Chicken Pot Pie
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Take your comfort food to the next level with individual chicken pot pies. Made with rotisserie chicken and store-bought puff pastry, they’re as simple to make as they are delicious.
There’s something so comforting about chicken pot pie—the flaky crust, creamy sauce, and hearty filling make it the perfect all-in-one meal. But between the chicken, the sauce, and the crust, a traditional chicken pot pie recipe can easily take up an entire day in the kitchen! For this version, I’ve streamlined the process without sacrificing flavor. Rotisserie chicken for the filling and good-quality store-bought puff pastry for the crust are game-changing shortcuts. I also tackled the usual problem with chicken pot pies: the bland, goopy white sauce. Thinning the sauce to a chowder-like consistency and adding a splash of Cognac bring these pot pies to the next level.
“Made this over the weekend and the family said it’s one of the best things I’ve ever made!”
What You’ll Need To Make Chicken Pot Pie
- Frozen puff pastry: Provides the flaky, buttery topping. I recommend Dufour all-butter puff pastry if you can find it (it’s sold at Whole Foods), but Pepperidge Farm, which is readily available in the freezer section of most supermarkets, is very good too.
- Butter: For sautéing the vegetables and enriching the filling.
- Onion and garlic: These aromatics form the flavor foundation for the filling.
- Celery, pearl onions, carrots, and peas: These vegetables add texture, flavor, and nutrition to the filling.
- All-purpose flour: Thickens the sauce; also used for rolling the pastry.
- Chicken broth: Creates the savory base of the filling.
- Cognac: Enhances depth of flavor.
- Heavy cream: Contributes to the creamy texture of the filling.
- Fresh thyme: Provides aromatic herbal notes.
- Shredded cooked chicken: The main protein component; feel free to use leftover or rotisserie chicken.
- Egg: Beaten for an egg wash to give the pastry a golden finish.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
To begin, dust a clean, dry work surface with flour and place the puff pastry over top.
Sprinkle the pastry with flour and roll to about 1/8-inch thick, smoothing the creases with the rolling pin at the same time. Using a sharp knife, kitchen shears, or a pizza cutter, cut out 4 circles about 2 inches larger than the circumference of your soup bowls. Place the dough rounds on a foil-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use.
Next, make the filling. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter, Add the yellow onion, garlic, celery, pearl onions, and carrots.
Sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the carrots are just cooked.
Add the flour.
Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes.
Add the broth, cognac, salt, and white pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to incorporate the flour.
Simmer until thickened, a few minutes. Off the heat, stir in the heavy cream, herbs, chicken, and frozen peas.
Ladle the filling into oven-safe ramekins or soup bowls (be sure they are oven proof up to 425°F). The filling should come up no more than three-quarters of the way to the top of the bowls. If you have extra, make another bowl.
Brush the outside edges of each bowl with an egg wash.
Place the cold dough rounds over the soup bowls, pressing firmly around the edges so that the dough adheres, and then brush the top of the dough with the egg wash. Using a sharp knife, make a ½-inch slit in the top of each pie. At this point, the assembled pot pies can be refrigerated for up to 1 day or frozen for longer storage.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry is a rich golden brown. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer the hot ramekins to serving plates. Sprinkle a few fresh thyme sprigs over top of the bowls and serve.
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Video Tutorial
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 packages frozen puff pastry, best quality such as Dufour or Pepperidge Farm, thawed (see note)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1 cup frozen pearl onions (no need to defrost)
- 3 carrots, sliced into ¼-in (6-mm) rounds
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the pastry
- 2½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
- ¼ cup Cognac or brandy (okay to replace with more chicken broth if avoiding alcohol)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or a combination of thyme, rosemary and sage), plus a few thyme sprigs for serving
- 3 to 4 cups shredded cooked chicken, from 1 rotisserie chicken
- 1 cup frozen peas (no need to defrost)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
- Dust a clean, dry work surface with flour and place the puff pastry over top. Sprinkle the pastry with flour and roll to about ⅛-in (3-mm) thick, smoothing the creases with the rolling pin at the same time. (Depending on the brand of puff pastry you buy, you may not need to roll it out that much.) Using a sharp knife, kitchen shears, or a pizza cutter, cut out 4 circles about 2 in (5 cm) larger than the diameter of your soup bowls. (Alternatively, cut out 6 circles if making smaller portions.) Place the dough rounds on the foil-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and set an oven rack to the center position.
- To make the filling: In a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the yellow onion, garlic, celery, pearl onions, and carrots. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are just cooked, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Add the broth, cognac, salt, and white pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon and scraping the bottom and corners of the pan to incorporate the flour. Simmer until thickened, a few minutes. Off the heat, stir in the heavy cream, thyme, chicken, and peas. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. (Note that the broth will taste a little boozy at this point. That's okay - the cognac will cook off in the oven.)
- Ladle the filling into 4 large or 6 small oven-safe soup bowls. The filling should come up no more than three-quarters of the way to the top of the bowls. Do not overfill.
- Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Remove the pastry rounds from the refrigerator. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash.
- Place the cold dough rounds over the bowls, pressing firmly around the edges so that the dough adheres. Transfer the bowls to the foil-lined baking sheet. Brush the dough with the egg wash. Using a sharp knife, make a ½-in (13-mm) slit in the top of each pie. Place the bowls on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry is a rich golden brown. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then use a wide spatula to carefully transfer the hot bowls to serving plates. Sprinkle a few fresh thyme sprigs over top of the bowls and serve.
Notes
- For this recipe, you'll need 4 to 6 oven-safe (to 425°F/220°C) soup bowls. For larger portions, use bowls with an 18 to 20-oz (532 to 590-ml) capacity; for smaller portions, use bowls with a 12 to 14-oz (355 to 415-ml) capacity.
- If making 4 servings, one (14-oz/397-g) package of puff pastry will suffice. However, if making 6 servings, you'll need another package.
- Nutritional information calculated using 1 package of puff pastry and 3½ cups (455 g) of chicken.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: The pies may be assembled and refrigerated up to a day ahead of time. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash before baking.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Jenn-
The chicken pot pies were fabulous!!! My husband said he’ll never be able to eat Stouffer’s again after tonight’s wonderful dinner – haha! I didn’t add the pearl onions or peas but instead used small frozen broccoli florets and some diced potatoes in addition to the celery, carrot and yellow onion. Thank you for another wonderful recipe:)
Hi Jenn,
I LOVE your chicken pot pie recipe, but I’d like to try and make a vegetarian version this time. Would you recommend keeping the recipe exactly the same and just omitting the chicken, or do you think substituting a white bean might work?
I love getting your emails and will be trying the cinnamon swirl apple bread this weekend as well!
I hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy!
Helene
Glad you like it! I’ve never tried this without chicken, but one reader commented that she made a vegetarian version using mushrooms. I think mushrooms are a good option to use in place of the chicken as they have that “meaty” texture. (She mentioned that she would decrease the cognac a little if she made it with mushrooms again.) I think that beans are worth a try as well. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Hi Jenn,
I made the vegetarian pot pie and I used mushrooms and cannellini beans in place of the chicken. It was satisfying and delicious! The only change I might make next time is to decrease both the cognac and the broth very slightly as it didn’t get quite as thick as I would have liked.
Thanks again for all your great recipes!
So glad it came out nicely — thanks for reporting back! 🙂
Hi Jenn, I do not drink cognac but have several recipes using it (including this one) that I would like to try. Can you recommend one that is good for cooking and not super expensive? Thanks so much!
Hi Sarah, I use Courvoisier brand and I think it’s pretty reasonably priced. Hope that helps!
This is one of my favorites ever and I make it fairly regularly for my family…this time however I am making it for 6 dinner guests. Due to current health and safety guidelines I thought it would be the perfect meal with individual servings, no need to serve ones self from a padded bowl or tray…I can place individual bowls directly from sheet plan to dinner plates. My question is this…..I don’t have 6 nice matching oven safe serving bowls (only four!) and would like to avoid buying six for this dinner. It might be tacky to bake them in aluminum tins…and would disposable aluminum tins even work for this? Would I need to adapt the recipe? Perhaps I just need to Just go ahead buy six matching bowls and make it look nice! I know it will taste divine…
Hi Roberta, so glad you like this! I think you could get away with using disposable aluminum pans with no adjustments. Hope everyone else likes them too! 🙂
Made this last night for a dinner party for 6– everyone was THRILLED!! Just the most savory, delightful filling ever! Thank you.. I’ve been your fan for years… ❤️ Jan Bunker
Jenn,
My son loves chicken pot pies. He is away at college and I would like to make pies to freeze and send back with him when he comes home to visit. Should the pies be baked first or just put together and then frozen. If baked first and then frozen, should they be thawed overnight in fridge or can they just be placed directly in the oven. Lastly, if frozen before baking what is the process for baking? Frozen, thawed first, etc. Sorry for so many questions.
Hi Hope, I’ve never frozen these baked or unbaked, so I can’t say from experience. One reader shared the following that you may find helpful: I baked the pot pies and after eating one, I froze the other 3 uncovered on a baking sheet. Once frozen, I covered them with heavy duty foil. Took one out of the freezer, defrosted it in the frig the day before cooking, uncovered it, turned the oven to 425 and put it in a cold oven on a foil-lined baking sheet. When the oven hit 425, baked it for 20 minutes. The pastry turned a beautiful mahogany and the pie was delicious! Hope that helps!
Thank you! I’ll give it a try.
Absolutely divine! Thank you for another fab recipe. I roasted a whole chicken with potatoes, carrots and onion. We didn’t end up eating much of it, wanted to turn it into a fab pot pie. This was it! I followed the recipe, minus fresh carrots. I made my roux with onion, celery, garlic added my liquid and then incorporated my leftover veg. Didn’t have cognac used Remy. Flavor is brilliant, used fresh thyme and some rosemary powder to kick it up a knotch. Only found compliments puff pastry. Not a fan, I will try homemade a better product next time. All in all… as usual OUAC hit it out of the park! Love your recipes, simple, easy to modify and make your own for your picky family! Thanks girl!!!
I made a second, as I work nights. Baked with pastry froze after cooling to room temp. Will post the outcome.
Best chicken pot pie. We have this regularly now with leftover chicken from smoked roast chicken. Only difference is using brandy instead of cognac, and making one large pie.
can you add pie dough to the bottom? Do you need to precook it? How is that done? Thank you
Hi Mary, If you want to add crust to the bottom, you should blind bake it according to the package instructions.
I made tonight exactly as described and it was delicious! Looking forward trying more of your recipes Jenn.
This is the best chicken pot pie we’ve ever tasted. Used brandy instead of cognac and smoked chicken breasts. Wonderful!
Hi Jenn
I cannot wait to try this out! Can I make it into one big pie and if so do i need just one pastry ? Thank you so much
Hi Melissa, I don’t recommend making one large version of this — the inside is soup-like so it would be very challenging to serve. Sorry!