There are a few dishes that just scream “Comfort Food”, and Homemade Chicken Pot Pie is certainly one of them. Buttery crust and rich, creamy filling, made with all-natural ingredients. That’s the Best Homemade Chicken Pot Pie!
This homemade chicken pot pie recipe sets up well – no watery, soupy mess on the plate. It also freezes well, so if you want to use some Dollar Store aluminum pans, go for it. Just wrap them well in plastic before freezing.
Preparing a pot pie is a great way to use up any leftover meat (in this case, chicken) and veggies you’ve got in the fridge. Because you cook them before you put them into the pie, you don’t have to worry too much about water content or anything that could make your pie soggy. I’ve used potatoes, snap peas, celery, mushrooms, green/red/orange peppers, green beans, . . . really just about any combination you like and believe would be tasty together.
Serve your pot pie in a dish that goes from oven to table beautifully, with one of these ceramic-coated cast iron pie dishes:
Handy Tip: You can do a lot of the prep work for this well ahead of time. Just check out your veggie crisper drawer and pull out anything that’s looking like it may not make it to the next crisp salad. Chop it up and put it in a pot with 2 tsp dried parsley and just enough chicken broth or water to cover. Cook briefly until the veggies are tender, then store the whole thing in one large bowl with a cover. Add more veggies as you can. It’s OK to mix them all together in one bowl. Just try to keep the broth or water to a minimum.
I adapted this recipe a bit from James Beard (one of my favorite chefs for taking recipes back to the basics). The pastry is a bit more rugged than a normal fruit pie, as it needs to stand up to some pretty heavy, creamy sauces. Enjoy!
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie with Pastry
Ingredients
Pie Filling
- 3-4 lbs Cooked chicken and 1 cup chicken stock or broth (If using raw chicken, you’ll make your own stock.)
- 1/2 lb Potatoes peeled and diced
- 2-3 Carrots peeled and sliced
- 1/4 lb Snap Peas trimmed and sliced to 1″
- 1/2 medium Green pepper (or orange or red) diced and seeded
- 2 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 medium Onion roughly diced. Or use about 1 pint of pearl onions
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Flour
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce
- 1 bunch fresh Parsley (or 8 tsp dried)
- 1 egg yolk for egg wash, if desired
- 1 Pot Pie Pastry see below
Pastry Ingredients
- 3 cups Flour
- 1 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 stick Butter 1/4 lb., cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup Shortening chilled. I used lard.
- Ice water
Instructions
- For Filling
- If using fresh parsley, chop enough to fill 1/4 cup and set that aside. Place remaining fresh parsley (or 4 tsp dried parsley), along with the chicken (cooked or raw) and half the chopped onion in a pot. Add water just to cover meat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 30 minutes. Pull out the chicken and let it cool. Pull the chicken off the bones and chop it into bite-sized pieces. If you used leftover boneless chicken, just cut that into small pieces. Put the chicken into a large bowl (we’ll add more to this later, so give yourself some room.)
- Make some chicken stock by placing the bones back into the pot and simmering for one hour. OR, if you’re using leftover cooked chicken, add one cup of chicken broth or stock to the pot. (Precooked bones won’t offer up any stock, so don’t bother with that)
- If you’ve pre-cooked your veggies, just add them all to the cut-up chicken in the large bowl.
- If you haven’t already, cook separately the 1) potatoes, 2) carrots, and then 3) the snap peas, peppers and the remaining 1/2 onion in the hot broth, just until tender. You may need to add a touch of broth or water now and then if the veggies absorb some liquid. Scoop them from the broth and add to the chicken in the large bowl. Save the broth! You’ll need one cup or so.
- Preheat oven to 450F. In a small skillet, melt 1 tbsp of butter and cook the garlic and mushrooms for about 3 minutes. Add all to the chicken/veggie mixture. Then melt the remaining 3 tbsp butter in the skillet over medium heat until bubbling. Add the flour and stir with a whisk for about 3 minutes until the flour just begins to turn golden. Carefully add one cup of the broth to the flour and stir with the whisk until smooth and thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in the cream. Add the 1/4 cup fresh or 4 tsp dried parsley and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper. (If you made your own stock from bones, you’ll need about 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. If you used prepared broth, you’ll need much less salt, if any!) Stir the sauce into the chicken and veggie mixture.
- Line a 9″ pie pan with Pot Pie Pastry (see below). Fill with chicken mixture and cover with top pastry. Crimp the edges and cut a vent in top. If desired, whisk a tsp of water into an egg yolk and brush the top of your pie with this egg wash.
- Bake at 450F for 15 minutes, or until the crust just begins to brown. Reduce the heat to 350F and continue baking until the crust is golden – about 35 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before slicing.
For Pastry
- Whisk the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and shortening. With your hands, rub the flour and shortening/butter together until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (or use a pastry blender). Stir in ice water, until dough just holds together (I used 6 Tbl, but here in Colorado, my flour is always very dry.)
- Divide the dough – 1/3 for top crust and 2/3 for bottom. Pat into a flattened disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Roll the bottom dough out on a floured surface about 1/4″ thick (thicker than a normal pie crust.) Lay the crust into a 9″ pie place and trim. Leave the top dough in the fridge until you’ve added the chicken mixture. Then roll it out and drape over the top of the pie. Crimp edges, cut a vent and brush with egg wash.
Notes
Try my other popular main dishes Easy London Broil (In The Oven), and Chicken Divan. You’ll love them.
Let me know what you think. Any tweaks or adaptations you would make to this recipe? I’d like to hear from you.
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Hi Don,
This sounds very yummy! I’ve always wanted to try making a homemade chicken pot pie, and this recipe sounds like it’d be a good one to try out. I usually have most of the ingredients you mentioned, although the snap peas and green peppers are something I don’t usually buy too often. However, you mentioned other ingredients such as mushrooms, which might be something to try in place if I have them.
I was wondering, just to clarify, if the vegetables…the potatoes, carrots, snap peas, green peppers, and onions are not already cooked, we can just cook them all together in the broth? How long do you recommend?
It seems I either always overcook veggies and then they’re too squishy, or I end up not cooking them long enough and they end up too crunchy, which I definitely wouldn’t want to happen either, lol. I was also wondering if frozen carrots or snap peas would work for this recipe and what your thoughts were on how to use them?
Thanks for sharing your recipe for chicken pot pie, I definitely am going to give it a try sometime!
Keep up the awesome work here, I’ll be checking back again for more recipes!
Best wishes ~Sherry
Meh – if you don’t normally buy the snap peas, you can skip them or toss in an equal amount of frozen peas if you want. That’s the beauty of this – add whatever sounds good, and/or whatever you have on hand!
If the veggies are NOT yet cooked, just cook them in the stock or broth until tender – but do NOT add them all at once. Potatoes and carrots, for example, will need much longer to cook than your peas or onions or celery. If you put it all together, the softer veggies will be total mush before the potatoes are done. Do it in batches, then when they are COOKED, you can throw them all in the same bowl as the cooked chicken.
Potatoes and carrots take maybe . . . 20 minutes if they are cut into pieces no more than 1″. Test them and see. They should be soft enough to eat, but you should be able to stab them with a fork without them falling apart.
I avoid frozen CARROTS because something happens to their texture when they are frozen – they get rubbery and chewy. I just hate that. Frozen peas are fine. Frozen corn is also good. Frozen pearl onions are always nice.
I love the tip about cooking those about-to-spoil veggies and then storing them until it’s time to make the pot pie. I’m absolutely horrible in the kitchen and am trying to learn, so tips like that are what really help me out. I just have one question: When you say “store” it, I assume you mean in the fridge, right? So, how long will it stay good in the fridge? I’m just wondering about the timing of it all, since you recommend adding new veggies to the mix later. Such a great idea, and now I’m hungry.
Because the cooked veggies are now in a chicken broth brine, they will keep for quite a while. Salt brine inhibits any bacteria growth, so you’d be fine using the veggie mix for at least a week. Just keep it covered well!
Hey Don;
I love hearty comfort foods, and chicken pot pie is one of my favorites. This looks like a great recipe. I was wondering if you have ever tried this particular recipe in smaller portions, like mini pot pies?
I like the idea of serving individual pies with something on the side. I guess it would just be a matter of dividing the ingredients up into smaller dishes. And, I assume they could also be frozen that way for smaller meals.
Have to go now. My mouth is watering!! Lol Thanks for the recipe and the tips!Stella 🙂
I haven’t had the opportunity yet, but you could easily do it. You can use ceramic ramekins or just hit the Dollar Store for some of those small aluminum tins. I’d bet you could find a bowl in your cupboard that would be JUST the right size to create a pressed circle to line your small pan. Then fill and put the top crust on. The bake time would be much shorter, since you’re not needing to heat through to the middle of a 9″ pie. Since everything is already cooked, just focus on browning the crust – probably just 15 minutes at the higher temp might do it.
I am sticking with the Chicken Pot Pie, pastry especially these savory ones gets me every time. I will be following you for more of these recipes. I really love this one and will be trying it. I have always been making shepherd pie so this will be an addition to my many dishes for family get together.
I have never made this one so it will be a first for me. Some of the ingredients are new to me so I will substitute with my local herbs and vegetables.
I like how it is clearly laid out and easy to follow.
Thank you.
Using your local veggies and herbs is definitely the way to go. It’s supposed to be “comfort food” after all! And what’s more comfortable than your own local produce? I love Shepherd’s Pie, too – I may have to post a recipe for that soon. . . 🙂
Hello Don! I was searching around, and I saw your article. We Norwegians ain’t familiar with this kind of meal. What type of dish is it? I would love to try to make one myself. I’ve never actually made pie before, hehe. As a newbie, what do you recommend to start with?
Øystein
This is a very American dish, but it’s based on an old English tradition of meat pies. Their version tends to be hand-held, more like a turnover. But at it’s core is the crust – the rest is totally up to you. Get the crust right and you can fill it with whatever sounds good to you. I think a Norwegian version would be fun and interesting! I found a version that uses ground beef, onion, parsley, allspice, dill, nutmeg and grated potatoes, with cheddar cheese and sour cream on top!
Ive never made a homemade pot pie, but I love the way they taste. I usually buy the frozen ones, but your recipe makes it seem easy to do, and the picture you have makes it look so tempting. I’ll have to try this out in the immediate future. My only question is…
My family is on a gluten free egg free diet due to food allergies. Do you think this recipe would work as good with coconut or hazelnut flour, and without eggs? I’d love to try this out, but I’d be using a substitute for white flour and possibly eggs. Which do you think would be best?
The only egg is in the optional egg wash, which just makes the crust shiny and more attractive – so that’s easy to skip. The flour is another matter altogether. Can you use xanthan gum at all? Because that sure broadens the possibilities. Coconut flour can be a problem with pie crust, because it absorbs a LOT more water than regular flour. Can you use almond flour at all? I’d think that would be a better bet than hazelnut, but I haven’t used that myself.
Hello and thank you for this amazing post. My grandma actually made the best chicken pot pies. I still remember the good old days with my family on our ranch.
My grandma used to make it without garlic, onions and potatos. Instead she used beens. I guess each household has different recipe. Do you think that this pie can be made into a more spicy meal, with adding some chilli pepper maybe?
Do you think it would fit there?
Regards.
Absolutely! This is such a flexible item, because everything is cooked before you put the pie together. So there’s no worries about how much water something will absorb, etc. I think with a chili-bean dish, I’d go with a beef stock rather than chicken. But otherwise it’s going to be the same. Spice it up as much as you want!
Thanks a lot for this beautiful and delicious meal. I will for sure prepare it in these cold days. I like every ingredient that it contain so it will be no problem for me to make it. Instead of chicken can you recommend some other meat that will give delicious taste?
The next choice would be beef – I’ve used ground beef with a beef stock instead of chicken. Or you could use a leftover pot roast as well, just cut up the beef into smaller pieces. Pork is certainly an option – but finding pork stock can be a bit of a tangle – at least here in the US. Perhaps an Asian market would have it. Or you could make it from a ham hock bone. I’d stick with a stronger-tasting protein like these, otherwise the flavor gets lost in the crust.
It’s so funny that I ran across this site because just a couple of days ago I went to my friend’s house for lunch and she served me a chicken pot pie from Costco. While it was good, the recipe that you have supplied sounds even better. I’ve really been wanting to try making it and now I have your recipe. One question I do have is: How hard is it to get the crust shaped so nicely? I have made regular pie before and it didn’t come out that pretty. Do you have any tips?
Hahaha! TIME AND PATIENCE. Gawd, I’ve put out some crusts that looked like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, trust me. One trick is to make sure you add the right amount of ice water right at the end. My flour here in Colorado gets so dry, I always need more water than it calls for in a recipe, so that’s one thing I’ve learned. And make sure everything is really cold – the butter and shortening. But really, just practice and practice will help you learn to “feel” when it’s right.
Yum, This chicken pot pie mix recipe made me really want to go out and get all the ingredients to make this.I’ll definitely be making this for dinner tonight.
Chicken pot pie is a great fall and winter food. Just in time for Halloween.Do you have any good beef stew recipes?
Thanks
You bet I do! Try this one for Authentic Irish Stew, with a recipe I got from the Emerald Isle itself! https://bakingnaturally.org/au…