Don’t you love it when you decide on what to make for dinner and you just so happen to have everything you need right in your very own kitchen? It’s rare, but it happened to me when I had a craving for chicken pot pie.
I started rummaging through my fridge, pantry, and freezer, and was amazed to find that I could pull this together without even running to the store. I found puff pastry leftover from my Peach Tarts, heavy cream from my Salted Caramel Oat Bars, and fresh thyme from my Slow Cooker Pot Roast.
Unheard of!
My Walmart lady and I are so tight, she whispers price matches to me when I forget to check the ads. She thinks my boys are cute and “so well-behaved”, which makes me wonder what kid-shenanigens she witnesses on a daily basis. Because my boys are sweet, but we have our moments.
Like the time I was trying to decide whether I should buy regular or center cut bacon, and I looked down to see my three-year-old poking holes with his finger into the Saran wrapped raw ground beef!
Being a mom is exceedingly and abundantly a very humbling experience.
And that’s why I’m so thrilled when I can make dinner with what I already have. What I love about this recipe, is that it offers three shortcuts to make things easier.
First of all, I used puff pastry instead of making pie crust. Second, I used a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store instead of cooking my own. And lastly, I used a chicken base called “Better Than Bullion” instead of homemade or canned chicken stock. So very handy to have in the fridge all ready to go.
This Chicken Pot Pie has become one of my most popular recipes, and I think my mom is it’s number one fan! She makes this recipe a lot when she has company over. It pairs really well with a nice green salad, and that fancy lattice crust makes dinner guests feel extra special.
Don’t worry if you’ve never made one before, it’s really not too difficult. Make sure you are working with very cold strips of puff pastry. If they get too warm and soft they will be harder to work with, so you can pop them back into the freezer for a few minutes if needed.
This is the best lattice crust tutorial I’ve ever seen, and it’s super helpful to have that visual if you’ve never made one before.
Once you give this a try, you’ll be so happy to have it in your recipe box! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: the links in this post for the Better than Bullion chicken base are Amazon affiliate links.
PrintChicken Pot Pie
My favorite chicken pot pie recipe with three easy shortcuts to make dinner prep simple.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 1/4 cup chopped carrot
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon “Better Than Bullion” chicken base
- 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish if desired
- 1 egg, beaten slightly with a fork
Instructions
- Allow puff pastry to thaw at room temperature and then gently unfold.
- In a large pot, melt butter over medium high heat.
- Add onion, celery, carrot, and salt and sauté until onions are translucent and vegetables start to get tender.
- Sprinkle flour over vegetables and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Gradually whisk in milk, heavy cream and and Better Than Bullion, and bring to a slow boil.
- Simmer gently over medium heat until sauce begins to thicken (5 minutes).
- Turn heat to low, and add chicken, peas and thyme.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pour chicken mixture into a 9 x 9 baking dish.
- Cut puff pastry into 12 equal strips, using fold lines as a guide.
- Lay puff pastry strips over chicken mixture, weaving it together to form a lattice pattern.
- Using a pastry brush, brush egg onto the top of the puff pastry.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes. The top of the puff pastry will be a deep golden brown color.
- Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serving
- Calories: 732
- Sugar: 4.3g
- Sodium: 583mg
- Fat: 52g
- Saturated Fat: 21g
- Unsaturated Fat: 27g
- Trans Fat: 0.8g
- Carbohydrates: 37g
- Fiber: 2.3g
- Protein: 29g
- Cholesterol: 186mg
Great recipe! My 12 year old made it for lunch, it was great!
That’s awesome that your 12 year old made it! Yay for teaching kiddos to cook!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
Hey thanks Kirsty! Hope you love it too!
Just came across this on Pinterest! Love the recipe and your branding! Will let you know how it turns out!
Thank you Ally!
This recipe looks amazing. Do you think it would come out the same if it is assembled and placed in the fridge for a few hours before baking? I love to put together meals that the hubby can throw into the oven while I’m at work. Thanks!!
Yes, I’ve made it ahead before. Just add a little to the baking time to account for it going into the oven cold. Hope you love it!
Hi Julie,
I already have chicken bouillon on hand. Can I use this for the recipe or do I need the “Better Than Bouillon” chicken base that you list?
Hi Lisa, the Better than Bouillon is more like a paste that you don’t have to dissolve like a cube of bouillon. I prefer the flavor, but if you don’t want to buy it I think you could just dissolve the cube in a small amount of boiling water (maybe 1/4 cup) and add that in it’s place. Let me know how that works for you if you try it. Thanks for your question!
I made this for dinner tonight and used 1/4 cup boiling water and 1 tsp. Chicken bouillon granules and it worked just fine. Thank you for the suggestion. The pot pie was delicious! My family thoroughly enjoyed it. Comfort food at its finest!
Wonderful! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out.
Perfect…I’m a terrible cook and my family said it was the best think I’ve ever made…there’s hope for me after all! Thank you so much!
Anne, you are very welcome, but I don’t believe you are a terrible cook for a second! I’m so glad your family loved it!
Any tips on the weaving of the pastry puff? I’m a little intimidated but will try it tonight.
Hi Kristin, it looks difficult but isn’t too bad. Here’s a little tutorial I found. Hope this helps! http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-lattice-pie-crust-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-191672
Awesome —- I can do this!!!!!
Yes you can! Hope you love it!
Looks fabulous. Quick question I want to make for a friend who has is very ill, as part of the “take them a meal” not sure if I should bake it, then take or let them bake it. Could be up 48 hours later. Would the pastry hold up that long? If I bake, how do you think the pastry will reheat?
Hi Patti, I love that you are caring for your friend in this way. I’ve never tried making it ahead and keeping it in the fridge for more than 6 hours, but I don’t see why you couldn’t keep it in the fridge unbaked a little longer. I think if you baked the pot pie and then tried to reheat, the crust might tend to be soggy. Hope this is helpful for you. Thank you for your question.
can you use chicken broth instead?
Amber, I’m assuming you are talking about substituting chicken broth for the Better Than Bullion chicken base? You could do this, but you would have to rework the recipe because adding more liquid would make the sauce too thin. Hope this helps!
Love Better than Boullion…used for a few yrs now.
They now have a lower sodium version.
Trying this recipie with turkey….adding some broccoli to it…
We’ll see…
Sounds like a good plan Michelle!
hi! would it be okay in an 8×8 baking dish? any tweaks i need to make? thank you!
Hi Julianne, I think that will be fine. It just might be a little full in the pan, so maybe put a baking sheet under it while it cooks to make sure to catch anything that bubbles over.
This was delicious! I made it exactly to the recipe and will be making this again very soon. It is now my go to CPP recipe! Thank you!!
I’m so glad Dede! You are very welcome.
I made it again tonight! This time with potatoes instead of peas and I had 2 chicken breasts so I roasted those and used it up for the CPP. Again, amazing and my little pea haters ate it up!
Hi Julie! This looks mighty yummy!! I love chicken pot pie, but haven’t been able to find a recipe I really like. So tonight for dinner I’m gonna give yours a try! I myself had wondered what “Better Than Bullion” is. I had decided to just use chicken bullion instead after searching and searching for the “Better Than Bullion” and not being able to find it. And then yesterday I was at the store and was looking at soups because my 4 yr old is sick. I just happen to look up and booyah! There it was staring at me in its pretty little gold jar! “Better Than Bullion”!! lol!
So anyway, I do have a question. I like my chicken pot pie with crust on the bottom. Do you think it would be okay to put one of the puff pastries on the bottom of the baking dish before I add the cooked ingredients? Please let me know what you suggest! Thanks so much!
Glad you found the Better Than Bullion. It’s very handy to have in the fridge when you need it. I think you could try a puff pastry sheet on the bottom, but I’m wondering if it will cook through, or be a little soggy? Let me know if you try it because if it works it’d be delicious!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Loved the Better Than Bullion it is very tasty! Yum. I had never heard of it before and was worried I wouldn’t be able to find it, but there it was with all of the Thanksgiving items they put out in the front of the grocery store. Just staring at me. I didn’t have a 9×9 pan so I used a 8×8 and it worked out just fine! I will be making this again soon! Thank you for the recipe!
Yay! So glad to hear you liked it.
Do you beat the egg before rubbing it on the pastry or is it just the egg whites? Thanks
Yes, you need to beat the egg before brushing it on. I will add that to the instructions. Thanks and hope you love it!
Hi- Just made this and it is very tasty. However, the cream sauce curdled after I baked it and it became a little runny. Any suggestions on what happened?
So strange that the sauce did that, I’m really not sure why. Glad it tasted good anyway!
Mine also curdled. Tasted great, but looked yucky.
I wonder if you might avoid curdling by reheating the mixture again on the stove top after adding the veggies in before putting it the pan. I used to sometimes have curdling sauce with homemade scalloped potatoes until I started doing this with the potatoes. High heat can also cause cream sauces to separate, but you need the high temp for the puff pastry. I hope my trick does the trick.
Sorry, let me clarify that after rereading the directions…I should have said after adding the last ingredients to the sauce (peas and chicken), I would bring the sauce back up to temp and then put everything in the baking dish.
Like many I found this on pinterest and am planning on making it tomorrow – thanks so much. Yet another question about making it ahead of time – did you brush the egg on the crust in advance as well? I would like to assemble this all in the morning and put it in the oven right when I get home, but I am wondering if it would be too soggy. Thank you!
I believe I did brush the egg on ahead of time. I have made it a few hours in advance and it was not soggy. But you could save this step for the very end just to be on the safe side. The most time consuming part is weaving the lattice crust. Hope you enjoy!
I’m making this for thanksgiving leftovers, could I use turkey instead of chicken? Would that still work with the bouillon?
Oh yes, that will be delicious! Great idea Heather!
I’m dying to make this! But could you add potatoes?
Diced potatoes should be just fine! Enjoy
I made this with baby gold potatoes cooked in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, then diced. Added them in the pot with the chicken and peas. I also subbed light cream for heavy cream. It was perfect!
Love that you added potatoes. I’ll have to try that next time.
How many potatoes did you use? I love the idea of adding potatoes!
That base contains MSG. Look up all the names that product people use to avoid labeling something as having MSG. It tastes delicious because of the MSG.
Did anyone try putting a crust on the bottom?
Hi Briana, Not sure if anyone has tried this with a crust on the bottom.