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
Yummmm. I was looking for an easy and delicious recipe for tonight and I found it. This is awesome. I’m heading to the store right now to get the ingredients. This is a great fall dish to make at the beginning of the week and have it last for a few days so you don’t have to cook every night after a busy day. Love it! Thank you.
Enjoy!
I made it and it’s so so delicious!!
Jessica, awesome! So glad you liked it.
I’ve made it and all the family loved it will make again lovely
Thank you, Linda. I’m so glad your family enjoyed!
I know this is an old post (2013) but I had to come on here and tell you that I came across this recipe a few weeks ago and have been wanting to try it. Last night I finally got around to making this and O M G it was amazing. Now I meant to double the recipe because we wanted left overs but I forgot to double the liquid. 1/4 cup of carrots, celery, and onion didn’t seem like enough of veggies for this dish (when I was chopping and measuring it was not even an entire carrot and the celery was only ONE stalk) SO I used 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and half an onion. I also used almost the entire chicken (more than 2 cups). I cut up ALL the breast meat and leg meat – didn’t measure how much chicken that was but it was a lot. I did follow the other directions to a T for the sauce and thyme. I was worried that with out doubling the sauce mix, it would come out dry BUT it was PERFECT. I used a 9 x 13 pyrex dish and it all fit perfectly in there. The puff pastry was a bit challenging because it’s so tedious but it was gorgeous once it was all done. This is the best chicken pot pie recipe I have ever had and my family loved it. I brought the left overs to work and had all my coworkers taste it and they LOVED it too and asked for the recipe! Thank you for this! Next time I probably wont weave the puff pastry but I do love the flavors and flakiness of the pastry – absolutely divine!!!!!!!!!
Oh I also wanted to add that I used your advice and put the oven rack closer to the top so the puff pastry would cook nicely and it worked out wonderfully!
Thanks so much for your feedback Chanra. I’m so glad it worked out for you!
Just one more person dropping in to say that this is my favorite pot pie recipe! I’m usually indifferent to pot pie, but this recipe is amazing. Thanks for helping me and my family get through a dreary winter! 🙂
Can you use canned peas, I have some left over
I’m sure those will work just fine. Enjoy!
This is one very simple recipe that even a very tired mother like me could resort to. By the way, is there a substitute for eggs, my daughter is allergic to eggs but i just love this recipe.
I think if you leave the egg wash off it will still be fine! Just less shine 🙂
I’ve made this a few times now and it’s become a staple in our house! Such a great comfort food meal.
Question though: I’ve been having issues with the filling bubbling up over the puff pastry, so some areas of the pastry don’t puff up and instead seem to sink down into the filling, not a huge deal, but how do I prevent this from happening??
I made this last night for the first time and it was amazing! Only changes I made was I added garlic and mushroom when sautéing the onions. I didn’t do celery because I’m not really a fan. And when adding the chicken I also added diced potatoes and carrots I had boiled. Added some extra seasonings. My lattice actually came out perfect! I was shocked for the first time doing it. Such a good recipe. I will defiantly make this again!
I love that you made it your own Shawna. Sounds delicious! Glad your lattice turned out well!
Let me just start off by saying I have found a new chicken pot pie recipe. This was AMAZING!!! I didn’t put celery or peas in it because my husband is not a fan but instead used a can of diced potatoes. I also just bought a rotisserie chicken and used both breasts. The puff pastry is so much better than a pie crust. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to make this again.
Sounds good Diana! Glad you could make it to your family’s preferences. Thanks for letting me know!
We have a child with a life threatening egg allergy. Think it would suffer much if I skipped the egg wash?
It’ll still be delicious without the egg wash. Enjoy!
looks and sounds heavenly – very pretty lattice
Thank you- hope you get the chance to try it.
Best Pot Pie recipe! I tried it tonight and it was so yummy!
Thank you! So glad you loved it!
We love this recipe! I usually double it and put the second in the freezer (minus the puff pastry) so that there is an easy meal ready to go.
Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Love, Love this Pot Pie recipe. I’ve made it many times and the first time I had huge success with the puff pastry. Since then I’m not sure why I struggle with the puff pastry (maybe it gets too wet from the pot pie gravy?), but we haven’t enjoyed the top. Now I just use a crescent roll sheet and it still works out beautifully! Always get loads of compliments from this recipe! Oh and I add frozen corn to mine also!
I never leave comments, but I’ve been making this recipe once a month for the last year and we absolutely LOVE it. Comes out awesome everytime!!
Patty, thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy this Chicken Pot Pie!
Beautiful. Had not thought of puff pastry, I use cresent rolls, will have to try puff pastry. But I do add a can of small cut green beans, corn, small can of carrots, drained of course. And a can of cream style corn. Just for more vegetables. But yours looks good also. Thanks
Thank you Barb!
I will definitely try this recipe. But, I will make a drop biscuit instead of the pastry. It is so easy and inexpensive made from pantry ingredients almost everyone has on hand.
That sounds wonderful, Lisa. Thank you for trying it out!
Anyone know of this recipe can be frozen for later? Cook before freezing or not?
this looks wonderful!!! I am going to make this, this week……..I seen several comments about the PP being soggy, the last time I made a
CPP with PP, I cooked the PP on a separate cookie sheet and hen it was done I picked it up and placed it on top of my cooked CPP, worked great……hope this helps.
Great idea Kathi, thanks!
Can I use round pie pan instead of rectangular baking dish? How long do I have to cook for the temperature? And the time? Thank you and have great day
This is actually the BEST chicken pot pie I’ve ever eaten. I made some minor changes to fit my personal style/taste and it still turned out excellent.
My adjustments:
– shredded store bought lemon and fennel rotisserie chicken. I included pieces of skin for added flavor. Definitely helped add some more layers.
– added a TOUCH of cayenne pepper to give it a little kick, did not want it to be over powering. It was the perfect twist.
So excited to give it another shot now that I am more comfortable with the steps. Honestly, these instructions are down to a perfect science. It truly takes 5 minutes for that gravy to thicken up. It was so exciting watch it come together. My advice, don’t be afraid to break away and loosen up a little with your measurements. Taste as you go!!
Great feedback, thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve made this one twice now and my man and I absolutely love it! I like to double up on the veggies and include shiitake mushrooms as well. So tasty! Thank you for posting this one!!
Glad you guys love it!
I used my own turkey pot pie recipe but did use your method and cooking instructions for the puff pastry lattice top. Thank you. 🙂
I love this recipe! Is there nutritional information available? Thanks!
Great pot pie recipe, exceptional presentation and extremely easy to make.
Thank you so much, Patty!
Man I am beyond frustrated. The first time I made this recipe it was a hit with all of my family and myself. But the last two times I tried to make it the puff pastry wouldn’t cook all the way through and just the top would cook .. it was either burn the top for it all to cook or eat it with the dough not cooked all the way 😭. I don’t know what the heck is wrong but I am very upset. I was trying to redeem myself from last times failure and now I don’t even want to try it ever again.
I’ve had trouble with the puff pastry also and I just make the filling and serve it over some biscuits instead. It’s a hit!
The recipe was simple and the filling was delish! My issue was with baking it with the lattice puff pastry topping! The filling bubbled up covering the lattice topping and making it doughie and not very pretty like the photo. 🙁
I’m glad you like it! I have had the same issue with the puff pastry at times – and I’m wondering if it is when it has been in my freezer for a while and is closer to my expiration date. Or possibly if it was thawed and refrozen in the process of shipping it to the grocery store.
We actually use this recipe for the filling in our chicken pot pie calzones. (I say “our” but it’s all my husband’s creation.) It’s delicious! Today we have a friend with a dairy allergy coming over, so he swapped out the heavy cream and milk with Ripple and it worked out great!
Great idea. That sounds amazing!
I never leave comments, but Im making this recipe tonight. And just wanted you to know how much my whole family loves this recipe!!! Thank you for sharing. Tracey
So glad, thank you Tracey!
My store was totally out of puff pastry so I used a pie crust instead. It turned out great! Hubs said it was great about 5 times while we were eating.
I didn’t read the whole long comment list, but don’t think you suggested a substitute for Better Than Boullion. Can you just tell me how much water you would otherwise add if using 1 tsp., so I can work out the equivalent for the product I use here in Mexico?