This easy chicken pot pie recipe is field‑friendly, freezer‑ready, and full of flavor. Learn tips for flaky crusts, make‑ahead steps & more.
Ingredients
Method
Crust
- Whisk flour and salt togther
- Add COLD butter and lard cubes to the flour/salt mixture
- Use a pastry cutter to blend the fat into the flour until it resembles course pea-sized crumbs
- Begin adding ice water slowly (start with 4 TB) and mix gently with a spatula
- Add ice water in 1-2 TB incerments and mix until the dough comes together in a mostly solid mass
- Use your hands to form the dough into 2 small discs
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling out
Filling
- Prepare your cooked chicken. Whether it's cooked chicken breasts, rotisserie chicken, etc. You need 10 cups of cooked chicken, set aside.
- Chop your veggies however hearty you want them to be
- Melt butter in a LARGE pot (if you're making the full batch) or split the batch in half to use smaller pots
- Sauté onions, carrots, and celery in the butter
- Sprinkle on flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and thyme. Mix it into the veggies
- Slowly pour in the broth and stir constantly
- Add in the whole milk, keep stirring as the filling thickens
- Stir in the cooked chicken and frozen vegetables
- Turn off heat and allow filling to cool
Assembling the Pies:
- My filling recipe will fill 4-5 9" disposable pie plates. When I'm freezing a big batch like this, I typically only put a top crust on the pie rather than having both a top and bottom. I think the crust-to-pie ratio is good and it can get too crusty with a double crust in these smaller tins. If you have a very deep pie plate, a top and bottom crust make more sense
- Spray the tin pie plates with avocado oil or another nonstick cooking spray. Fill with the desired amount of filling
- Roll out the pie crust enough to cover the pie. Pinch the pie crust to secure it.
Baking
- Cut a slit in the top of the pie crust
- Brush with an egg wash and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-45 minutes or until the top is crispy golden brown.
- Let cool slightly before cutting and serving
To Freeze
- Cover the unbaked, assembled pot pies with one layer of plastic wrap, then top with a layer of tinfoil. Store in freezer up to 3 months.
Baking after Freezing
- Thaw pot pie as much as you can
- Uncover and brust with egg wash
- Cut slit in the middle
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-45 minutes or until top is golden brown and bubbly. I use a meat thermometer to make sure it's hot enough in the center as well, at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit