Easy Recipes. Traditional Down Home & Restaurant Meals
Old English Chicken Pot Pie Recipe.
Written by Brian Alan Burhoe.
COUNTRY KITCHEN Easy Recipes – Traditional Down Home & Popular Restaurant Meals
When I think of English Cooking, I think of Meat Pies.
Beef pies, of course. Steak and ale pie. Cornish Pastry. As well as pork pies.
When my family lived for a while in Yorkshire (only four years, I was ages 4 to 8) these were essential fare. Along with fish n chips.
English cooks have made meat pies since Medieval times. Anything went in them. Wild game, often caught by poachers. In the cities, street pigeons were a popular ingredient. Fat chickens were favourites.
They certainly were with us!
Family recipes. Local recipes. Recipes from the restaurants we worked in. Recipes from the restaurants we enjoyed. Mary Lee and I have had fun figuring them out. Cooking them. And writing about them. We — “Sugar & Spouse,” two young Luddites, had a great time in the Early Web Age putting out our “Recipes from Our Old Country Kitchen.”
And what’s more mouth watering than reaching into our wood-fired oven to take out a Chicken Pot Pie, with its bubbling slow-cooked filling and flaky crust. Ahhh, the smell alone is country heaven…
Here’s a fave Recipe
— Old English Chicken Pot Pie–
>> Filling:
2 cups water
14 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and cubed (about 1 cup)
2 ribs celery, sliced (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons Chicken bouillon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup frozen peas
>> Crust:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoons cold water
Instructions:
Make the filling: In 4-quart saucepan combine water, chicken, carrots, celery and onion. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add chicken bouillon, pepper and butter. Dissolve cornstarch and flour into whipping cream and stir into chicken mixture. Simmer 3 minutes stirring frequently until thickened. Add peas and set aside.
Make the crust: Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine flour and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in shortening until particles the size of small peas form.
Sprinkle one tablespoon of water at a time over flour mixture and toss with fork to blend. Add enough water to hold the dough together.
Form into 2 balls. Roll out bottom crust on floured surface to 1 inch larger than inverted 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
Lift dough off floured surface by rolling onto rolling pin and unroll over pie plate. Ease the dough into the plate loosely and press in place. Trim bottom crust even with edge of plate.
Assemble the pie: Pour filling into bottom crust. Roll out top crust, cut slits for steam to escape. Cover filling with top crust and fold top crust under bottom crust.
Seal the crust. Flute the edge. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Let the pie stand 15 to 20 minutes before serving.
Just a sample of down home cuisine, eh?
“Dig In and Enjoy!” – Brian Alan Burhoe
For more of our most popular Country Recipes, you have gotta see:
KENNY ROGERS ROASTERS CHICKEN BREAST RECIPES: Best Restaurant Recipes for Home Cooking
As well as our Time-Tested SECURELY ARCHIVED…
CRACKER BARREL MOMENT: Top Cracker Barrel Recipes for Home Cooking – Meatloaf, Chicken & Dumplings
More Popular Cracker Barrel Restaurant Recipes for Home Cooking
HOME COOKING: Chick-fil-A’s Best Chicken Recipes You Can Do Home
Golden Corral Restaurant Recipes for Home Cooking – Bourbon Street Chicken
NOTE: “Recipes from Our Old Country Kitchen.”
As I explained in my “Fave Atlantic Seafood Recipes” Post, I graduated PEI’s Holland College Culinary Course. Then finished my apprenticeship under Chef Ernie in Prince Edward Island’s North Rustico IDLE OARS RESTAURANT.
While working there, I met my Mary Lee, a Nova Scotian girl on vacation with her parents. My next job was at the LOYALIST INN & RESTAURANT in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Cooked there for six years. Then at the GRUB & GROG in Sable River.
While taking the Culinary Course, Chef Leo LeClair impressed on us the value of getting your Journeyman Cook’s certificate. “It’s essential for CPR Ferries and Provincial Health Care jobs. They’re unionized and where the money is.”
After over two decades in popular eateries, I got the Journey position at a newly built Nursing Home. After a few weeks the administrator took me aside and said, “No creative cooking, Brian. You’re showing up the other cooks.” I won’t say the job was boring — the Residents made it a heartening experience. But I missed the restaurants…
Mary Lee cooked at the WHITE GULL RESTAURANT in Lockeport. “Happy Times!” She’s a natural cook and baker. She made our own wedding cake, of course. (She also made her own wedding dress — she’s just naturally handcrafty — see her Etsy Shop!)
For a while she made wedding and specialty cakes to order. She called her business TIERS OF JOY. Did a thriving business. She was part of the group who put out LITTLE HARBOUR COMMUNITY COOKBOOK. Had recipes published in the Family Circle Magazine and Canadian Living.
In the Early Web Years (1990s) we posted Local & Family Recipes with online discussion groups. Then, by 2010, on our own, “Sugar & Spouse – Recipes from Our Country Kitchen” on Blogger.com. They’re still floating around out there, often copied, often rebranded… We don’t mind. Recipes are meant to be shared!
To see Mary Lee’s Latest Folk Art, go to Ragged Island Studio.
UPDATE: Culinary interests have changed over the years, eh? From “best roast chicken recipe” to “chicken breast in air fryer.” Today, top searches are “Dubai chocolate cheesecake bars,” “blueberry cottage cheese breakfast bake” and “stuffed chocolate strawberries.”
TAGS: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Mary Lee Burhoe, Meals to make from ground beef, Recipes in English, Recipes restaurant. Recipes for Dinner, Recipes simple, Restaurant Recipes at Home, Restaurant Recipes for dinner. Printable easy cooking recipes.
POSTED: June 26, 2026.
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