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Chicken Pot-Pie

Cut the chicken into pieces, as for a fricassee.

Place it in a pot with enough water to reach nearly to the top of the meat; cover the pot and simmer gently. An old fowl will require at least two hours' cooking, but a year-old chicken should be done in one and one-half hour. Remove the cover during the last half hour of boiling to reduce the gravy to about one and one-half pint when done. Three-quarters of an hour before dinner time make the crust as follows: One pint of flour; one-half tablespoon of lard; one teaspoon of baking-powder; one teaspoon of salt; sweet milk. Rub the flour and lard together until well mixed, having added the salt and baking-powder to the flour. Add enough milk to moisten the flour, roll out the dough an inch thick and cut out as for biscuit. Put the pieces of paste on a plate. Set the plate in a steamer over a kettle of boiling water, and steam for one-half hour. It is not wise to steam the paste over the chicken, as the rapid boiling required would reduce the gravy too much. When the balls of paste are done and ready to serve, add salt and pepper to the chicken, and thicken the gravy slightly with two and one-half tablespoons of flour stirred to a paste in one cup of milk. Skim out the chicken, lay it on a platter, strew with the paste balls, and pour over the whole, gravy from the kettle. To make the paste with sour milk omit the baking-powder, using instead a small teaspoon of soda. Dissolve the soda in a little cold water, add it to one cup of sour milk, and moisten the flour with this, adding more milk as needed. If very rich sour cream is to be used, omit the lard, adding the soda as for sour milk.