I could eat this chicken pot pie every day for the rest of my life. Okay, maybe I’m being a little hyperbolic, but it’s definitely one of those recipes that I can eat for days in a row and I’ll still be sad once the leftovers are gone. Because when a food makes you feel this cozy and good, how can you not want it in your life every day? Either way, I guarantee this scrumptious homemade chicken pot pie recipe is going to be made on REPEAT in my house all through the fall and winter.
What is Chicken Pot Pie?
Chicken pot pie is the quintessential comfort food for fall and winter. It starts with a deliciously flakey pie crust and is filled with a rich and saucy chicken gravy, chunks of tender chicken, and a medley of colorful vegetables. It’s everything you could want in a meal in one single recipe!
Ingredients for Chicken Pot Pie
This recipe is pretty flexible, allowing you to take some shortcuts if you need to make the prep easier, or you can do everything from scratch to make this pie an ✨EVENT✨! Here’s what you’ll need to make homemade chicken pot pie:
- Chicken: I used boneless, skinless chicken breast because I love the way the tender white meat compliments the diced vegetables, but if the budget is tight you can also use boneless, skinless thighs.
- Vegetables: This recipe starts with a sautéed onion to create a savory base for the chicken gravy, and then frozen vegetables are added later to round out the colors, textures, and flavor of the chicken pot pie filling. Frozen vegetables are a huge shortcut because they’re already chopped and partially cooked!
- Butter and Flour: A simple butter and flour roux thickens the gravy and makes the pie filling extra rich.
- Chicken Broth and Milk: The gravy is made with a combination of chicken broth and milk so that it’s extra flavorful AND creamy. We use Better Than Bouillon to make our broth, which is extra flavorful and contains a decent amount of salt to flavor the gravy.
- Seasoning: The chicken pot pie filling is seasoned with thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. These herbs perfectly compliment the chicken and smell absolutely divine as it bakes! The amount of salt needed will depend on the salt content of your broth.
- Pie Crust: You can use a store-bought pie crust to make this recipe faster and easier, or go all out and use a homemade pie crust.
- Egg: If you want your top crust to be extra shiny and beautiful, you can brush the crust with whisked egg before it goes into the oven. This is optional but it really does make the pie stunning!
Do I Need to Blind Bake the Crust?
When using our 3-ingredient pie crust recipe and a glass pie plate, our chicken pot pie baked to perfection with a golden brown flakey bottom crust without having to pre-bake the bottom crust because the filling isn’t very wet. Blind baking the crust would also make it difficult to connect the top crust and bottom crust after adding the filling because the bottom crust will be hard and cooked.
Shortcuts for Chicken Pot Pie
This chicken pot pie recipe is quite flexible, so you can make it 100% from scratch, or take a few shortcuts on busy weeknights. Here are a few ways to make this recipe faster and easier:
- Use Pre-Cooked Chicken: This recipe is a great way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken, or leftover turkey from Thanksgiving! Just add the pre-cooked chicken (or turkey) to the filling when the instructions say to add the cooked chicken back to the gravy with the herbs and spices.
- Use a Different Crust: Making a homemade pie crust is the “from scratch” version, but you can use a store-bought double pie crust to save time and effort, or you can even just top the skillet full of chicken and vegetables with your favorite biscuits and bake it that way!
- Use Frozen Vegetables: I did use a bagged mix of frozen vegetables below so I could do less chopping, but if you wanted to use fresh vegetables simply swap the frozen vegetables with 1-2 carrots, about ½ cup corn kernels, ½ cup chopped green beans, and ½ cup peas. You could also use other vegetables, like mushrooms or celery.
Chicken Pot Pie
Servings 8Ingredients
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about ⅔ lb.) ($3.33)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.38)
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.50)
- 4 Tbsp flour ($0.04)
- 1 cup chicken broth ($0.13)
- 1/2 cup whole milk ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp rubbed sage ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper ($0.02)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 12 oz. frozen mixed vegetables ($1.25)
- 1 double pie crust ($2.34)
- 1 egg (optional) ($0.20)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cut the chicken breast into ½-inch pieces.
- Heat a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the cooking oil and diced chicken. Cook just until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet.
- While the chicken is cooking, dice the onion. After removing the chicken from the skillet, add the diced onion and butter. Sauté the onions in the butter until softened.
- Sprinkle the flour over the onions in the skillet and continue to cook and stir for two minutes more. It's okay if the flour begins to coat the surface of the skillet, but don't let it burn.
- Add the chicken broth and milk to the skillet. Whisk to combine and dissolve any flour off the bottom of the skillet. Let the liquid come up to a simmer, at which point it will thicken into a gravy.
- Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet along with the thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Finally, add the frozen mixed vegetables and allow them to heat through in the gravy, stirring occasionally, just until the gravy begins to simmer again. Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Place your bottom crust in a 9-inch pie plate. Prick the bottom several times with a fork. Transfer the chicken, vegetable, and gravy mixture into the pie crust.
- Add the top crust and crimp the edges closed. Brush a light layer of whisked egg over the surface of the pie crust (optional). Use a knife to cut large vents in the top of the crust.
- Bake the chicken pot pie for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and flakey. The baking time may vary depending on the type of crust and pie plate used.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!If you love Chicken Pot Pie then you’ve got to try our Chicken Pot Pie Soup recipe next!
How to Make Chicken Pot Pie
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Dice one boneless skinless chicken breast into ½-inch pieces and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Heat a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium. Once hot, add 1 Tbsp cooking oil and the diced chicken breast. Cook the chicken pieces just until cooked through (do not over cook).
While the chicken is cooking, dice one yellow onion. Remove the cooked chicken from the skillet and add the diced onion and 4 Tbsp butter. Sauté the onions in the butter over medium heat until softened.
Once the onions are soft, sprinkle in 4 Tbsp of all-purpose flour. Continue to cook and stir for about two minutes more. It’s okay for the flour to begin to coat the bottom of the skillet, just make sure it doesn’t begin to burn.
Add one cup of chicken broth and half a cup of whole milk to the skillet. Whisk to combine and dissolve any flour off the bottom of the skillet.
Allow the liquid to come up to a simmer, at which point it will thicken into a nice gravy.
Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet along with ¼ tsp dried thyme, ¼ tsp rubbed sage, ¼ tsp black pepper, and ¾ tsp salt. Stir to combine.
Stir in one 12oz. bag of frozen mixed vegetables. Allow the gravy mixture to heat through and come back up to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Once fully heated through and simmering, remove it from the heat.
Place the bottom crust into a pie plate and prick it several times over the bottom with a fork. Fill the pie crust with the chicken pot pie filling.
Add the top crust and crimp the edges closed. Brush the top of the pie with a thin layer of whisked egg. Use a knife to cut large vents into the top of the pie crust.
Bake the chicken pot pie for 45-50 minutes, or until the pie crust is golden brown and flakey and the filling is bubbling up slightly through the vents. Total cooking time may vary depending on the type of crust and pie dish used. The filling is fully cooked before going into the pie, so adjust the baking time based on the crust.
Let the pie cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Sooo sooo good!! I have been waiting for you to do this one! No more canned attempts or frozen pot pies in this house! Amazing as always
Omg!!! HOW DELICIOUS!!! I cut up my chicken breast teeny tiny to stretch it further, subbed the thyme and sage for poultry seasoning since that was what I had on hand, and used a store-bought crust that I got on sale! We gobbled up the ENTIRE PIE! 100000000/10 will make this for the rest of my life! You’re the BEST!
Hello! As I see the egg brush on top is optional, what does this do for the recipe? Deciding whether to do it or not and wasn’t sure if it’s purpose. Thanks!
It helps brown the crust and gives it gloss. XOXO -Monti
My comments are about chicken pot pie in general. It’s worth noting that the gravy stems from a French master sauce. When you cook the onions in butter and add flour (and stir!) you have an onion flavored roux. Add dairy and it’s a bechamel. Add chicken stock and it’s a veloute. Chicken pot pie gravy adds both dairy and stock. I’m not sure what that is but it’s both classic and really good. Onion, carrots, and celery are a classic mirepoix and the veg I include, adding green peas and–when I have them–mushrooms. I use disposable foil tins and make about three at a time to feed the freezer. Freeze at the point you would otherwise bake. In a properly cold freezer they will keep a couple of years, although I usually eat mine before that. I have always used Pillsbury pre-made refrigerated crust but Beth’s three ingredient pastry recipe has motivated me to make another attempt at homemade crust.
Budget Bytes does not disappoint.
I made some little changes:
-used 2 fresh sage leaves instead of dried + 1 bay leaf
-used my own fresh veggie mix carrot, celery and mushrooms, I sauteed the mushrooms separately after the chicken and added the rest to sautee with the onion. In retrospect if using fresh veggies you can add some more broth as the frozen would leach a bit of water
-used chickpea flour instead of AP flour to make the roux gluten free. It works great. Just be sure to toast it well to remove the raw beany taste.
I’ll make it again for sure.
Thanks, Beth!!
Wow thank you kindly
Hello! Excited to make this. Is it 1/2 cup of milk or 1 cup? The ingredients say 1/2 cup but instructions by pictures say 1 cup. Thanks!
Good looking out, Jennifer!! Thank you. It is half a cup of milk, and the mistake has been fixed. Have fun making it. It’s DELICIOUS. XOXO -Monti
I made 5 of these this morning with premade crusts. 3 as-is for others for a group meal I needed to prepare, 1 gluten free for a friend -subbed GF premade crust, and rice flour for the flour, and 1 dairy free for us- margarine for the butter, extra broth in place of the milk. All turned out perfectly!
This would be a great weeknight meal, super quick to throw together. Will definitely be making again.
ps I used Beverly Nye’s pie crust recipe and used 1-1/2 c white flour and 1/2 c whole wheat flour. Could have used olive oil in it but didn’t.
I’m rating it on smell b/c I haven’t got it out of the oven yet LOL but it must be delicious. I subbed oil and fake vegan butter for the 4 T butter, use 1/4 whole wheat flour in the pastry crust, and used 2% milk b/c that is what I had. I had boneless, skinless thighs (which I cut into cubes and froze for later) which I used instead of chicken breast. It’s going to be one of our very favorites.
We got it out of the oven and it is still 5 stars. Now is in our permanent rotation.
I’m not a fan of chicken, but would love to try something like this. Would the filling from the linked Cottage Pie recipe work as well, you think?
Hi Katie, You can certainly try making the cottage pie with a crust -however, the filling is very wet, and the cheese will not caramelize if covered by a crust. So the probability of a soggy bottom crust and underdeveloped flavors is high. I’d recommend only using a bottom crust and blind baking it before you fill.
What recipe did you use for the pie crust? I love those flaky crusts!
Hi Lisa! You can find my easy 3-ingredient all butter pie crust here: https://www.budgetbytes.com/3-ingredient-pie-crust/ XOXO -Monti
Hi Beth, I have been following you for years, I love your recipes and, although I cannot take advantage of your economic plan because I live in Spain, I have made many of your recipes that have turned out perfect. Now I would like to make this chicken pot pie, but I would like to know what size pan you used? Take good care of yourself precious. Greetings from Spain
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Sorry! I have already seen the mold on Amazon 22-23cms. Thank you
This is soooo good! I’m not surprised but this makes me so happy!! I’ve been looking for a long time for a recipe of this without the nasty canned stuff. Real MVP!
Oops wrong place!!
Hola, Wendy! Por favor use un molde para pastel de nueve pulgadas que tenga 2 pulgadas de profundidad. XOXO -Monti
I don’t usually comment on a recipe I’ve not yet made, but I can tell you by looking at the finished product that I am absolutely going to make this come wintertime. I’ve been searching for a pot pie recipe that looks just like this one for years. My favorite part of the frozen ones we ate (a lot I might add, as my mom was a single mom in the 60s) was the crust. I make a really good pie crust, and since I’m not wild about white breast meat from the chicken, this will be the perfect pie to put it into.
Thank you for this recipe and I will come back later this winter and tell you what I thought of it!!
Thanks, Jana! Being a single mom in the 60s had to be hardcore. From a single mom that knows- props to your mom. XOXO -Monti
Adore this too, but have to add lots of quartered mushrooms (2-4 oz) to the saute step, and sub 1/4 c. white wine or dry sherry for some of the chicken broth. Otherwise your recipe is perfect–a local supermarket sells essentially the same thing for $12.00. Folks need to remember, that lots of veggies can be subbed. A cup of leftover broccoli or spinach–toss it in. Some folks like to add grated cheese, although I prefer this classic cheeseless potpie.