Easy chicken pot pie

One crust, on top

The crust is where most of a chicken pot pie's calories are. A single refrigerated crust for a 9-inch pie has about 880 kcal, so a pie with a bottom crust as well as a top doubles that, and adds about 150 kcal to each serving. The bottom crust also rarely bakes crisp: it sits under a wet filling and turns pale and doughy. A top crust only is lighter, and the part of the crust you actually want, crisp and golden, is all still there.

The filling is a quick velouté: butter and flour cooked together, then broth and milk whisked in. It should be about as thick as gravy before it goes into the dish, because the frozen peas and the chicken cool it and nothing thickens it further in the oven. Too thin, and it runs across the plate when you cut it.

Rotisserie chicken or raw

One store-bought rotisserie chicken gives about 3 to 4 cups of shredded meat once the skin and bones are off, which is exactly what this pot pie needs. It makes the recipe quick: the only cooking is the vegetables and the sauce. Rotisserie chickens are usually brined and seasoned, so taste the filling before adding all the salt. Leftover roast chicken or turkey works the same way.

To start from raw chicken, simmer 1 1/2 lb of boneless thighs or breasts in the 2 cups of broth for 15 to 20 minutes, until they reach 165°F. Shred the chicken and use that broth for the sauce.

Pie crust for chicken pot pie

A store-bought crust is fine here. For a homemade one, whisk 1 1/4 cups (160 g) all-purpose flour with 1/2 tsp salt. Cut in 1/2 cup (113 g) cold butter in small cubes, with a pastry cutter or your fingertips, until the largest pieces are the size of peas. Sprinkle in 3 to 5 tbsp of ice water, a tablespoon at a time, and toss until the dough just holds together when squeezed. Press it into a disk, wrap it and refrigerate it for at least an hour. Roll it out about 1/8 inch thick and a little wider than your dish. The pieces of cold butter are what make it flaky, so keep everything cold and handle it as little as you can.

Chicken pot pie with puff pastry

Replace the pie crust with one sheet of thawed frozen puff pastry, rolled out slightly to fit over the dish. Brush it with the egg, cut slits in it and bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes, until it has puffed and is deep brown. Puff pastry is taller and flakier than a pie crust, and a little richer: a standard supermarket sheet adds about 25 kcal a serving.

Chicken pot pie with biscuits

Instead of a crust, cover the filling with 8 refrigerated biscuits, or homemade ones, set close together. Pour the filling into the dish while it is still hot, so the bottoms of the biscuits cook through, and bake at 375°F for 18 to 22 minutes, until the biscuits are golden and cooked inside. A cold filling leaves the bottoms of the biscuits raw. Most refrigerated biscuits come in at 150 to 190 kcal each, so biscuits add about 55 to 105 kcal a serving over the single crust.

Chicken pot pie casserole

For a crowd, make 1 1/2 times the filling and bake it in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, with two crusts laid side by side and overlapping slightly in the middle, a sheet of puff pastry, or 12 to 16 biscuits. Bake it as for the pie, adding 5 to 10 minutes. It serves 10 to 12.

Crock pot chicken pot pie

A slow cooker cannot bake a crust, so the crust is baked separately. Put 1 1/2 lb raw boneless chicken thighs, the vegetables (without the peas), 1 1/2 cups of broth, the thyme, salt and pepper in a 6-quart slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3. Shred the chicken in the pot. Whisk 3 tbsp cornstarch into the cup of cold milk, stir it in with the peas, and cook on high with the lid on for 20 minutes more, until thick. Bake refrigerated biscuits, or a crust cut in squares on a baking sheet, and serve them on top of each bowl.

Chicken pot pie soup

For the same flavor as a soup, double the broth, leave out half the flour, and simmer everything in the pot. Serve it with a biscuit, or with squares of pie crust baked on a sheet as described above, on top. It has the creamy filling and the crust, without assembling or baking a pie. For a broth-based soup with the same chicken and vegetables, see our chicken noodle soup.

Turkey pot pie

This is the best use of leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Use 3 cups of shredded turkey, dark and light meat together, in place of the chicken. If you have leftover turkey gravy, use 1 1/2 cups of it in place of 1 cup of the broth and half the flour, and you skip most of the sauce-making. Leftover roasted vegetables can go in with the carrots, and fresh herbs left over from roasting the bird can replace the dried thyme. The nutrition is almost the same as with chicken.

Gluten-free and dairy-free

• Gluten-free. Thicken the filling with a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour, or with 3 tbsp cornstarch whisked into the cold milk and added after the broth. Use a gluten-free crust; several brands sell them frozen.
• Dairy-free. Use olive oil or a plant-based butter for the sauce and unsweetened oat or soy milk in place of the milk; oat milk gives the creamiest result. Many store-bought pie crusts and puff pastry are made with vegetable fat or lard rather than butter; check the label. Brush the crust with plain oat milk instead of the egg for a fully dairy-free and egg-free top.

Keeping it

Baked pot pie keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Reheat it at 350°F, covered with foil, for 25 to 35 minutes (single slices about 15), then uncover it for the last 5 to 10 minutes so the crust crisps again; the filling should be hot in the middle, 165°F. To freeze one, cool the filling completely in the fridge before topping it with the crust, and use a metal or foil pan, or a dish marked freezer-to-oven safe. Wrap it well and freeze it for up to 3 months. Brush it with the egg and bake it from frozen at 375°F, covered with foil for the first 30 minutes, for 60 to 75 minutes in all, until the filling bubbles in the middle and reads 165°F.

What it is worth nutritionally

A sixth of the pie has about 410 kcal, with 25 g of protein, 20 g of fat and 31 g of carbohydrate. For a healthier chicken pot pie still, double the vegetables, adding mushrooms, green beans or corn, use 4 cups of chicken, and bake it in a 9 by 13-inch dish cut into 8 servings: each one has less crust and more vegetables, at about 355 kcal. For a lighter bowl with the same Thanksgiving leftovers, our white chicken chili takes shredded turkey just as well.