The most perfect chicken pot pie recipe, made with lots of chicken and classic vegetables, all surrounded by a creamy sauce and baked under a towering puff pastry crust.

I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with this chicken pot pie recipe this much, but I did, and I genuinely cannot wait for you to try it. It hits all the classic flavors, calls for rotisserie chicken for ease, and skips the double crust for store-bought puff pastry, which means it’s 100% doable for you to make whenever you crave it.

Oh, and everything happens in one skillet, so you won’t even have that many dishes to clean when you are done.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken: This recipe calls for cooked chicken. Rotisserie chicken is incredible, or you can use leftover roast chicken. This shredded chicken would be lovely, too.
• Vegetables: We keep things really classic for this recipe, using onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and frozen peas.
• Butter and Flour: You’ll cook the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the butter, then stir in flour to make a roux. This is what thickens the gravy.
• Stock and Milk: These combine to make our creamy gravy. The butter-and-flour roux helps thicken them. Use your favorite store-bought chicken broth or stock, or homemade chicken broth. The salt levels of broths and stocks vary, so be prepared to season a bit more generously as you cook through the recipe if you have a light- or low-sodium option. I love whole milk for the extra creaminess.
• Sage: Fresh chopped sage gives our sauce a cozy, classic flavor. If you don’t have fresh, you can use dried. We call for 1 tablespoon chopped in the recipe below, which means you’ll want to use 1 teaspoon dried sage.
• Crust: This pot pie is absolutely perfect with store-bought puff pastry. I love Dufour, but it’s not sold in all grocery stores, so use what you have available. If you do have access to Dufour puff pastry, it’s very much worth the extra cost! You can also use one sheet of homemade pie crust, but it will not turn out as puffed.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Our Favorite Chicken Pot Pie

Tip 1: Use a cast-iron skillet. To keep things easy, we make everything for this recipe in our 10-inch cast-iron skillet. You’ll sauté the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic first, make your roux with flour, build the sauce, and fold in the chicken and peas. Then, simply cover it all with a sheet of puff pastry before baking.

If you do not have a cast-iron skillet or yours isn’t the right size, you can make the filling, transfer it to a pie dish, top with the pastry, and then bake.

Tip 2: Make the gravy. All the flavors build for this creamy gravy. After cooking the veggies until soft and sweet, you can add the flour. This will mix with the butter to create your roux, a paste that will help thicken the broth and milk.

After adding the flour, move it around the pan and let it cook for a minute so any raw flour flavor cooks away. Then, pour in the broth slowly. It might look really thick at first, but it thins as you add more. Pour in the milk next and then simmer until reasonably thick. Finally, taste it and season well with salt and pepper. Remember that broths vary with how seasoned they are, so you may need more than you think. Add it slowly and taste each time. If the flavor doesn’t pop, add a bit more until it does.

Tip 3: Make the filling. You can dice or shred the chicken in this recipe. I prefer shredded and love how soft it turns out when added to the pie. Once shredded, carefully fold it into the gravy. The skillet will be at max capacity, so go slow. This is also a good time to add the peas.

Tip 4: Add the crust. This skillet pot pie is made extra easy thanks to store-bought puff pastry. You’ll need to roll the sheet out a little to fit the top (at least 11 inches square). Most puff pastry sheets are sold in rectangles, so you’ll have one longer end. I use the excess to build up the edges so they turn out as shown in our photos.

Tip 5: Add slits and an egg wash. As it bakes in the oven, the middle will get pretty steamy, so you need to add a few slits in the top of the crust to let the moisture escape. Then, before baking, brush over some beaten egg, which turns into that shiny, golden top you see in our photos.

More Classic Chicken Recipes

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My family loves this easy shepherd’s pie recipe with tender ground beef (or lamb), veggies, a delicious savory gravy, all topped with cheesy mashed potatoes.

Shepherd’s pie (or Cottage pie) instantly takes me back to my early childhood in rural Scotland. It was a staple recipe for my mom, and now, it’s become one for me.

This classic dish is my ultimate cozy meal, and I can’t wait for you to try our favorite version with its rich, savory gravy, tender meat (use your favorite, beef or lamb), and a buttery, cheesy mashed potato topping.

Key Ingredients

• Ground Meat: My family uses ground beef in this recipe, but ground lamb is lovely! My family calls this shepherd’s pie, no matter which we use, but if we want to be technical, cottage pie calls for beef, while shepherds pie calls for lamb.
• Vegetables: We keep this super simple and use onions, carrots, and peas. The onion and carrots are added early, while the peas are stirred in later, so they don’t get too soft. Frozen peas are great!
• Spices: We go with all dried spices for this recipe. They work exceptionally well, and they keep the ingredients down. You’ll need garlic powder, dried thyme, and salt.
• Broth: Beef broth is excellent, but you can use chicken or veggie broth/stock if that is all you have. Here are our homemade beef stock, chicken stock, and vegetable broth recipes.
• Tomato Paste and Worcestershire Sauce: For the best gravy, don’t miss this tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. They add color and richness to the gravy! Trust me.
• Mashed Potatoes: For the topping, we take our classic mashed potatoes and make them even more special with butter, milk, and grated sharp cheddar cheese (I love using English or Irish cheddar!). The type of potato makes a difference: Yukon Gold yields creamy potatoes, while Russets result in a lighter, fluffier mash. While I usually prefer Yukon gold potatoes for regular mashed potatoes, Russets are my favorite for this recipe!

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make the Best Shepherd’s Pie

Tip 1: Oven-safe skillet vs baking dish. Use a cast-iron skillet (at least 10 inches) to cook and bake everything in one pan. If you don’t have one, just cook the meat in a regular skillet, then transfer it to a baking dish before baking.

Tip 2: Use a food mill or potato ricer. For the silkiest mashed potato topping, use a food mill or potato ricer instead of a potato masher. This will give your shepherds pie a lovely, creamy topping.

Tip 3: Season your filling really well. Taste as you go! It’s easy to under-season shepherd’s pie. Be sure to taste the meat filling and potato topping and add more salt and pepper as needed until the flavors pop. If they don’t make you smile, you need a bit more salt and pepper.

Tip 4: This is a perfect make-ahead dish! I make this recipe monthly, probably more in the colder months. It’s cozy, and the family loves it! It’s also easy to prep in advance:

1. Make the mashed potatoes and store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
2. Assemble the whole dish, cover it tightly, and refrigerate it for up to 2 days.
3. For a longer option, freeze the assembled pie for up to 3 months.

More Classic Meals

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How to make pot pie with sausages in a rich and savory Guinness beer broth. Jump to the Sausage, Cheddar and Guinness Pie Recipe or read on to see our tips for making it.

After sharing Guinness Chocolate Cake and Guinness and Beef Stew, we decided to throw another Guinness recipe your way. You don’t mind, do you? We didn’t think so.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How to make the best Guinness beef stew with carrots and potatoes. Jump to the Guinness Beef Stew Recipe.

How to Make Stout Pot Pie with Sausages

This recipe is delicious made into a pie, but you can just as easily skip the pastry and serve the sausages over mashed potatoes instead.

If you do make the full pie, take a look at our homemade pie crust. It’s an all-butter recipe and can be made in advance.

To make the pie, brown sausages on all sides. They don’t need to be cooked all the way through, only browned. Transfer them to a plate then cook onions and carrots with garlic. When the vegetables are beginning to soften, add butter and flour to make a roux. The butter-flour mixture will help thicken our gravy.

In goes beef stock and Guinness as well as the sausages from earlier and grated sharp cheddar cheese. Spoon everything into a baking dish, cover with pastry and bake until golden on top.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How to easily roast a whole chicken with lemon and garlic. One of our favorite recipes! Jump to the Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe.

Recipe updated, originally posted March 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne

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