This Chicken Pot Pie recipe has been a family favorite in my house for more than 20 years. It skips the canned soup for a rich, from-scratch filling. Roasted garlic gives it a flavor boost, and it bakes right in the skillet under a shingled, golden puff pastry crust.
This Is the Only Chicken Pot Pie Recipe You’ll Need
This one goes back more than 20 years, to a restaurant kitchen. Our friend Phil owned the place and ran the kitchen, and this pot pie was one of the dishes people raved about. He gave me the recipe. I’ve tweaked it here and there, but the bones haven’t changed.
It’s the kind of old-fashioned comfort food I bring to a new family after a baby, or to someone recovering from surgery. It’s just pure comfort in a dish, and it always gets completely gobbled up! Personally, I feel better after a plate of this homemade chicken pot pie.
If you love classic comfort foods as much as I do, you should also try my Ham Pot Pie Recipe, this Classic Meatloaf Recipe, or my Easy Baked Spaghetti Pie. They’re all cozy, from-scratch dinners that taste like a hug in a dish.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe for Chicken Pot Pie
- The roasted garlic changes everything. Instead of quickly sautéing raw garlic, we roast whole heads until soft, sweet, and golden. It’s the one ingredient that sets this apart from every other chicken pot pie recipe out there. You can skip it, but I beg you not to!
- No canned soup, no shortcuts on flavor. The filling is a real from-scratch roux, built right in the skillet, so it’s creamy without tasting like it came from a can.
- Puff pastry beats a traditional pie crust. It’s buttery and flaky, with no chilling or rolling out dough. Just thaw, cut, and shingle it on top.
- It’s a one-pan meal. Everything cooks in the same oven-safe skillet, roux, veggies, chicken, all of it. Fewer dishes, and the filling goes straight from stovetop to oven.
- It freezes beautifully. Make it now, bake it later. This is one of those rare dinners that tastes just as good coming out of the freezer as it does fresh.
Chicken Pot Pie Ingredients
Roasted garlic:
- Whole heads of garlic: Roasted until soft and golden. This is what gives the filling its deep, sweet flavor.
- Olive oil, salt & pepper: Just enough to help the garlic caramelize as it roasts.
Pot Pie filling:
- Salted butter: The base of the roux and what sautés the vegetables.
- Onion & fresh mushrooms: Chopped small so they melt into the filling!
- Frozen peas, carrots & corn: The classic pot pie vegetable mix, no par-cooking required.
- All-purpose flour: Thickens the filling into a rich, creamy gravy.
- Dried thyme, rosemary, salt & pepper: Simple herbs that keep the flavor cozy, not busy.
- Chicken broth: Use a good bone broth if you have it. It makes a noticeable difference!
- Better-Than-Bouillon organic chicken base: Optional, but it amps up the savory flavor considerably.
- Half and half: Blended with the roasted garlic for a silky, garlicky cream
- Cooked chicken: Rotisserie or roasted both work beautifully. You can choose if you want it cubed or shredded.
- Fresh parsley: Stirred in at the end for a pop of color and freshness.
Topping:
- Frozen puff pastry, thawed but kept cold: I use all-butter Dufour puff pastry; it only comes in one sheet, but it’s SO worth it! If you love more crust, then purchase two!
- Egg wash: Beat one egg with a tablespoon of water for that deep golden shine.
Get the full recipe in the recipe card below.
Rotisserie Chicken Makes This Even Faster
Got a rotisserie chicken from the store? Use it! I do, more often than not. Pull off about 3 cups of meat (white or dark, or I like a combo), shred or cube it, and add it to the filling the same way you would roasted chicken breast. Perfect for a busy weeknight when roasting your own chicken just isn’t happening, and honestly, the roasted garlic and homemade filling do so much of the flavor work that nobody will know the difference.
Tools
- A large oven-safe skillet (cast iron works great, since it goes from stovetop straight to the oven)
- An immersion blender, for the roasted garlic cream
- A pastry brush, for the egg wash
- Foil, for roasting the garlic and for tenting the pastry if it browns too quickly
How to Make Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry
Step 1 | Roast the Garlic
Slice the top off a head of garlic to expose the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then wrap tightly in foil. Roast at 350°F for 50-60 minutes, until soft and golden. Let it cool, then squeeze the cloves out of their skins. Make ahead: this keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Step 2 | Build the Base
Preheat oven to 400°F (205° C). In a large skillet, melt the butter and cook the onion until translucent, then add the mushrooms and cook until tender.
Stir in the flour, salt, thyme, rosemary, and pepper, and cook until browned bits start forming on the bottom of the pan. Stir in the frozen peas, carrots, and corn.
Step 3 | Blend the Garlic Cream
In a blender or using an immersion blender, combine the roasted garlic pulp with the half-and-half and blend until smooth.
Step 4 | Finish the Filling
Add the chicken broth and garlic cream to the skillet, stirring in the bouillon if using. Cook until bubbly and thickened, then reduce the heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken and parsley, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
Step 5 | Top and Bake
Pour the filling into your baking dish of choice: keep it in the skillet if it’s oven-safe (cast iron works great), use a deep-dish pie plate, or, my favorite, this Staub casserole dish (medium, about 7.5 x 10.5).
Roll out the cold, defrosted puff pastry dough on a floured countertop until smooth and even. Then, using a pizza cutter, cut the cold puff pastry into 2-inch squares. Shingle them over the top, overlapping slightly, for those crispy, golden edges. Brush with egg wash and bake at 400°F (205° C) for 20 to 25 minutes, until deep golden brown and bubbling at the edges. Tent loosely with foil if the pastry browns too fast.
Pro Tip: Keep your puff pastry cold. The best way: thaw it overnight in the fridge, and only take it out to roll and cut right before it goes on top of the hot filling. If it warms up too much, pop it back in the fridge or freezer for 20 minutes before using.
How to Make Chicken Pot Pie Ahead of Time
You can make the filling up to a day ahead! Just cool it, cover it, and store it in the fridge, then gently reheat it on the stove before topping it with the puff pastry and baking.
The roasted garlic holds up just as well and can be made 3 to 4 days in advance, so you can split the work across a couple of days if you’re prepping for company. Save assembly until right before baking for the best experience.
Bake from Frozen: See freezing instructions below.
Variations of This Recipe for Chicken Pot Pie
- Add green beans. If you’re team green-beans-in-pot-pie, stir in a drained 14.5-ounce can or a cup of frozen beans along with the peas and carrots.
- Bulk it up with potatoes. The original recipe for chicken pot pie called for a can of new potatoes or a few diced baby Yukon Golds, added in with the other vegetables, which I personally love, but chose to leave out.
- Simplify it. Corn and mushrooms are both easy to leave out if you’d rather keep it closer to a classic pea-and-carrot filling.
- Try a double crust. Line the dish with puff pastry first and par-bake it for 10 minutes before adding the filling, which helps it hold up instead of turning gummy.
- Make it smoky. Cook 2 to 3 strips of bacon and use the drippings in place of some of the butter.
- Go dairy-free. Swap the half-and-half for full-fat coconut milk or your favorite unsweetened dairy-free cream.
- Make it gluten-free. Use a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend for the roux and a gluten-free puff pastry.
- Make it vegetarian. Use vegetable broth and swap the chicken for a can of drained white beans or chickpeas.
- Go lower-carb. Skip the corn, swap the peas for extra mushrooms or green beans, and the filling gets a lot leaner. The puff pastry is the real carb culprit though. I haven’t tested a low-carb topping yet, try almond or coconut flour drop biscuits, or skip the crust and spoon the filling over cauliflower rice. Tried it? Let me know, I’d love to test and add it officially.
- Go mini. Divide the filling among mini loaf pans, custard cups, or a muffin tin, top each with a puff pastry round or square, crimp, brush with egg wash, and cut a small slit. Bake at 400°F for 20 to 25 minutes.
How to Store Chicken Pot Pie
Store leftover chicken pot pie in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in a 350°F oven, loosely tented with foil so the crust doesn’t over-brown, until warmed through.
Freezing (fully assembled): Assemble the pie completely with the raw puff pastry on top, wrap it tightly, and freeze up to 2 months. Bake straight from frozen at 400°F, loosely tented with foil, for about 20-30 minutes; remove the foil and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, until the pot pie mixture is bubbling.
Freezing (filling only): Freeze just the cooled filling in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge, reheat it gently on the stove, then top with fresh puff pastry and bake as directed. This is the better option if you want the crispest possible crust, since it’s baked fresh rather than from frozen.
FAQ’s for The Best Chicken Pot Pie
The biggest one is letting the puff pastry sit out and get warm before it goes in the oven. Cold pastry puffs up better and cuts more cleanly. Underbaking is a common miss too. The crust should be deep golden brown, not pale, and the filling should be visibly bubbling at the edges before it comes out.
This recipe doesn’t use a bottom crust, so there’s nothing to pre-bake. If you decide to try the double-crust variation above, though, yes — par-baking that bottom layer for about 10-15 minutes helps it hold up to the filling instead of turning gummy underneath.
Uncovered, for the most part. That’s how the puff pastry gets deeply golden and crisp. The only time to cover it is if the top browns faster than the filling heats through; in that case, tent it loosely with foil for the remainder of the bake.
A crisp green salad is the classic pairing, since it cuts through the filling’s richness, but I also like more elaborate salads like my Fall Harvest Salad. If you’d rather lean into the comfort-food side, my Southern-Style Green Beans with Bacon or Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes are both fantastic (and that mashed potato recipe uses roasted garlic too, so the flavors play off each other nicely).
You can, but you’ll lose what makes this version special. Puff pastry bakes up in tall, shatteringly crisp layers with almost no effort, no chilling, no rolling out dough, no risk of a soggy bottom since there isn’t one. A traditional pie crust gives you that classic, sturdier bite people expect from pot pie, but it takes more work and more time. If you’re set on a traditional crust, use my All-Butter Pie Crust recipe for the top only and skip the bottom, for the same reason as the puff pastry version. But if you’ve never tried puff pastry on a pot pie, this is the recipe to convert you.
More Comfort Food Recipes to Try
- Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup
- Dump and Bake Meatball Casserole
- Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings (coming soon)
- Best Italian Recipe for Spaghetti Sauce from Scratch
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Video
Equipment
Ingredients
For the roasted garlic:
- 1 or 2 heads whole garlic
- ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Several grinds of fresh black pepper
For the filling:
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion minced small
- ½ cup fresh mushrooms chopped on the smaller side
- 15 ounce bag frozen peas and carrots
- ½ cup frozen corn
- 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour I used unbleached
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme Crushed lightly in your hand
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary Crushed lightly in your hand
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth not concentrated; I used organic bone broth
- 1 teaspoon Better-Than-Bouillon organic chicken* may leave out, but totally amps up the flavor
- ¾ cup half and half milk will work too, though not quite as rich
- 3 to 4 cups rotisserie chicken cubed or shredded (roasted or rotisserie both work)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 tablespoons of dried parsley.
For the topping:
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed; but well chilled I used all-butter Dufour puff pastry! It only comes in one sheet per box, but it’s so yummy and worth it!
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Roast the garlic: Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice about ½ – ¾ inch off the pointy end of the garlic head to expose the cloves. Set on a square of foil, cut side up, drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add a few drops of water. Wrap tightly and roast 50 to 60 minutes, until soft and golden brown. Cool, th slightlyen squeeze the cloves out of their skins into a bowl.1 or 2 heads whole garlic, ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, Several grinds of fresh black pepper
- If you choose to skip the roasted garlic, use 4-6 cloves minced or pressed garlic, adding it to the mushroom mixture during the last minute of sauteing.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (205° C)
Make filling
- In a large oven-safe skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until slightly translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender, another 4-6 minutes.6 tablespoons salted butter, 1 medium yellow onion, ½ cup fresh mushrooms
- Stir in the flour, salt, thyme, rosemary, and pepper. Cook, stirring, until browned bits start to form on the bottom of the pan.7 tablespoons all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon dried rosemary, ½ teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Stir in the peas, carrots and the corn.15 ounce bag frozen peas and carrots, ½ cup frozen corn
- Using an immersion blender or using a blender, combine the roasted garlic pulp and the half-and-half. Blend until smooth.¾ cup half and half
- Add the chicken broth and the garlic cream to the pan all at once; stirring in bouillon if using. Stir until bubbly and thickened; reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until thickened.2 cups chicken broth, 1 teaspoon Better-Than-Bouillon organic chicken*
- Stir in the chicken and parsley. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.3 to 4 cups rotisserie chicken, ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 tablespoons of dried parsley.
- Pour the filling into a 2-quart baking dish, 9-inch deep dish pie plate, or a 10 inch cast iron skillet.
- Keep the puff pastry cold until ready to use. Remove from the fridge, and unroll onto a floured surface, rolling with a rollling pin just to even out and enlarge slightly. Cut the cold puff pastry into 2-inch squares and shingle them, over the top, overlapping slightly, for those crispy, golden edges. Brush with egg wash.1 sheet frozen puff pastry, 1 egg
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling at the edges. Tent loosely with foil if the pastry browns too fast.
- Let rest 10-15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Cover and store leftovers in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in a 350°F oven, loosely tented with foil, until warmed through. Freezing (fully assembled): Assemble the pie completely with the raw puff pastry on top, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen at 400°F (don’t forget to remove the plastic), tented with foil, for the first 20-30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 20-30 minutes. Freezing (filling only): Freeze just the cooled filling in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, reheat gently on the stove, then top with fresh puff pastry and bake as directed. Gluten-Free
Use a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour blend in place of the flour in the filling, and swap in a gluten-free puff pastry for the topping. Head back up to the post above for expert tips, ingredient swaps, and more variations on this recipe!
Nutrition
Penney Rante
Wonderful pot pie! I added some of our home grown frozen beans and carrots and skipped the mushrooms because hubby doesn’t like them. The roasted garlic makes this recipe! We both loved it and are looking forward to leftovers. 😋
Yay Penney!! And yes that roasted garlic takes it over the top!! And yum for home grown green beans!!