I tried making them at home a couple of times and the results were - to put it politely - disappointing. The filling was too runny, the crust didn’t turn out right, and the flavor was bland.
Sometimes it’s just better to go with the mass produced version.
I’ve made it. It’s time consuming, but it turns out awesome if you use sauce Espagnole for the gravy.
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You use a brown sauce in a pot pie?
I know it’s the taste that matters.
I’m just accustomed to a white sauce.
Bisquick has an easy recipe. I’ve made it several times to rave reviews. Caveat…there is no bottom crust.
Not quite scratch but easy and delicious.
2 frozen pie shells thawed, 1 cup bechamel sauce, roughly 1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken (meat of your preference, white or dark, but we usually use whatever is leftover from the night before), 3/4 cup frozen mixed veggies, 2 tbsp fresh thyme, 1 tbsp fresh parsley, a pinch of chipotle or cayenne, and a dash of tarragon.
Make your bechamel, add all other ingredients to one of the pie shells, season with salt and pepper if desired and top the pie with the other shell, wash top with a bit of milk and into the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes. Watch the edges don’t burn,. We use a silicone pie coverto prevent this.
All these recipes sound tasty and relatively easy.
Pot pies were originally a creative way to use up leftover chicken and veggies.
I’ll pickup some Bisquick next time I’m at the store. I’ve used it before for pancakes.
I’m thinking swampspruce’s bechamel sauce would make a nice substitution for the cream chicken soup in the Bisquick recipe.
I’ve made a bechamel cheese sauce many times. It’s great on broccoli.
I was gonna post that.
I use a modification of that one with a whole bag of frozen veggies (2 cups?) a breast or two of chicken (diced to the size of the veggies) and the rest following the Bisquick instructions. That ends up heavier on the veggies and lighter on the meat, but I figure such proportions are healthier for me and, quite frankly, I don’t have to think about measuring as much; just dump packages and stir.
I’ve also seen (but haven’t tried) a version which uses the same suggested innards and stretches Pillsbury biscuits over the top. Either version tends to result in a rather thick bready top-crust and no bottom crust, serving 4 hungry or six regular people.
–G!
I’ve never set out to make an actual chicken pot pie but I’ve put left over roast chicken, veggies, and gravy together. I used pastry as a topping once or twice but I had a flash of inspiration a few years ago. I tried topping it with Yorkshire pudding and was hooked!
Yorkshire pudding! It’s not just for roast beef!
I think I’m going to try that… Another option is to line the bottom with mashed potatoes and the top with puff pastry; also very yummy and a good way to use up leftover potatoes.
I definitely find homemade tastes better, though I almost always buy frozen pie shells to save the mess. Generally, I’ll use fresh veggies but I’m not a zealot. As far as how hard it is: you’re just making a thick stew and pouring it into a pie shell. That shouldn’t be too complicated unless you are really not handy in the kitchen.
I’m not quite sure what leftover potatoes are. It seems that no matter how many I cook I never have any left over. I find the same phenomenon applies to Yorkshire pudding.
And now the real question: Why is it chicken *pot *pie. Why not simply chicken pie?
mmm
I make a good chicken pie from scratch. But I have to report that Trader Joe’s makes a terrific chicken pie, and it’s every bit as good as mine (which is kind of annoying). It’s nothing like frozen pot pies from the supermarket.
They keep it in their refrigerator case, not the freezer. It’s in a cardboard pie container, which you can put directly in the oven. It’s topped with a generous, overlapping sheet of puff pastry.
It’s wonderful. My husband gets home earlier than I do, and I sometimes make him pick one up and put it in the oven so that it’s ready when I get home.
Probably because of the pot belly you get if you eat too many of them.
I do flour and butter and stock/broth gravy, add some salt pepper and onion powder. Add some milk. Throw in a bag of frozen mixed veggies (preferably thawed) and chicken or turkey. Pour in a plate with just one crust on the top, or occasionally bisquik, which makes an ooey gooey later between the biscuits and the insides.
But it’s not very healthy, so I now make a modified version that gives me a lot of the same flavors but is healthier. Make the gravy a little differently than the pie recipe, a little thinner, I think, iirc, and throw in cooked rice (go for brown) with the poultry and other veg. Throw in a dish with no crust and bake. More of a chicken casserole, but still has that nice white gravy taste. It satisfies my pot pie craving while not being a pot pie. The leftovers keep better than a pot pie because I find a full 9" pie gets messy as soon as you cut it, chicken leaking out everywhere. That last piece is usually 2/3 hollow.
I assume because it’s usually cooked in a pot or deep dish, and often only has just a top crust (which is how I make mine), so the pot is part of the pie?
All chicken pot pie is, is a cream sauce with chicken and vegetables in it, in a pie.
There’s a lot of ways to get that. A bag of frozen mixed vegetables, a can of undiluted cream of chicken soup, and shredded rotisserie chicken in a store-bought pie shell or biscuit dough on top.
Or, made from scratch from beginning to end.
I like all of them. If you make it from scratch you end up dirtying a lot of dishes and it’s a lot of fiddle but nothing about it is hard, if you already know how to make a pie crust and a white sauce (some do not). It is inherently a bland dish so if you don’t like bland food (I LOVE bland food, one reason why I like chicken pot pie), you have to think about how to make it more revved up. Good suggestions in previous posts.
I wish I had one right now.
Chicken Pie is a Tuesday dinner favourite for me.
It’s usually Tuesday because I make it from purposely-catered leftovers.
Sunday, I roast a large chicken with lots of roast vegetables - and we have a proper Sunday dinner.
Usually about half of the chicken meat is left over, so I cut it all up and pack it in a ceramic dish, along with chunks of roast potato, parsnip, sweet potato, etc, plus any leftover carrots and peas, and pour over the leftover gravy.
I wrap the dish in cling film and put it in the fridge. I make stock from the chicken bones.
Monday, we don’t usually want chicken again, so on Tuesday, we just take out the dish of pie filling, put a pastry crust on it and bake it. Additional gravy is made from the stock.
Actually, looking through 19th century cookbooks, the dough does seem to quite often be used to line the pot itself, but the fact that it is cooked in a pot is what makes it a pot pie, from what I can tell.
What a great way to serve! I normally make a big one, with two sheets of puffed pastry on top. I’m gonna try the ramekin method next time.
Cheers!