It is comfort-food time, my friends. My recipe for chicken pot pie is made the way my family and I love to enjoy it: with a chicken breast and vegetable filling that is full of classic and fresh flavors. I top it with a flakey-pastry pie crust that comes out amazing every time.
I’m sharing my recipe from home with you, along with this pie crust that is the best of the best – for savory or dessert pies. You’re going to be blown away by how good and easy this is to make.
Making a good dinner is a personal triumph for me. I cook dinner for my family most every night, and I typically do not follow a recipe. I just go with what I know to make and have mastered over the years. My dinners are not often special or exciting, and I don’t make this family-favorite often. When I do, I have a very happy crew, who all thank me over and over again for it. It’s sweet. We are all trying and give what we can, even if it’s just simple appreciation. It takes a lot of energy and love to go above and beyond for one another.
The pie crust here is truly amazing. It’s tender, flakey and a lot like pastry. To me, it’s practically perfect. I love it. It has become my go-to. Three simple ingredients hold this together like a dream. You can easily do this too!
I’ll start with the pie filling recipe and how-to, in case want to switch this dinner up like I do every now and then, by serving it with a fresh-made buttermilk biscuit on the side.
Mili’s Chicken Pot Pie Filling
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts cubed
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or canola oil
- 8 tablespoons butter (one stick) I only use salted butter.
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour or gluten free, alternative all purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken stock 32 ounces, or one standard box container
- 3 large carrots chopped
- 1 and 1/2 cups peas frozen
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley (a handful) cleaned and chopped
- coarse kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, granulated garlic powder seasoned to your taste
Instructions
- Prep and clean all ingredients so that they are ready to go. Use separate cutting boards for the meat, veggies, and onion and garlic-chopping. Here I'm showing a stick and a half of butter – that was a mistake – but note that this recipe calls for only use one stick.
- Cube the chicken breasts, and season with ample salt, pepper, and garlic powder and set aside.
- Chop carrots and start a little pot with boiling water so that you can blanch them. When your water comes to a boil, place the carrots. Set a timer for one minute. After the minute, drain the water and set the carrots aside.
- Clean the three garlic gloves and chop the onion in small, uniform pieces. Chop about a handful of cleaned, fresh Italian parsley. Trust me, I'm not offering the instruction because I'm Italian. Flat leaf has more fragrance and flavor and the other stuff should only be used as garnish in my opinion. You won't regret it.
- Put your stove on medium heat. Drizzle oil into a stock pot.
- Add the onions, and season with an ample amount of coarse kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Cook down until onions start to become translucent (a few minutes).
- Add the garlic and combine. I use a garlic press to do the fine-mincing for me. Another option is to chop them finely, or used prepared garlic from a jar.
- Add the pre-seasoned chicken.
- Cook together.
- Once the chicken is completely cooked, remove from the pot. You don't want it to dry out, so I suggest covering with wrap or a lid.
- Now it's time to make the roux. A roux is the thickened sauce-like base that pulls the filling together. Many use heavy cream for their chicken pot pie. I do not use cream. This process is also the starting-point of pulling all of the flavor that has been cooked into the pan. Melt the butter. Once all of it is just about totally melted, add the flour all at once.
- I then used my wooden spoon (but honestly, for best results when making a roux, you'll preferably use a whisk) to quickly combine the ingredients together, creating a paste.
- Next, pour in 32 ounces (four cups) of prepared chicken stock. I typically go organic on any ingredient that I use. If I can make it from scratch, that's amazing, but for quick-as-possible dinners, I use the boxed stuff. One box is all you need.
- You'll mix this together until the roux has completely combined. The heat of the pot and the liquid of the chicken stock are going to lift all of the flavor (seeming to appear as stains cooked into the bottom of your pot). This is called deglazing. By the time your roux has mixed in, the cooking stains from the bottom of your pot are removed, and your base is fully seasoned.
- With a couple minutes of mixing while cooking, your roux is now noticeably thick. Once it has come to a bubble-boil, your cooking is complete. The time to get your roux to a boil should take about five minutes total. Once this is complete, lower the heat from medium to low, and it is time to add in all of the prepared chicken and vegetables.
- Add the prepared chicken-onion-and-garlic mixture, frozen peas and chopped parsley. Combine.
- If you started boiling your carrots while tending to your roux, then they are ready. Pour them in and stir. Your chicken pot pie filling is complete. Remove the pot from heat. I recommend you taste it at this point. This is your opportunity to add more salt and/or fresh cracked pepper to-taste – according to your personal taste buds. You be the judge of what you prefer. This recipe as I'm showing you will not need less salt, maybe only a little more.
- Pour the prepared filling into a pie pan if you're going to add a crust on top. If you're serving with biscuits or without, this is ready to serve and eat. For the flakey-pastry pie crust recipe, please see my post by that name.
- If you are ready to top this with the flakey-pastry pie crust, have your oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.
The filling is definitely a go-to for a very satisfying dinner. It’s also an anytime-of-year meal. Summer or Winter – it doesn’t matter. I have made this recipe with heavy cream before, but opt out after we decided it was better without it. If you want it, I recommend adding 1/3 or 1/2 cup, after your roux and chicken stock have been combined.
If we want that irresistibly flakey, pastry-like pie crust on top, we should prepare it first, before the pie filling. I say prep the crust to make a disk first, then wrap it and put it in the fridge. It will be chilled enough and ready to roll out as soon as your pie filling has been put together.
The reason why I’m only using one crust as a topper for the chicken pot pie recipe is for a couple of reasons. First, two pie crusts can be overwhelming for this meal. I want my kids to actually eat the veggies and protein. The crust adds incredible flavor and texture. It’s not an every day type of treat or dinner in my home. Second, the fat in the butter is not terrible fat, but I don’t need to serve up a third stick of butter for dinner. I am always aware and know that for me, this amount is just-right. Plus, considering how much I bake for others, I need all the sticks of butter I can manage to keep for the next project.
This savory pie crust is a really simple, three ingredient recipe that is no fuss, no stress, and great results every single time. You can do this! I found this recipe somewhere online and can’t remember where or how, so I cannot give credit. I have tweaked the ingredients to offer different amounts and ratios, so my version is my own take. All I know is, I love it and it’s my family’s all-time favorite pie crust, out of all the pie crusts I’ve ever made, and I’ve made all kinds of different recipes from scratch over the years.
flaky-pastry pie crust
Ingredients
savory pie crust ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more set aside for dusting For gluten free crusts, use an all purpose blend of gluten free flours that are a 1:1/even ratio with classic wheat/gluten flour.
- 1/2 cup salted butter one stick. Needs to be slightly soft, so leave out at room temperature for 20 minutes, or microwave for 15 seconds before cutting into cubes.
- 1/2 cup sour cream full fat only
sweet/dessert pie crust ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more set aside for dusting 1:1 ratio of gluten free blend if you'd like a gluten free pie
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup salted butter one stick, cut into cubes. By now, you know I only use salted butter. If you are not using salted butter, simply add 1/2 teaspoon of table salt to this recipe
- 1/2 cup sour cream full fat only
Instructions
- Decide if you're making a savory or sweet pie and how many crusts you'll need. In a bowl, place the two cups of flour (and sugar if you are making a dessert pie, and salt, if you are not using salted butter). Measure the sour cream.
- Cut the butter into cubes and place into the flour / flour mixture.
- Cover the butter cubes.
- Use your fingers to smash the individual butter cubes into the flour mixture.
- Work the two together so that the butter is into bits. It does not need to be fully uniform, but the butter pats should be small now.
- Add the sour cream.
- Use a metal fork or a pastry cutter to evenly combine.
- Easily fold the dough together. This dough will be flexible and easy to handle.
- Dust a little flour onto a clean, flat surface. If you are making a single batch – for one crust, form into one disk, wrap and refrigerate. If you are doubling this recipe for two crusts, form a ball, divide in two pieces, create two disks to wrap and refrigerate.
- You can refrigerate the dough overnight. However, it's ready to work with in 15-30 minutes after being refrigerated. When you are ready, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Dust a little flour onto a clean surface, and onto a rolling pin. Uncover the disk and roll out into an evenly-thin, round crust.
- For a pie with a bottom crust: place the rolled dough onto a pie dish, cover bottom and form the edges in whatever pattern or design you'd like, and fill with the prepared fruit that that will be baked.
- For a pie with a top pie crust, place the rolled out crust onto your prepared pie dish.
- Cut off the edges with a pastry knife or food-scissors.
- The dough is very pliable and easy to work with and manipulate, so you can decorate your pie however you wish. Here, I simply folded-in the edges for a chicken pot pie.
- Anytime you have a top-crust, you must cut some little slits at the top so that it the pie can "breathe" while baking and bake properly.
- My suggestion for all pie crusts, if you are not vegan or allergic to eggs, is to whisk a single egg white, and brush it over the top to totally cover the top crust. If this is a savory pie, leave it as is. It this is a sweet/dessert pie with a top crust, now is the opportunity to add sugar to the top before baking.
- Now, it's time to bake. Place in the center of your oven at 350 degrees, for 30-50 minutes, depending on the coverage and how browned you'd like your crust. for a bottom-crust only pie, like this blueberry, you'll want to add sugar (if desired) after the pie is baked, and completely cooled.
- Here's the end-result for a savory pie, with this crust at the top.
Here’s what the pie crust dough looks like up close, when you are rolling it out. This is very easily manipulated and you’ll want an even, thin crust. The portion that is flat on the surface will be the top. It will be the pretty portion that you show. The surface that you are rolling on, will be the bottom.
Whether using this recipe for savory or dessert pies, this recipe is a winner. You’re going to absolutely love the end-result. To make this pie, simply make one batch of this pie crust, with sugar, and follow my recipe for blueberry pie filling. It would also be amazing with my recipe for cherry pie filling.
If it’s chicken pot pie time, you’re soon to be a dinner-time hero. By the way, I’m proud of you. Enjoy making this for your family, or deliver it as a TLC gift-meal to anyone you care about.
And because this is such a significant day and a significant time in our lives, I want to wish any of you who also celebrate, a heartfelt and happy Feast of Saint Joseph!
Please take care. Let me know if you have any questions about this recipe, or about making meals or baking at home.
