Chicken Pot Parmentier | Savory Pot Pie

Remember the metro station Parmentier in Paris? It is named after the scientist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. He was credited with staving off a famine in the late 18th century when he promoted cultivating potatoes as a good source of nutrition in France. Not familiar with the chicken pot Parmentier, think of it as a close cousin of the English shepherd pie. Instead of the pastry crust, Parmentier is usually topped with mashed potatoes. Potato is a must-have ingredient.

I made a duck Parmentier which used the uniquely French duck confit sprinkled with Gruyere. In order to add a decidedly French accent to the chicken pot Parmentier, David Lebovitz suggests using tarragon and chervil. Luckily, I still find a small patch striving in my herb garden. With temperature falling to 40°F lately, the season for fresh herbs will end soon.

There is a long list of ingredients. Mise en place seems more than best practice; it’s necessary. The first step is to make the chicken filling with chicken stock, carrots, celery and onions. I couldn’t help putting in the seasonal star ingredient in my book: the honeynut squash, which has a compelling story that needs to be told.

I added the seasonal honeynut squash in the filling

Let the vegetables simmer in the stock for about 15 minutes. Next make a roux in a large pot over medium heat. Then, whisk in ladlefuls of the warm stock to the roux and cook for about 10 minute until thickened. Add minced garlic and white wine at the end of cooking. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the cooked chicken, peas, tarragon, chervil, parsley, salt and pepper.

Mise en place

Making the potato topping is the second part of the dish. Everyone has their favorite way to make mashed potato. In this recipe, David Lebovitz starts with cooking cubed russet potatoes until tender, about 25 minutes. Then drain and cook over medium heat for 1 minute, to remove the excess moisture. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer. Next, mix in butter, salt and pepper. Finally, stir in egg yolks, cream and nutmeg.

Chicken filling in a baking dish

You can prepare the chicken filling and the potato topping in advance. Not only that, if you don’t have chicken, any leftover meat or vegetables in the fridge would do. More often than not, I have leftover pastry dough in the freezer. It’d make a fantastic substitute for the potato topping. I can see that savory pot pie showing up on the table soon.

I made half of a recipe. In retrospect, I should have made more because each component can be made ahead and baked later. Frankly, I did not have enough potato mixture to cover the surface of the baking dish completely. I had to economise. Well, next time!

To see the different versions of Parmentier that our friends at Cook-the-book-Fridays cook up, please visit here.

Chicken filling (stock, carrots, honeynut squash, celery, onion, garlic, chicken, peas and herbs) topped with mashed potatoes