Chicken Bott Boi
- SERVES
- 6
- COOK TIME
- 1 Hr 30 Min
Yes, Bott Boi is the real name for this traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dish. Because it's actually dressed-up bow-tie pasta and chunky veggies, we call it a great meal, too!
What You'll Need
- 10 cups water
- 1 chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
- 1 large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 7 white potatoes, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
- 12 ounces bow tie pasta
What to Do
-
In an 8-quart soup pot over medium-high heat, combine water, chicken, onion, celery, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 50 minutes.
-
Remove chicken to a platter, then add potatoes to pot and cook 10 minutes.
-
Meanwhile, bone chicken, discarding bones and skin, and cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Add pasta to pot and cook 8 to 10 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Return chicken to pot and continue cooking until heated through. Serve in bowls.
Notes
-
This will thicken up as it sits, so you may want to add additional water when you re-heat any leftovers.
- Want even more tasty soups and stews? Check out our free eCookbook, Comfort Food for the Soul: 40 of Our Best Stews and Easy Soup Recipes!
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Member 0445440
Aug 15, 2017
This is NOT Bot Boi (the correct spelling). Anyone (as many here have pointed out) who has any contact with the PA Dutch and their wonderful cooking know that bowtie pasta does NOT belong in Bot Boi! Homemade dough squares only!!!
Cowboy Chef Jeff
Dec 06, 2020
This website is all about quick and easy cooking, so it you are a working person you can get a meal on the table for their family before 900 at night. They may substitute ingredients for the sake of making it faster and easier, not to just be wrong. If bowtie pasta works well as a substitute for time consuming dough squares then so be it, for quick, and easy meals. Understand this website don't be so critical.
urdchan 7936213
Jan 03, 2016
When it comes to the potatoes, just what size are we talking about? Seven potatoes cut in half. If they are large potatoes those are still going to be large halves. If they are new potatoes they are very small. Just wondering.
Test Kitchen Team
Jan 04, 2016
Hello! - You should use white potatoes in this recipe. We've made sure to include that in the recipe as well. Thank you for bringing that to our attention, and we hope you enjoy this dish!
Abby7
Sep 09, 2014
Living in PA Dutch country (not Lancaster county, but a county where PA Dutch [Germans] settled in the early 1700s), I grew up on this dish but made with the 1" square dough. We called it chicken pot pie (Bott Boi loosely translated) but it wasn't done as a casserole. It was a thick stew. We also made it with ham or beef for a change of pace. Since hubs will only eat spaghetti or lasagna noodle dough, I no longer make it but my son does, right down to the homemade dough and sends a container to me every time he makes it. Now I'm hungry for it! :-)
linda1051 0925214
Sep 11, 2013
I remember making a similar dish in Maryland called Slippery Pot Pie. It used any good, rich, meat broth with bits of meat, chopped potatoes and dough made of flour, eggs, and water, cut into squares and dropped by layers into the simmering broth and potatoes. It was served with raw, diced onions on top....ohhhh sooooo good!
zimmarif2 9341264
Jun 20, 2013
Oh, and my one Grandma made it with sweer potatoes rather than white potatoes. Yummy, but I have eaten and made it both ways.
zimmarif2 9341264
Jun 20, 2013
You bercha'! Pot pie is not real pa dutch w/o homemade dough squares made only with egg, flour and enough milk to hold it together.
grkelley42 9107490
Sep 23, 2012
My German grandmother made bott boi from homemade noodle dough and cut it in about 1 inch squares.
Shorty61
Sep 22, 2012
This sounds like the Chicken Pot Pie I inherited from my maternal grandmother. I understand it is made in Pennsylvania Amish Country. In my version, instead of the bowtie pasta, I make homemade noodle dough, roll out thin and cut into small squares. I don't always add potatoes, but potatoes were in my grandmother's version. I have also heard it called Patches. In my family we have different opinions about whether the noodle squares should be thick and chewy or thin. It is called a pot pie because the noodle/crust is cooked in the pot instead of putting the stew in a dish and baking a crust over the top.
LadyMichigan
Sep 07, 2012
Well it does sound good but both potato and pasta a bit of a starch over load
reimerosa 9915225
Jun 24, 2012
Whether it's stew, casserrole or pot pie, it sounds good and I'm going to try it tomorrow!
rozzlh
Jun 23, 2012
This is really just chicken stew. Real Bott Boi layers flat (homemade) noodles about 2 inches square, chicken then vegetables and repeats those layers until all the fixings are used up
Marbos
Jun 24, 2012
You are describing a pot pie. Is that what bott boi means? I have been raised with Pennsylvania Dutch and German cooking and never heard of bott boi before. I have read a lot of Amish books and they never mentioned the term either.
dianabrannan2 3827 085
Sep 07, 2012
Well, the googler that I am, decided to search for bott boi and, yes, it is a Pennsylvania Dutch cooking term for basically pot pie layered with square noodles, which is what this recipe should call for rather than bow tie pasta thrown in the pot. Otherwise, I can see this as chicken stew with pasta and potatoes. I often use pasta and potatoes in the same stew pot and don't consider it an overload. Just helps round it all out and fill everyone up, depending. You can always leave one or the other out if you choose. Anyway, search for bott boi and you will have a number of things to choose from. Happy cooking.
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