The Best Chicken {or Turkey} Pot Pie

This delicious, veggie-loaded filling makes the best chicken pot pie and can be topped with either biscuits or pie crust to bake in the oven.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I made this pot pie, with the biscuit crust this weekend and it was absolutely amazing. I followed the recipe exactly and everything about it is perfect. Thank you so much! -Miki

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• This hearty pot pie casserole is the epitome of comfort food! It is filling, nourishing, and delicious.
• It is a great way to use up leftover, cooked chicken or turkey (hello, Thanksgiving leftovers!).
• The recipe can be made with a biscuit topping or a pie crust topping.
• You can make the pot pie in one large 9X13-inch dish OR portion the filling into individual ramekins for single-serve pot pies.
• The amount and type of vegetables is easily adaptable based on your taste preferences and what you have on hand.

This chicken pot pie recipe is wildly popular because a) it is just incredibly delicious and b) it has the perfect ratio of chicken to vegetables to sauce to topping.

Key Ingredients for Chicken Pot Pie

The ingredients for chicken pot pie are very basic and straightforward. In fact, you may have most of them on hand already!

• Vegetables: Onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, and peas are used in this recipe. I use fresh onions, celery, carrots and potatoes. For the peas, frozen peas work great.
• Butter + Flour Roux: Flour and butter are cooked together to create a roux, which is a thickening agent for the liquid that will be added for the chicken pot pie sauce.
• Chicken Broth or Stock: I always use low-sodium chicken broth or stock and add additional salt, if needed, to taste.
• Milk: I recommend using 2% or whole milk. This will make for a richer, creamier sauce.
• Chicken: This recipe calls for cooked, chopped chicken, which means it’s a great way to use leftover chicken. Meat from a rotisserie chicken works great, as well. This pot pie recipe is also perfect for leftover turkey.
• Biscuit or Pie Crust Topping: I almost always make this chicken pot pie with a biscuit topping, because my family prefers the thicker biscuits to classic pie crust topping. Either will work great, though. Use your favorite store bought or homemade pie crust recipe (a 1 1/2 batch of a single pie crust recipe is enough to cover a 9X13-inch pan). The biscuit recipe I use is below with the recipe.

Bonus Tip: The trick for a perfect biscuit topping for pot pie is to roll the biscuits thinner than you would if you were baking the biscuits on their own. I roll the biscuit dough to about 1/4-inch thick. The biscuits will puff to about 1/2-inch thick while baking, which gives the perfect biscuit-to-filling ratio when serving.

Additional Tips for The Best Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe is one of my family’s all-time favorite meals. We’ve made it so many times over the years – and it really is foolproof and absolutely perfect. Despite the longer list of ingredients, it is a simple meal to prepare.

Here are a few additional tips:

1. Meatless Option. You can easily adapt this pot pie to be meatless by subbing out the chicken for more vegetables!
2. Make-Ahead Meal. If making ahead of time, let the filing cool to room temperature before topping with biscuits or pie crust (if the topping is added while the filling is warm, the heat can melt the butter in the biscuits/pie crust making them less flaky when baked). Assemble the pot pie, cover, and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking. You can also store the biscuits separately from the filling and top right before baking. Add 10 to 15 minutes to the baking time if baking straight from the fridge.
3. Pan Sizes. This recipe is written for a 9X13-inch pan. The filling can also be portioned between two 9-inch pie plates and topped with biscuits or pie crust. Additionally, 10 to 12-ounce ramekins can be used for individual servings.

When a recipe is as delicious as this one, it makes me want everyone to make it and fall in love with it, too! I hope you love this one!

The Best Chicken Pot Pie

Yield: 6 to 7 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 35 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

4.89 stars (172 ratings)

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Ingredients

Pot Pie Filling:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ cup finely chopped onion or shallots
• ¾ cup (113 to 170 g) chopped celery
• 1 ½ cups (about 227 g) chopped carrots
• 1 ½ cups (about 283 to 340 g) peeled and chopped (1/4-inch) potatoes
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 5 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup (71 g) all-purpose flour
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock
• 2 cups 2% or whole milk
• 3 cups (about 340 to 454 g) cooked, diced chicken
• ¾ cup (85 to 113 g) frozen peas

Biscuit Topping:

• 2 ½ cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 11 tablespoons (113 g) salted butter, cut into pieces and well-chilled
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Pie Crust Topping:

• One 9-inch double crust recipe (see note)

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Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a glass or ceramic 9X13-inch baking pan. Alternately, you can use 10- or 12-ounce oven-safe ramekin dishes.
• For the filling, in a 5- or 6-quart pan set over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring often. Cover the pot with a lid, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to cook, until the vegetables are lightly steamed and mostly tender, 5 to 7 minutes (they'll cook more in a later step). Check every couple of minutes to make sure the vegetables aren't sticking to the bottom of the pan. Scrape the mixture to a plate or bowl.
• Return the pot to medium heat. Add the butter and cook until melted. Stir in the flour and whisk to combine. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Gradually whisk in the broth and milk, adding 1/2 to 3/4 cup at a time and whisking it in completely before adding more.
• Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly, and cook until the sauce has thickened, 5-7 minutes.
• Stir in the chicken, frozen peas, and reserved vegetables and remove from the heat. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, as needed!
• Carefully ladle the pot pie filling into the prepared baking dish(es). Let the mixture cool until warm (this helps prevent the biscuits/pie crust from melting before it bakes – the topping will be more flaky and tender if the filling has cooled a bit). If you don't want to wait, quickly layer the biscuits or pie crust on top and get the dish into the oven as soon as possible.
• For a pie crust topping, roll out the pie crust to fit on top of the baking dish with about a 1/4-inch overhang. Roll/lift the pie crust to fit evenly over the top of the pot pie filling – make sure it's resting directly on the filling and not hanging above suspended on the edges of the pan. Trim the edges to about 1/4-inch (if needed). Flute the edges or tuck them into the inside of the baking dish.
• For a biscuit topping, make the biscuits by whisking together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until the butter pieces are about pea-size (or grate it in with the large holes of a box grater and toss with the flour). Add the buttermilk and mix until the dough forms a cohesive ball (don't over mix). Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured counter and press into a rough rectangle about 1/2-inch thick.
• Gently fold the dough in thirds. Press or roll into a thick rectangle and repeat that process three or four more times (this creates the flaky layers in the biscuits). Press or roll the dough into a thin rectangle, about 1/4-inch thick.
• Cut the rectangle into about 15 square or rectangle pieces. Place the biscuits evenly across the top of the pot pie with the edges just touching. You can place the dish on a foil-lined baking sheet to catch any spillover, if desired.
• Bake the pot pie for 35 to 40 minutes until the pie crust or biscuits are golden and cooked through. Let the pot pie rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Pie plate: This amount of filling will likely fill two 9-inch pie plates for two pot pies. 

Pie crust: Use your favorite store bought or homemade pie crust recipe for a pie crust topping. You’ll need a bit more pie crust than a standard 9-inch pie crust to top a 9X13-inch pan, so it’s best to plan on using a double crust pie dough recipe to have enough to top the pan (or individual pot pies). 

UPDATE: I edited the recipe to include slightly more biscuit dough to more easily cover a 9X13-inch pan. 

Author: Mel

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Method: Bake

Serving: 1 Serving, Calories: 725kcal, Carbohydrates: 67g, Protein: 29g, Fat: 38g, Saturated Fat: 19g, Cholesterol: 112mg, Sodium: 1135mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 9g

Recommended Products

White Ceramic 9X13-inch Dish

Cookware

Wire Whisk

Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

Recipe originally published November 2017; updated November 2025 with new recipe photos, recipe notes, etc.

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