Chicken pot pie
A creamy chicken and vegetable filling under a tall, flaky puff pastry lid, the kind of dinner that makes the whole kitchen smell like home.
- 85 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 6
- About $2.12 a serving
- 460 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 puff pastry sheet
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1¼ lb chicken breasts, cut into ½-inch pieces
- ⅓ cup butter
- 2 cups chicken broth
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 large egg, beaten
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
Each serving has about 460 calories, 29 g protein, 30 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $2.12 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No chicken breasts? Boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No milk? Half-and-half works.
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Set the puff pastry on the counter to thaw for 40 minutes while you make the filling, and the oven to 400°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
the onion, carrots and celery, then cut the chicken into ½-inch pieces and wash your hands and board.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
the butter in a large over medium heat and cook the onion, carrots and celery 6 minutes, until .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Add the chicken, salt, pepper and thyme and cook 4 minutes, , until the outside of the chicken turns white.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Medium heatTimer: 4 min
Sprinkle the flour over everything and for 1 minute, until no dry flour is left.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Pour in the broth a little at a time, , then the milk. 4 to 5 minutes, until it’s thick like gravy and the biggest piece of chicken reads 165°F.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 4 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Add the broth in splashes at first and stir out the lumps before adding more.Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
in the peas and pour the filling into a 9-inch deep dish or 8x8-inch baking dish.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Lay the pastry over the top, press it onto the rim, the overhang, brush it with the egg and cut three slits in the middle.
Trim. Trimming means cutting off the parts you don’t eat, like stem ends, tough bits or thick fat. It keeps chewy or bitter bits out of the finished dish.
How you’ll know: What’s left is the good part, with no dry ends, woody stems or thick white fat.
Dolly’s tip: The slits let steam out so the pastry puffs instead of going soggy.25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and deep .
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 27 min 30 sec
Let it 10 minutes before scooping so the filling can set.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 10 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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