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This chicken pot pie is everything you love about the classic, a creamy chicken and vegetable filling under a flaky, golden crust, made as cozy individual pies. I make them on chilly fall Sundays when the family wants real comfort food, and they turn out beautifully every time, so if you adore our chicken pot pie soup this is the bake-and-dig-in version.
The cream cheese crust comes together by hand in minutes, and you can make two personal pies or one big 9-inch family pie with the same filling.
Chicken Pot Pie Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 30 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 2 hours
- ⏳ Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 2 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 1323kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Rich, creamy, and savory with tender chicken and a buttery flaky crust
- ✋ Difficulty: Moderate, a fun weekend cook like our slow cooker lemon chicken thighs
Quick Answer
Poach a chicken breast in stock, then shred it. Saute onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in butter, stir in flour, and slowly add milk and stock to make a creamy sauce. Fold in the chicken and peas, divide into baking dishes, top with a flaky cream cheese crust, and bake until golden. This chicken pot pie can be made as individual pies or one large 9-inch pie.
Jump to:
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Poaching the chicken makes built-in broth. Simmering the chicken in stock with bay leaves gives you tender, flavorful meat and a rich cooking liquid that becomes the base of the creamy sauce.
- A real roux means a velvety filling. Cooking flour into the butter and vegetables before adding liquid creates a smooth, thick gravy that never tastes pasty or runny.
- The cream cheese crust is foolproof. You mix it by hand in one bowl, no food processor needed, and the cream cheese makes it extra tender and flaky with rich flavor.
- Individual pies mean crust in every bite. Baking in personal dishes gives everyone their own golden top crust, though the same filling makes one beautiful 9-inch family pie too.
- It is pure make-ahead comfort. The filling and dough can both be made ahead, so you can assemble and bake whenever you are ready for a cozy dinner.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It is the ultimate cozy comfort food, a creamy chicken and vegetable filling tucked under a flaky, golden crust.
- You can make two adorable individual pies or one big family-sized pie with the very same filling.
- It reheats and freezes beautifully, so it is the perfect make-ahead dinner to serve with our creamy mashed potatoes.
Key Ingredients
Simple, comforting ingredients come together into a pot pie that tastes like it took all day.
- Chicken: A bone-in split breast poached in stock gives the most flavor, but you can use shredded rotisserie chicken to save time.
- Butter, Flour, Milk, and Stock: The four building blocks of the creamy sauce. The flour and butter make a roux that thickens the milk and stock into a velvety gravy.
- Onion, Carrot, Celery, and Peas: The classic pot pie vegetables for sweetness, color, and that nostalgic flavor.
- Cream Cheese and Cold Butter: The secret to the crust. Cold fat keeps it flaky, and cream cheese makes it tender and rich.
- Fresh Thyme and Bay Leaves: A little fresh herb goes a long way in making the filling taste deep and savory.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
This chicken pot pie is easy to adapt to what you have on hand.
- Make one big pie: Use a 9-inch pie dish or deep skillet instead of two ramekins, and top with one large crust. Add a few minutes to the bake time.
- Use rotisserie chicken: Skip the poaching step and stir in shredded rotisserie chicken with a cup of good chicken stock.
- Add more veggies: Mushrooms, corn, green beans, or diced potato all make great additions to the filling.
- Shortcut the crust: In a pinch, store-bought pie crust, puff pastry, or even biscuit dough works on top.
- Turn it into soup: Love this filling? Try our cozy chicken pot pie soup for a spoonable version.
How to Make Chicken Pot Pie
- Place the chicken, stock, and bay leaves in a pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Remove the chicken and let it cool.
- Strain and reserve the cooking liquid. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and dice the meat into chunks.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the butter in the same pot, add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and thyme, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the flour, then slowly add the milk, reserved cooking liquid, salt, and pepper. Let it bubble until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes, then fold in the chicken and peas.
- Divide the filling between two oven-safe baking dishes, or pour it all into one 9-inch dish.
- For the crust, mix the flour, salt, cold butter, and cream cheese in a bowl, rolling between your fingers until crumbly but combined. Press into a ball.
- Roll the dough out a little larger than your dishes, drape over each pie, trim the excess, and cut a small hole in the top for steam to escape.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Let cool a few minutes before serving.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Poach the chicken ahead to break up the work. The meat and broth keep beautifully in the fridge for a day or two.
- Keep the crust ingredients cold so the butter and cream cheese stay firm. Cold fat is what gives you flaky layers.
- Do not skip the steam hole in the top crust. It lets steam escape so the crust crisps instead of going soggy.
- Let the filling thicken fully before assembling. A runny filling will not set up nicely under the crust.
- Place the dishes on a baking sheet to catch any bubbling-over filling and make them easy to move in and out of the oven.
- Rest before digging in. Give the pies a few minutes out of the oven so the molten filling settles and you do not burn your tongue.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
A chicken pot pie is a full meal in one dish, but it is even cozier with a simple side. We love it with a scoop of creamy mashed potatoes or a crisp green salad to balance the richness.
For a comfort food spread, add some warm bread or our baked ham and cheese sliders on the side. It is the kind of dinner that makes a chilly night feel special.
Got leftover cooked chicken from another night? This is a brilliant way to use it up, the same way we stretch a rotisserie bird into our best chicken salad.
Chicken Pot Pie FAQs
Yes. You can make the filling up to 2 days ahead and store it covered in the fridge, and the crust dough can be made a day ahead too. Assemble and bake when ready, adding a few minutes to the bake time if the filling is cold. You can also fully bake, refrigerate, and reheat in a 350 degree oven.
Chicken pot pie freezes very well. Assemble the pies unbaked, wrap tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at 375 degrees, adding 15 to 20 extra minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Baked pies can also be frozen and reheated.
Use the same filling and pour it all into a 9-inch pie dish or deep oven-safe skillet. Roll the crust large enough to cover the top, crimp the edges, cut a steam vent, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden. The filling makes enough for one generous family-sized pie.
This recipe uses a tender, flaky homemade cream cheese crust that mixes by hand in minutes. If you are short on time, store-bought pie crust, puff pastry, or biscuit dough all make excellent shortcuts for the top of a chicken pot pie.
A runny filling usually means the sauce was not thickened enough before baking. Be sure to cook the flour and butter into a roux and let the milk and stock bubble until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. If it is still thin, simmer a few extra minutes before assembling.
Absolutely. Rotisserie chicken is a great shortcut. Skip the poaching step, shred about 2 cups of cooked chicken, and use a cup of good store-bought chicken stock in place of the homemade poaching liquid. The rest of the recipe stays the same.
Craving that pot pie flavor in a bowl? Try our cozy chicken pot pie soup next.
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
For The Filling
- 1 split chicken breast
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
- 1/4 cup small diced white onion
- 1/4 cup small diced carrot
- 1/4 cup small diced celery
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 cracks fresh black pepper
- 1/2 cup peas fresh or frozen
For the crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 4 ounces cold cream cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Instructions
For the filling
- Place the chicken, stock, and bay leaves into a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Remove chicken from the pot and let cool to the touch.
- Strain cooking liquid, discard any strained bits, and set aside. Remove skin and bones from chicken and dice into medium-sized chunks, set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in the same pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and thyme. Stir to coat in the butter, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
- Add the flour to the pan and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium and slowly add in the milk, 1/2 cup of the reserved chicken cooking liquid, and the salt and pepper. Stir and let bubble until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Add the diced chicken back to the pan with the peas. Coat everything in the sauce.
- Divide filling equally between two 4×2 inch oven-safe dishes. Set aside.
For the Crust
- Place all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Roll everything between your fingers until the mixture is crumbly yet combined. This will take a few minutes.
- Turn dough out onto a flour work surface, press dough into a ball. Divide into two pieces. Roll out each piece with a rolling pin a little larger than 4 inches in diameter and about 1/4 inch thick. Drape each piece over each baking dish, using a knife cut off any excess. Make a small hole in the top of the crust so the steam can escape.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
Notes
- To make a larger, family-style chicken pot pie double the ingredients in the filling, pour into a 9×2 inch baking dish. The crust recipe will be the same, except just roll out the whole dough into a large circle, 1/4 inch thick. Cover the entire pie with the crust and cut off any excess. Make a hole in the middle for the steam to escape. Bake per directions, if the crust is not browned to your liking, cook longer.
- This can be frozen, see my storage tips above
- You can make this into a larger pie, also see above on how to do that.
- You can use any vegetables that you like!
- You can use two chicken thighs if you do not have chicken breasts
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
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You pie looks absolutely delicious, my family would love it I’m sure! Thank you for linking to my recipe:-)
I will definitely make this. I am going to use glass mini pie plates. Not sure how many it will fill. I am guessing 3.
I love how easy the crust is!!! And I bet that cream cheese makes it lovely and short!
Such a great comforting dish!
These are so cute and hearty. I love serving single serving meals and desserts, so this is right up my alley.