Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie

An Updated Version of the Betty Crocker Chicken Pot Pie

I was a young mom. My husband and I are high school sweethearts who married months after graduation. Our first child was born less than two weeks before I turned 21.

Believe it or not, when we first got married, I was determined to never cook. Cooking didn't appeal to me for several reasons, not the least of which was not wanting to set the expectation that cooking was "my job".

Oh... the foolishness of the young.

After our son was born, I thought, "Someone is going to have to feed this kid.", and I cracked open the Betty Crocker Cookbook, a wedding gift that had been sitting in a box with a couple other cookbooks since the wedding. I made Betty's Sweet and Sour Chicken, Lasagna, and Chicken Pot Pie. 

The classic double-crust Chicken pot pie was our favorite.

The Pot Pie recipe was easy enough, calling for frozen veggies and frozen pie crust. Being the all-the-way-or-not-at-all person that I am, I wanted to make the pastry from scratch. That, for such an inexperienced cook and baker, was easier said than done. 

After several failed attempts, I came across a recipe for "Fool Proof Pie Crust" and jotted it down on a recipe card. (Yes. Hand written recipe cards. This was the olden days. You know, before internet and before we had a home computer. We had to write stuff. On paper.)

Fool Proof Pie Crust became my go-to pie crust recipe and Chicken Pot Pie became one of our family's favorite meals. It was a monthly, sometimes bi-monthly meal in our house for years and years.

Our son was a super fan of the meal, requesting it every birthday and and learning how to make it himself around the age of 16, from scratch pie crust and all.

My husband and I are now empty nesters and I don't make Chicken Pot Pie nearly as often as I used to. When I do make it, we manage to eat the entire pie. It just takes us several days to do so. Thankfully, leftovers are almost as good as the night the pie is made.

Ingredients Needed to Prepare this Recipe

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs - OR leftover cooked chicken
• Soy sauce, fresh ginger, and garlic. Soy sauce, ginger, and garlic are used to flavor chicken as it poaches. If you're starting with chicken that's already cooked, you won't need it.
• 2 pie crusts. Use refrigerated prepared crusts or make your own. My favorite recipe is this one for Fool Proof Pie Crust.
• Button or cremini mushrooms. FYI - button and cremini mushrooms are the same type of mushrooms. The only difference is that button mushrooms are younger than cremini mushrooms.
• Butter.
• Extra virgin olive oil. Or vegetable oil.
• Salt and ground black pepper.
• An egg. This is used to make an egg wash that's brushed over the top crust of this pot pie to give it a pretty, shiny appearance.
• A chopped yellow onion.
• All-purpose flour
• Chicken broth. I almost always use Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base mixed with water.
• Whole or 2% milk.
• A bag of frozen peas and carrots.

A Simple Way to Poach Chicken Breasts

If you're not starting with already cooked chicken, poaching the chicken for this pot pie is a super simple first step.

Regardless of whether you choose chicken thighs or chicken breasts, this simple poaching method ensures deeply flavorful chicken that's never dry or overcooked. Here's what you do...

1. Add a couple of chicken breasts to a saucepan and pour in about a cup of soy sauce and two cups of water. If you're gluten intolerant, coconut aminos will work just as well. 
2. Peel a knob of ginger that's roughly 3 inches long and dump it into the pan.
3. Peel 5 cloves of garlic, slice them in half, and add them to the pan.
4. Set the pan over medium high heat. When it begins to boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, the chicken should be perfectly cooked. Here's the best thing about this method: You do not have to be super precise about the time.

It's important to let the chicken sit in the poaching liquid long enough for it to cook through, of course. But, if it sits in there longer, 30 or 40 minutes, it will still be perfectly juicy.

It's virtually impossible to overcook chicken using this method because the water continues to drop in temperature as it sits.

Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions

Roll out enough pie crust dough to line the inside of a 9-inch square baking dish. Cover the pastry with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator while you prepare the pot pie filling.

Cut the mushrooms into ¼-inch thick slices and cook them in a hot skillet with some butter and oil until they are golden and caramelized. Remove them to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Melt some butter in a large saucepan and add chopped onion. Cook the onion for a few minutes to soften.

Sprinkle in some flour and cook, stirring constantly for about a minute. This creates a roux that will thicken the gravy for the pot pie filling.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the chicken broth very slowly, followed by the milk. It's important to add the liquid to the roux slowly; adding it too quickly will create a lumpy gravy.

Set the saucepan back on the stovetop and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid begins to boil.

Add the frozen peas and carrots, chunks of chicken, and caramelized mushrooms to the gravy.

Stir the chicken and vegetables around in the gravy until everything is coated.

Remove the pastry-lined baking dish from the refrigerator and fill it with the pot pie filling.

Roll out enough pie crust pastry to cover the pot pie. Use your fingers to crimp the edges to seal the bottom pie crust to the top crust.

Use a sharp knife to cut five slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape while the pot pie bakes.

Whisk an egg with a bit of water then use a pastry brush to coat the top of the pot pie with the egg wash. This will give the pie an attractive shiny top. That's it! Time to bake!

Why Caramelize the Mushrooms Before Adding them to the Pot Pie Filling?

Yes, sautéing the mushrooms before adding them to the pot pie filling adds another step that might seem unnecessary but is, in fact, soooo worth it.

Sautéing mushrooms in some butter and oil is all about adding flavor. And flavor is something we're big on around here, even if it adds another step to the process.

Browning mushrooms deepens their flavor, concentrating the natural sugars and amino acids, and producing a whole new layer of flavor.

Technically speaking, this is called the Maillard reaction. It's called a "reaction" because the process doesn't just require heat - it produces heat. As it does, the proteins in the mushrooms keep rearranging themselves, creating deliciously complex flavors as they do.

The process of sautéing mushrooms requires more fat than you might feel necessary. But, don't worry. The mushrooms will suck up all the fat in the pan when you first start cooking them.

But then, as they begin to brown, they will release nearly all of it back into the pan. If you allow the cooked mushrooms to drain on a paper towel lined plate, you'll end up with very little fat in the mushrooms at all.