Tried & True

Passed-down Recipe for Chicken Pie Is a Thanksgiving Tradition.

- Janette Tibbetts

Aunt Minnie didn’t create this recipe. And it wasn’t first made by her mother, Emma, either. Some food historians claim the Southern iconic chicken and dumplings recipe was developed as late as the depression; however, our history of the pie begins with Emma’s mother, Martha Smiley, who served it over 150 years ago.

Aunt Minnie said evidently Martha had already perfected these savory pies before the early 1860's when she served them to the U.S. troops raiding her and her Clarke County neighbors’ farms. Her husband, John Smiley, like the other men in the area, were serving in the Confederate Army when the scouts sneaked into South Mississippi to commandeer supplies and destroy farms.

The story surrounding Martha Smiley cooking chicken pies for the scouts are almost as juicy as the pies. We were told she graciously served the Yankee invaders while they were over-running area fields in their efforts to round up livestock, pilferage through farm tools, and empty corn cribs.

Martha was ridiculed by her neighbors for cooking for the scouts.