Chicken Pot Pie

This Chicken Pot Pie with its creamy chicken and vegetable filling and delicious buttery pastry is a real family favourite and perfect for a comforting family dinner.

This Chicken Pot Pie was my dad's famous dish - we call it "Dad's Chicken Pie". Whenever we visited him, this is what we requested that he make for us. Everybody loved it!

I never made it myself until he passed away, but now I make it every year on his birthday in his memory. It's also a popular dish in our house for Father's Day as my husband loves it too.

It has a creamy, comforting filling and an amazing buttery flaky pastry that takes it to the next level.

You COULD use shop-bought pastry. BUT I urge you to try this homemade pastry at least once, as I believe it is what makes this pie so special.

It is a bit of a labour of love, as it takes a while to make. But I think you will agree with me that it is worth it.

Ingredients

This recipe uses the following ingredients. Exact quantities can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

For the Filing:

• Whole Chicken - Using a whole chicken gives you all the variety of the chicken and is also very cost effective. You could also use chicken pieces. Make sure they are on the bone, as this will help give extra flavour to the broth. You can also use the bones to make an additional chicken bone broth afterwards.
• Onion
• Carrot
• Parsley
• Bay Leaf
• Peppercorns
• Peas
• Flour
• Butter
• Cream - Any cream is fine. I usually just use single or cooking cream.

For the Pastry (can substitute with store-bought shortcrust or puff pastry)

• Flour
• Butter - weigh this out, wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes before making the pastry.
• Water - measure this out and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes before making the pastry.
• Egg - for brushing on the pastry

How to make Chicken Pot Pie

There are several steps to making this chicken pie:

1. Poach the Chicken
2. Make the Pastry
3. Use the poached chicken to make the filling
4. Assemble the pie
5. Bake

Full instructions with exact steps can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Step 1: Poach the chicken

To poach the chicken you are going to need a large stock pot, big enough to fit an entire chicken.

Then you just pop it in the pot with the sliced onion and carrot, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns. Fill it up with water, bring to a simmer and then leave it to bubble away gently for around an hour.

You may need to turn the chicken over occasionally if it is poking out the top of the water.

Once done, remove the chicken from the pot to cool, strain off the vegetables and set aside, and reserve the stock for later.

Step 2: Make the Pastry

This pastry is rich and buttery and flaky and delicious! Don't be scared by making your own pastry - it's really not that difficult and the taste is so much better than store-bought pastry.

Important Preparation: Before you start - weigh out the butter, wrap it in foil and pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up. This will make it easier to grate. At the same time, measure out the water and put it in the fridge to chill.

First, sieve the flour. Then grate the chilled butter onto the flour - I just use a box grater for this. Then use a spoon or palate knife to stir the butter into the flour.

Once it is mixed in, it should almost resemble breadcrumbs. Next add the water slowly, using the palate knife to mix it. Finally, use your hands to bring it all together.

Now shape it into a flat square and put it into a ziploc bag or wrap in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge until needed.

Tip: This all needs to be done quickly so that the butter stays chilled.

Step 3: Make the Filling

Once the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Chop the chicken into small pieces and place in a bowl. Chop the vegetables and add to the chicken.

Now bring the stock back to the boil and let it bubble for 10-15 minutes to reduce it. Add the peas to the stock and let them cook for 2-3 minutes then use a slotted spoon to remove them from the stock and add to the chicken and vegetables.

Pour out 300ml (½ pint) of the stock and into a jug and set aside.

To make the creamy sauce, first melt the butter in a saucepan. Then stir in the flour and finally stir in the stock. Season it well and then stir in the cream.

Tip: I find a whisk easiest for getting a creamy, non-lumpy sauce.

Now you just need to pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables, mix well and put the filling into a pie dish.

Step 4: Assemble the Pie

Take the pastry from the fridge and use a rolling pin to roll it out on a floured surface. You want it to be just larger than the pie dish.

Tip: If you have a pie funnel and a shallow pie dish like mine in these pictures, place the pie funnel in the middle of the pie before placing the pastry on top. I use an upside-down egg cup! This just prevents the pastry from getting soggy on top of the pie filling.

Place the pastry on top of the pie and press it onto the edges of the dish. Whisk up the egg and use a pastry brush to brush over the surface of the whole pie.

Step 5: Bake the Pie

Now you just need to bake it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

What to Serve with Chicken Pot Pie

Thanks to that buttery pastry and creamy filling, this chicken pie is quite rich and so we usually just serve it with a simple side dish of steamed broccoli.

You could add some mashed potato too, but we usually find this to be too much.

Looking for more family dinner ideas?

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