Chicken Pie Suppers and Pastor's Wives

A number of years ago -- I'd go look it up, but I know it's longer than I think it is and I'd just as soon skip that part.

Anyway.

A number of years ago, I wrote a Silhouette Special Edition titled Little Darlin'. In it, there is a church chicken pie supper, which is an important plot device by which "Matt Beltran" would begin to understand that he is becoming more involved with the little daughter he didn't know he had (and the woman who is taking care of her) than he intended. Shortly after the book was out, I got a letter from a pastor's wife, who liked it a lot, she said, but she had a problem with the church chicken pie supper thing. She did not consider chicken pies a very likely menu item at all. Certainly, it wasn't in her experience.

The thing is, you see, it's based on my experience, the lesson here being that, as tempting as it is, one shouldn't necessarily assume that a writer doesn't know whereof she speaks. So. It is with great pleasure that I share the Rockwell Methodist Church chicken pie recipe with you now. It's in the old cookbook, courtesy of my long ago Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Maude Euart. Those chicken pies drove the church's fund raisers for many years. As always with the church lady recipes, this is word for word directly from the cookbook -- with the expectation that one already knows how to cook, and in this case, will understand that when the recipe says "Sprinkle diced eggs on top of chicken," it doesn't mean all the diced eggs. It's also understood that one will know what to do with those two boxes of "pie mix," and how to acquire a "large cooked chicken." (Believe me, it's not easy, especially if it happens to still be walking around.)

Maude Euart's Chicken Pie

1 large cooked chicken
2 boxes pie mix
9 eggs boiled hard and diced

Cook chicken until it falls off the bones, then cut with scissors and put chicken in an unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle diced eggs on top of chicken. Take (mixed in a little cold water):

about 1/2 of broth
1/2 c. flour

Cook mixture until thick and pour over the chicken and eggs in pie shell. Add top Bake in oven at 425 or 450 degrees until brown.

Take the rest of broth, add 1/2 cup flour in a little cold water. Cook until desired thickness, add chicken liver, gizzard, rest of the diced eggs. This sauce is to be used over pie when served.

Enjoy. In Maude's and the rest of the church ladies' hands, this pie was a truly wonderful thing...