How good is chicken pot pie good for?

Everybody will fall in love with this easy Chicken Pot Pie!! With a creamy chicken and vegetable filling lightly infused with herbs, this Chicken Pot Pie made with puff pastry lids can be served in individual pots or made as one big pie.

This Chicken Pot Pie recipe is made by poaching uncooked chicken in stock and milk which is then used as the broth for the creamy filling. Or speed things up by using cooked chicken!

Chicken Pot Pie was a staple in my 20’s. When I was an ambitious lass in the corporate world juggling university in the evenings, Chicken Pot Pie was a handy one-dish freezer-friendly meal that I could cram loads of extra veggies into.

So while fellow uni students were living on instant ramen and cheap sausages, I was making Chicken Pot Pie.

How very homely of me…. Some might even say daggy! 😂

I like to make Chicken Pot Pie in POTS – for maximum pastry to filling ratio!

What goes in Chicken Pot Pie

Here’s what goes in Chicken Pot Pie. Nothing unusual here – but just a couple of comments on some of the ingredients:

• Stock powder – this adds more flavour in the creamy white sauce. I like to use Vegeta which is a vegetable stock powder, but any stock powder will do – vegetable or chicken;

• Parmesan adds umami (which means savouriness and depth of flavour) rather than cheesiness into the sauce. If you don’t have parmesan, use about 1 1/2 cups of your favourite cheese (cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, tasty); and

• Peas are missing! 🙂

There’s no definitive way to make Chicken Pot Pie. While some choose to make it like a traditional pie with a pastry base and shortcrust topping in a pie dish, I have always – and will always – make Chicken Pot Pies in POTS with puff pastry lids.

Let me emphasise that in case you missed it – I make Chicken POT Pie in POTS. 😜

Truthfully though, the way I make it has nothing to do with the name. I make it in pots because it’s quicker and easier, and I love draping the pots generously with puff pastry so that the golden flaky lid is fitted tightly on top and around the pots, rather than just a round piece floating on top.

How to make Chicken Pot Pie

There’s nothing really ground breaking in this Chicken Pot Pie recipe, but there are two little things I do that is a bit different to the usual:

1. Poach chicken and use poaching liquid to make the creamy filling. Most recipes bake the chicken. I prefer poaching so I can use the poaching liquid which becomes infused with extra flavour from the chicken; and

2. Parmesan in the creamy filling. Not for parmesan or cheesy flavour, for seasoning. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I use parmesan cheese regularly in recipes. It’s because it adds salt as well as umami to recipes, just giving dishes an extra something-something that makes it so good!

Tips for making Chicken Pot Pie

This is a pretty straight forward recipe, especially when made you make individual Chicken Pot Pies like I’ve done. I only have 2 tips to ensure you nail The Pot every single time:

• Thicken filling to desired consistency before putting it in the pots. The sauce won’t thicken at all once the lid is on. So keep cooking until the sauce is a nice creamy consistency and not watery. Nobody likes a watery pie filling!

• Cool filling before topping with puff pastry. Hot filling = melts butter in pastry that creates layers = less puff.

That moment with this Chicken Pot Pie comes out of the oven, all golden and puffed up, and you know that under that buttery lid the creamy filling is bubbling away with the tender chicken and the vegetables and it just smells so amazing…

….and THEN you crack through that almost impossibly flaky crispy puff pastry to reveal the piping hot creamy filling, and you blow furiously on it, trying to cool it down as quickly as you can so you can shovel a huge spoonful in your mouth without giving yourself 2nd degree burns….

I shouldn’t even joke about that. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve burned my mouth with Chicken Pot Pie. 😂 – Nagi x

More Cosy Pies

• Cottage Pie (beef)

• Shepherd’s Pie (lamb – because Shepherd’s herd sheep!)

• Chunky Beef and Mushroom Pie

• Fish Pie

• Leftover Turkey Pot Pie with Garlic Bread Topping

• Browse all cosy Winter Warmers

And more cosy Chicken recipes

• Slow Cooked Chicken Stew and a faster Chicken Stew (Casserole) – on the table in under an hour!

• Chicken Stroganoff

• Chicken with Mushroom Gravy

• Chicken Pasta of your dreams!

• Chicken Curry

Watch how to make it

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Servings4 – 6 people

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Recipe video above. Everybody’s favourite Chicken Pot Pie! A creamy chicken and vegetable filling with a hint of thyme, topped with puff pastry. The smell when this is baking is SO GOOD! Makes 4 large, 6 medium or 1 large pie. Brilliant freezer standby meal.

Chicken & broth:

• ▢ 600 g/1.2lb chicken breast (or boneless thighs)
• ▢ 2 cups milk , any fat % (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 cup chicken broth (stock)
• ▢ 2 tsp chicken or vegetable stock powder (Note 2)
• ▢ 2 sprigs thyme , optional

Chicken Pot Pie:

• ▢ 1 large onion , chopped
• ▢ 2 large carrots (3 small). chopped
• ▢ 3 celery ribs , chopped
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 50g / 3 tbsp butter
• ▢ 1 tsp dried thyme
• ▢ 1/3 cup white wine (sub more chicken stock)
• ▢ 1/3 cup flour
• ▢ 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• ▢ 1/2 tsp black pepper
• ▢ 1 cup frozen peas , no need to thaw
• ▢ 2 sheets puff pastry (enough to cover pots, with drape)
• ▢ 1 egg , lightly whisked

Chicken:

• Place milk, broth and stock powder in a large saucepan. Bring to a very gentle simmer over medium heat, add chicken and thyme.

• Place lid on, simmer gently on medium low for 15 minutes (do not boil, can make milk split).

• Remove chicken, shred or dice (don’t worry if inside a bit uncooked). Cover pot and set poaching liquid aside.

Chicken Pot Pie:

• Melt butter in a large pot over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes. Add thyme, carrot and celery, cook for 3 minutes or until carrot is softened.

• Add wine. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pot, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until wine is mostly evaporated.

• Add flour and stir for 1 minute.

• Add about half the reserved poaching liquid and stir until all flour is incorporated – it will be a thick sludge.

• Add remaining milk broth, parmesan, pepper. Stir.

• Add chicken and peas, stir.

• Once mixture is heated (you’ll see steam), cook for 3 minutes to thicken the sauce, stirring regularly. (Note 3)

• Remove from heat. Spoon into oven proof pots – 4 large or 6 small (Note 4). Cool in fridge at least 30 minutes. (Note 5)

Assembly & Baking:

• Meanwhile, remove puff pastry from freezer to partially thaw. Then use a bowl as a guide to cut rounds from the pastry about 2.5cm / 1″ wider (all the way around) than the pots – be generous!

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

• Brush edge of pots with egg. Top with puff pastry, folding down the edges.

• Brush pastry with egg. Cut a 2cm / 2/3″ slide in the middle with a small knife.

• Bake 35 – 40 minutes until deep golden.

• Serve immediately!

1. Cream option – if you’d like to make it even richer, reduce milk by up to 3/4 cup and swap for cream. But DO NOT ADD when poaching chicken, stir it in when the poaching liquid is added into the pot after adding flour.

2. Stock powder – I like Vegeta which is a vegetable stock powder. Or use 2 x chicken bouillon cubes, crumbled.

3. Sauce thickness – whatever the sauce thickness at this stage is what it will be when the pies comes out of the oven.

4. Pot Sizes – Use 4 large about 2 cups / 500 ml / 16 oz capacity (about 11 – 12 cm wide) OR 5 to 6 smaller ones about 375ml / 1.5 cups / 12 – 13 oz (~10cm wide). Or one large pie dish / skillet – 8 cups / 2 L / 2 quarts.

5. Cool Filling  – hot filling will melt the butter in the puff pastry dough, resulting in less puffing. As long as the surface of the pie filling is cool(-ish), that’s good enough.

6. Pie Base – A number of readers have asked how to make this using puff pastry as a pie base. Here’s how: Spray pots with oil or grease with butter. Line pots with puff pastry with excess to drape over the edge, then place in oven at 180C/350F. After 10 minutes or whenever the partially cooked base starts to puff up, just push it back down. Repeat once more or as required to stop the puffing (it doesn’t take much). Then once the pastry is golden, remove from oven and let cool. Fill with COOLED filling. Brush egg across the pastry rim then top with puff pastry lid. Bake per recipe, turn out of pots. 

7. STORAGE: To freeze or refrigerate uncooked, cool filling completely. Then top with pastry, egg wash, cut slit. Freeze 3 months or refrigerate up to 2 days. Thaw overnight (if frozen) then bake per recipe. Note: Thawed then refrozen puff pastry as well as thawed then refrigerated puff pastry does not puff up quite as much but the difference isn’t significant.

Cooked Chicken Pot Pies will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Best reheated in the oven covered in foil so the pastry can crisp up slightly, 20 minutes at 180C/350F.

8. Nutrition per serving.

Calories: 588cal (29%)Carbohydrates: 36g (12%)Protein: 47g (94%)Fat: 26g (40%)Saturated Fat: 11g (69%)Cholesterol: 144mg (48%)Sodium: 1191mg (52%)Potassium: 1152mg (33%)Fiber: 4g (17%)Sugar: 12g (13%)Vitamin A: 6245IU (125%)Vitamin C: 22.4mg (27%)Calcium: 344mg (34%)Iron: 2.9mg (16%)

Keywords: Chicken Pot Pie, Puff Pastry

Life of Dozer

Few snaps from Dozer’s weekend away with my besties! Clockwise from top left: Smiling happily at the sight of his weekend bag, on the road, enjoying the beach and assuming the best position at the dinner table…. (and I think he fell asleep waiting for food to drop?? 😂)