The most perfect chicken pot pie recipe, made with lots of chicken and classic vegetables, all surrounded by a creamy sauce and baked under a towering puff pastry crust.
I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with this chicken pot pie recipe this much, but I did, and I genuinely cannot wait for you to try it. It hits all the classic flavors, calls for rotisserie chicken for ease, and skips the double crust for store-bought puff pastry, which means it’s 100% doable for you to make whenever you crave it.
Oh, and everything happens in one skillet, so you won’t even have that many dishes to clean when you are done.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: This recipe calls for cooked chicken. Rotisserie chicken is incredible, or you can use leftover roast chicken. This shredded chicken would be lovely, too.
- Vegetables: We keep things really classic for this recipe, using onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and frozen peas.
- Butter and Flour: You’ll cook the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the butter, then stir in flour to make a roux. This is what thickens the gravy.
- Stock and Milk: These combine to make our creamy gravy. The butter-and-flour roux helps thicken them. Use your favorite store-bought chicken broth or stock, or homemade chicken broth. The salt levels of broths and stocks vary, so be prepared to season a bit more generously as you cook through the recipe if you have a light- or low-sodium option. I love whole milk for the extra creaminess.
- Sage: Fresh chopped sage gives our sauce a cozy, classic flavor. If you don’t have fresh, you can use dried. We call for 1 tablespoon chopped in the recipe below, which means you’ll want to use 1 teaspoon dried sage.
- Crust: This pot pie is absolutely perfect with store-bought puff pastry. I love Dufour, but it’s not sold in all grocery stores, so use what you have available. If you do have access to Dufour puff pastry, it’s very much worth the extra cost! You can also use one sheet of homemade pie crust, but it will not turn out as puffed.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Our Favorite Chicken Pot Pie
Tip 1: Use a cast-iron skillet. To keep things easy, we make everything for this recipe in our 10-inch cast-iron skillet. You’ll sauté the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic first, make your roux with flour, build the sauce, and fold in the chicken and peas. Then, simply cover it all with a sheet of puff pastry before baking.
If you do not have a cast-iron skillet or yours isn’t the right size, you can make the filling, transfer it to a pie dish, top with the pastry, and then bake.
Tip 2: Make the gravy. All the flavors build for this creamy gravy. After cooking the veggies until soft and sweet, you can add the flour. This will mix with the butter to create your roux, a paste that will help thicken the broth and milk.
After adding the flour, move it around the pan and let it cook for a minute so any raw flour flavor cooks away. Then, pour in the broth slowly. It might look really thick at first, but it thins as you add more. Pour in the milk next and then simmer until reasonably thick. Finally, taste it and season well with salt and pepper. Remember that broths vary with how seasoned they are, so you may need more than you think. Add it slowly and taste each time. If the flavor doesn’t pop, add a bit more until it does.
Tip 3: Make the filling. You can dice or shred the chicken in this recipe. I prefer shredded and love how soft it turns out when added to the pie. Once shredded, carefully fold it into the gravy. The skillet will be at max capacity, so go slow. This is also a good time to add the peas.
Tip 4: Add the crust. This skillet pot pie is made extra easy thanks to store-bought puff pastry. You’ll need to roll the sheet out a little to fit the top (at least 11 inches square). Most puff pastry sheets are sold in rectangles, so you’ll have one longer end. I use the excess to build up the edges so they turn out as shown in our photos.
Tip 5: Add slits and an egg wash. As it bakes in the oven, the middle will get pretty steamy, so you need to add a few slits in the top of the crust to let the moisture escape. Then, before baking, brush over some beaten egg, which turns into that shiny, golden top you see in our photos.
More Classic Chicken Recipes
Easy Chicken Pot Pie
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This skillet chicken pot pie with puff pastry has quickly become one of our favorite chicken recipes on the blog. It’s full of classic ingredients and flavors, but skips the more finicky double crust and pie dish in favor of a cast-iron skillet and store-bought puff pastry. It’s stunning, absolutely delicious, and easy to make whenever you have a craving.
6 Servings
You Will Need
5 tablespoons butter (70g)
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped, about 1 cup chopped
1 large rib celery, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (48g)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or homemade broth (470ml)
1 cup whole milk (235ml)
1 tablespoon chopped sage or 1 teaspoon dried sage
2 cups frozen peas, no need to thaw (265g)
4 cups shredded or diced cooked or rotisserie chicken, 1 pound shredded (450g)
1 sheet store-bought puff pastry, thawed, see tips
1 egg, beaten
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Fine sea salt, to taste
Directions
1Prep: Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Set aside a large baking sheet.
2Cook veggies: In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring in the skillet, until they soften and take on a little color, about 6 minutes.
3Make the gravy: Sprinkle the flour evenly over the vegetables, then stir to form a roux. Cook for 1 minute, then slowly pour in the chicken broth, stirring to prevent lumps. Then stir in the milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer until they thicken into a gravy.
4Finish the filling: Add the sage, peas, and shredded chicken. Season with the pepper and a good pinch of salt. Taste, then adjust with more salt and pepper as needed (we use 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons of salt, but it depends on the broth/stock). Cook until the filling is simmering, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes while you prepare the pastry.
5Roll out the pastry: Lightly flour a workbench, then unfold the puff pastry. Roll out to a rectangle 11 inches long on both sides (store-bought sheets are usually rectangles, so one side will probably be longer).
6Add the pastry: Carefully lay the puff pastry over the skillet. Trim to an inch or so of the edge, then fold over the pastry to build up the sides. To achieve a thicker edge, cut the trimmed excess dough into strips and press them around the edges.Cut four 2-inch slits in the center of the pie to allow steam to escape, and then brush the top with the beaten egg.
7Bake: Place the baking sheet into the oven, and then place the skillet on top of it, so it catches any overflow. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, turning the skillet once halfway through baking. Look for a nicely golden brown, puffed crust on top. If the pastry starts to get too dark, too early, tent with foil.
8Serve: Remove from the oven, then allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Pie dish instead of skillet: If you do not have a 10-inch cast-iron pan, make the filling in a regular skillet, then transfer it to a deep pie dish or 9-inch baking dish before topping with the pastry and baking. Smaller cast-iron pans are not large enough for the filling.
- Puff pastry: Store-bought puff pastry is sold in the freezer section. The most common is Pepperidge Farm and Dufour. Both work well, but if you have the choice, I love Dufour. You will need to remove a sheet from the package and leave it overnight in the fridge so it thaws. Keep it in the fridge until the pot pie filling is ready, then remove it and roll it out so it fits onto the skillet. The shape will likely be a rectangle, leaving you with one longer end. Trim the excess, and then cut into strips to build up the edges to create an edge of thicker dough around the skillet.
- Storing: Leftover pot pie keeps in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. Note: Cooked chicken is best consumed within 4 days total. Be sure to count from when the chicken was first cooked (or bought), not just from when you baked the pie. Cover the skillet with foil or transfer portions to airtight containers.
- Reheating: To keep the crust crisp, reheat in a 350°F oven until heated through (about 20 minutes). If you are in a rush, try this hybrid method: Remove the crust and toast it in the oven (or toaster oven) until crisp. Meanwhile, warm the filling in the microwave. Pop the crust back on top to serve.
- Make-ahead: You can make the filling ahead of time! Let it cool, then refrigerate for up to 2 days (or freeze for up to 3 months). When you are ready to bake, transfer the filling to your dish, top with the crust, and bake. Note: If baking with cold filling, you may need to add a few extra minutes to the baking time.
- The nutrition facts provided are estimates.
Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1/6 of the pie
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Calories
591
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Total Fat
33.7g
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Saturated Fat
10.9g
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Cholesterol
99.5mg
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Sodium
583.7mg
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Carbohydrate
38.6g
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Dietary Fiber
4.2g
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Total Sugars
6.7g
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Protein
33.1g
We are Adam and Joanne Gallagher, the creators of Inspired Taste. Established in 2009, Inspired Taste grew from a childhood dream into one of the internet’s most trusted recipe sites with hundreds of reliable recipes, step-by-step videos, and expert tips.More About Us