Easy Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Hey, I’m John Canel and today we’re making a creamy delicious chicken pot pie. So, let’s get started.

Prep the Vegetables

We’re going to start off with a bit of prep, one celery stick, get thinly sliced. You’ll want about half a cup or 50 g. Chicken pot pie is one of those classic dishes that my family absolutely loves with a homemade butter crust, big pieces of chicken, and just a creamy sauce inside. It is so satiating and perfect and it’s really easy to make.

Next up, about one cup of carrots, thinly sliced. I peeled mine, but that’s optional. Our prep’s almost done. I have half a cup or 120 g of chopped onion. It’s about half of a large to medium sized onion. If this is too much or you’re really busy, hop over to the grocery store and buy a container of mirepoix. They sell them at almost every single store next to the salads. It’s a pre-made mixture of chopped onions, carrots, and celery. And it’s a great starter for chicken pot pie or soups.

I also have three cloves of garlic. You could add more or less to your taste. You can mince these up or pop them through a garlic press. A final touch would be two teaspoons of freshly chopped thyme. This came right out of my garden. Just remove the stalks. We only want the leaves, please. Mmm, smells so good. My prep’s done.

Make the Filling

Grab a large skillet and 1/4 cup of butter. We’re going to get to work. Place your pan over medium high heat. Add the butter. And we’re going to let this get nice and melty.

While that melts, a word about the chicken. You have so many choices here. Most of the time I’m in a hurry, so I just grab one or two rotisserie chickens from the supermarket. I break them down and give them a good chop. If I have more time, I’ll get bone-in skin-on chicken breasts and thighs and roast those up. You get a lot of nice flavor from that. You can also poach chicken breasts—like any preparation will work. You’ll just want to chop or shred the chicken so it’s ready to use. And you’ll need about 3 cups or 400 g for your chicken pot pie.

Once your butter’s melted, we’re going to add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. So, I’m using a garlic press today, but feel free to mince. Some people have such strong opinions about garlic presses. Blew my mind. I, however, have very strong opinions about pre-minced garlic, so I understand. All right, give it a mix. We’re going to cook this for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently or until the carrots are slightly softened. In the meantime, enjoy the aroma. It smells heavenly.

And grab 1/3 of a cup or 40 g of all-purpose flour. This dish, by the way, freezes so well. You could make the whole thing in advance and freeze it raw, or you could bake it off and freeze it once it’s cooled down. In either way, let it thaw overnight in the fridge and then bake to warm if it’s been baked, or follow the regular instructions if it’s raw. Chicken pot pie became very popular in the 1950s because it was a good frozen meal that you could buy and then just serve up really easily.

My carrots are softened. So now it’s time to add in 1/3 of a cup of flour. Just sprinkle that in. And give it a good mix. We want to coat everything in the flour and cook the flour in our butter at the same time. This is going to be the basis of a creamy, delicious roux. This roux is the base for a creamy velvety sauce that’s so easy. And the sauce makes or breaks a chicken pot pie in my humble opinion—along with the crust. The crust should be a beautiful flaky butter crust, not soggy and sad.

My flour cooked for about 2 minutes and now we’re going to drizzle in while stirring 1 and 3/4 cups of warmed chicken broth. Give that a good stir. I’m also adding in half a cup of warmed heavy cream. You just don’t want cold things because it doesn’t mix as well with your hot flour. Oh my gosh, the consistency is like velvet. It’s so nice. And you can see how easy it is to make a nice cream sauce.

It’s time to stir some flavor in in the form of a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of cracked black pepper, and my two teaspoons of thyme. Reduce heat to low and bring to a simmer if it’s not already bubbling. And you’re going to cook this until the sauce is thickened. Can be anywhere from two to five minutes depending on your burner. This is like a dragon’s mouth, so everything is super fast, but most stove tops will be about five minutes. Look how creamy that looks already.

My sauce is beautifully thickened up, so it’s time to add in our three cups of chicken. Just dump those right in. As well as one cup of frozen peas. You can definitely add your favorite flavors in here. So, if you love those little cocktail onions, go ahead and add half a cup of those. If you like some sliced leeks that are sautéed in, just sauté them with your onion. Tons of flavors will work really well in here. So, have at it.

If you’re like me and you’re often running short on time, you can prep out the filling a day in advance and then assemble and bake your chicken pot pie the next day. So you can work around smaller units of time. This has been fully mixed in. It’s nicely cooked. And we’re going to pop this into a bowl to cool down while we form our pie crust. I’m going to spread this towards the edge of the bowl so it can cool faster for more surface area and set it aside so it can cool to room temperature.

Prepare the Pie Crust

In the meantime, we can handle our pie dough. It’s time to roll your pie crust out. So, grab a rolling pin and preheat your oven to 425 so it is very hot and ready for your chicken pot pie. The crust is so important. And for this recipe, I have two rounds of pastry dough. You’ll want to have this nicely chilled and then slightly warmed up on your counter before rolling. If it’s too hot, it falls apart, and if it’s too cold, it cracks.

Flour your working surface. And we’re going to roll this into a 12-inch circle. As a time saver, you could definitely use store-bought pie dough for this. Keep the pastry moving as you roll it out. And don’t be afraid to flour your rolling pin as well. Very important. I’m working on a pastry mat today because it’s actually a warm day and the countertop will just melt butter, which could be quite frustrating. This is your insurance policy. Nothing really sticks to it. And if things went awry, I could lift the whole thing up and pop it into the fridge to chill out for a few minutes.

Do I have a 12-inch circle? Yes, I do. Okay, 12 in attained. We’re going to roll this up. And this is the nice thing about a pastry mat. Pop that into a deep dish 9-inch pie pan. And I prefer to use metal. It just bakes up nicer. Transfer that over and just scooch the pie dough in. Don’t press down. Scooch in. I don’t want to press this down just because it could rip and it also stretches the pie dough which makes it want to contract during baking.

All right. At this point, you can either pop your filling in if it’s cooled to room temperature. If your filling is slightly warm still, going to transfer this to the fridge and roll the top out. Repeat the process for your second round of pastry dough.

There’s so many fun variations you can do. It does not have to be a traditional chicken pot pie baked in a deep dish pie pan. I’ve made individual pot pies before where the filling is popped into ramekins and you warm it up in the oven. And for the pastry top, it’s just been a lattice that I make. I cut circles, bake it separately, and then pop it on just before serving. This gives you a super crisp pastry crust with a nice presentation. One of the local restaurants we go to, which is known for its chicken pot pie, even though mine’s much better, serves theirs with like piping hot filling on a plate and a big round of puff pastry that’s also been baked separate, just balanced on top. These are both ways to avoid a soggy bottom.

Assemble and Bake

My second pie is rolled and ready to go. So, let’s assemble everything. Transfer your room temperature filling right into the crust. Smooth it out. You want a nice even surface for the pastry top so it doesn’t like fall down. Grab the pastry top. Place over nicely. Trim to about an inch of excess. Now we’re going to tuck the crust under. It’s looking good already. Very excited to eat this for dinner tonight.

This looks nice, but we can make it a bit better with a simple crimp. So, grab your thumb, your other thumb, and your index finger and get to pressing. Brush with some heavy cream. This will just give us a nice finish for our pie crust. Beautiful, but needs some venting. So, let’s cut some slits. And I’m finishing the pie off with an optional sprinkle of flake salt.

Transfer this to a rimmed baking sheet. My chicken pot pie is ready to go into the oven 425 for 20 minutes. And then we’re going to reduce temperature to 350 and bake an additional 40 minutes. Your pie is going to bake up to be golden puffed and beautiful. Allow it to cool to just be warm. Give it a slice. And just like that, it’s ready to enjoy. So hearty, full of flavor, and just plain delicious. This is everything you want from a chicken pot pie. I hope you get a chance to make this delicious recipe.