Chicken Pie

Source: Ella Jane Allen ( the mother of Grandma's father, Sam)
Who likes it: Everybody

1 stewing hen
1 onion
1 rib celery
salt, pepper & sage to taste
approx 3 qts water

Cook above ingredients until tender. Remove chicken, onion, celery. De-bone chicken. Make a roux with butter and 1 cup flour. Add to rich broth. Gently stir in boned chicken. Pour into crust-lined large cake pan. Bake at 400 degrees until crust is brown.

Grandma Allen's crust recipe

4 cups flour
2 cups shortening
1 cup cold water
1 tsp. salt

Chicken and Dumplings

For broth:
     Stew one whole chicken in a large pot of water.  Reserve bag of giblets for gravy.  (This assumes that you are making dumplings for a large holiday or family gathering and would need gravy. Anyway, save for another use.)  Season pot with salt and pepper and stew at a strong simmer until meat is falling off the bone.  Strain meat and bones out of broth and pick off meat.  Set aside.

For dumplings:
1 cup rich broth
1 egg
all purpose flour

     Add enough flour the the broth and egg to make a soft dough.  Take care not to work it any more than necessary to form dough (to avoid tough dumplings).  Roll out thin and cut into 3" x 1" strips.
     Bring broth to a rolling boil.. Gently drop in dumplings a few at a time to maintain a low boil.  Don't stir, but carefully  press dumplings down a few times to cook them evenly.  Keep checking dumplings until they are done.  This could be from 10-30 minutes depending on how tough your dumplings were to start with.  Add as much meat back in as you like.
    
Pictures are of Grandma giving Mark a dumpling-making lesson and then eating them with Valerie.  The date on the pictures is wrong because Val brought McKenna with them.

Mix the dough.

Roll it out thin.

Drop a few at a time.

Yum!

Chicken Sauce Piquant

I ate this a lot growing up.  I haven't been able to find the exact recipe from the source but this is Grandma's version.  The recipe came from Aunt Opal's daughter-in-law (name?), Paul Redman's wife.  I remember Opal and Grandma and Mom all making this. 

1 chicken, cut up
1/4 cup oil
1 qt. canned tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chipped
1 clove minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 cup raw rice
more water or tomato sauce as needed

Brown chicken in oil in a heavy pot.  Add veggies and spices and simmer 5 minutes.  Add rice and more liquid to cover all well.  Simmer covered until chicken is very tender.  Adjust salt & pepper.


EDITED TO ADD:
Mom reviewed this version and says that Grandma told her to flour the chicken pieces before frying to help with browning and to thicken sauce later.  Also, was cooked without rice and then served over plain white rice.