While my stomach healed this previous fall and winter, I devolved into the world's laziest cook. But now that I'm able to eat real food, I figured it was worth my time to cook up last year's old layers (who have been patiently waiting in the freezer).

Despite various other methods tried during our early years on the farm, I now cook all old hens slowly under moist heat before picking the flesh off the bones and using the former in various recipes. The classic is chicken pot pie, and this Epicurious recipe has become my new favorite. Except, I used homemade broth instead of storebought, shiitakes instead of button mushrooms, far more vegetables than they call for, goat milk instead of cream, and a different biscuit recipe baked separately instead of together. But, I mean, it's mostly the same. And it definitely hit the spot. Thanks, old hens!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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