. Place in a medium size stockpot and lay flat. Cover with water and then add an additional 3-4” over the top of the frames. Cover but vent slightly, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 2.5-3hrs to make your stock. Once your stock is done, remove frames and let cool in a 13×9 baking dish and let stock sit. While the frames are cooling, move on to step two.
- Preheat an oven to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C). Lightly oil a 9-inch square casserole dish with coconut oil.
- Sift the 3 cups flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together into a large mixing bowl. Place mixture into food processor and add the cold butter into the flour mixture and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some chunks the size of peas. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, pulsing, until the flour mixture is moistened. Work the dough as little as possible if you prefer a super flaky crust. After half the water has been incorporated, watch closely, as mixture will come together suddenly. Once it begins to stick together, gather into a ball, divide into halves, and roll each ball out to 1/4-inch thickness, adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Press one of the dough portions into the prepared casserole dish, covering bottom and sides completely.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat and add ½ cup of chicken stock to the pan. Reduce the heat under the skillet to medium-low. Cover and cook the carrots, celery, sweet potatoes and about half the diced onion in the chicken stock until the carrots soften (about 15-20 minutes). Remove and place into a large mixing bowl.
- By now, your chicken frames should be cool to the touch. Simply using your fingers, remove all of the meat, separating out the bones and skin, and place into the mixing bowl with your veggies. One package of chicken frames should yield at least 1-1.25lbs of meat if you take the time to remove it all.
- After removing the veggies, increase the skillet heat to medium. Add 1-1.5 cups of chicken broth to the skillet and bring to a slight boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan.
- Stir in and cover the remaining onion, garlic, salt, pepper and sage with the broth until the mixture reduces and thickens up, about 8-10 minutes. Once done, pour over the chicken and veggies in the mixing bowl and mix completely. This is also a great time to add another 1/4-1/3 cup of chicken stock to help the mixture come together.
- Pour the mixture over the crust in the casserole dish. Top with the remaining portion of dough and pinch the edges together to seal the edges. Cut a few slits into the top to vent.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the crust is golden brown and, about 1 hour. Allow to cool slightly before serving, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Enjoy!
