Out of nowhere I had a request for chicken pot pie. Before Crohn's and food issues hit us, I can't remember ever making or buying chicken pot pie. I've made shepherd's pie, but not a grain-free chicken pot pie using almond flour. So I'm not sure where the initial inspiration came from but I thought sure, let's do it. I'm up for the challenge. I bring to you another current favorite in our house.
I've made this dish three times now, and each time the kids have loved it. Besides this being a nice dinner entree, they eat it for breakfast, and bring it for lunch - with the friendly reminder to bring back the ramekin, pleeaassee. "The what? Oh, the dish - ok."
Update on 4/6/2024: I now have a Creamy Vegetable Soup recipe and a Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup recipe and both would work well as a pot pie. Or if you'd like to make this soup creamier you can use the recipe here and add the pureed cauliflower to the soup at the end. Enjoy!
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
Filling
- 3 cups shredded chicken use leftover roasted chicken or other cooked chicken
- 2 cups chicken broth or water
- ½ cup almond milk or other milk, or yogurt works also
- 2 carrots carrots, diced into coin shapes trimmed and peeled
- 1 cup peas
- 2 celery stalks trimmed and diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- other stuff you might like like mushrooms
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- dash of black pepper
Crust
- 3 cups blanched almond flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Add all the filling ingredients except for the almond milk, in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the celery and carrots begin to soften.
- Remove 1 cup of chicken stock (the liquid in the mixture) and add the almond milk and simmer for another 5 minutes or so, until the flavor is developed.
- Make the crust by combining all the ingredients in a food processor, or combine by hand.
- Add some filling to a ramekin.
- Take a small ball of dough, flatten it to a disk size, and place it over the filled ramekin. Repeat for all your ramekins until the filling is used up. You won't need all the dough in this recipe.
- Bake the ramekins at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or until the crust is browned.
- Cool and enjoy. These are hot, and we're usually impatient, so I serve them with a napkin rapped around them.
Marcella says
Hey! Do you have any recommendations for freezing this recipe? Should I freeze it before baking or bake then defrost, then freeze? Thank you 🙂
Erica says
Hi, yes I recommend freezing it before baking, but you can probably freeze it before or after you bake it.
Marcella says
Thank you!!
Ellie says
Can't wait to try this! You have so many great recipes! What can I sub for butter? I can't use dairy, coconut oil, or ghee.
Erica says
Ha, thanks! I recommend olive oil.
Patti says
Hi Erica,
I'm new to your site and I'm loving your recipes. I have a question though.
I made the biscuit recipe without the honey. I was wondering if I could use a tsp. Of baking powder also so maybe they would rise a little bit. I can see where this crispy biscuit mix would be great on a pot pie. I have been dying for some type of bread as I am fallowing Dr. Osborne's no grain no pain program. Also I would like to try to make my own almond milk but really don't know how. All help appreciated. Thank you so much
Erica says
Yes, you can use baking soda.
Mary says
Hi Erica, we in our household have been following the SCD diet for over 15 years (my hub has UC). I believe you meant baking powder is not permissible on the SCD diet but baking soda is? I use Elaine Gottschall's recipes and recipes from Lucy's cookbook frequently and many of the recipes call for baking soda.. Don't know what I would have done without Elaine's and Lucy's books and this wonderful SCD diet. This diet really helped my husband. I can't wait to try this recipe as my hub really loves pot pie. Thank you for posting your recipes!
Erica says
Yes, thanks for catching that! 🙂 Always good to hear that SCD is working for folks. Best wishes!
Kristie hansen says
I made thistonight with coconut milk. Used 5 ramekins and all the crust, (not the biscuit version). I cooked it a little longer to get the extra thick crust to cook through. It was delicious!!! I will be making this regularly!!!
Erica says
Thanks! good to hear 🙂
Tina Kalvelage says
Hi, can’t wait to try this! Wondering if I can put a layer of crust on the bottom before filling it and of course on top as well. I love the dough soaked in pot pies. And if so would I bake that bottom crust layer before I put the filling in?
Erica says
Hi Tina! Sorry, missed this earlier. The dough may become very mushy, if you’re ok with that. You can bake the bottom crust before adding the filling to hold it together a bit better.
Vikky says
We did this in a 9" pie pan with the original crust and soy milk instead of almond.
It came out great! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Next time, I will try adding a little xanthum gum to thicken it--soy milk didn't thicken at all on it's own.
Alt Food Guy says
I made these a little while ago and they came out Great! I used the Butter Biscuits recipe for the crust and it was so much better then I was expecting.
I tried to make one big pie but I used some of the dough on two ramekins and didn't have enough to cover my 8in pan so I put the rest in a muffin try and ate four of them straight out of it at once. SO good.
I need to buy more ramekins now.
Erica says
cool, good to hear. I haven't tried that yet, but was wondering if it would work.
Kay Kil says
Where can I find the butter biscuit recipe?
Erica says
Hi Kay, the link to the biscuit is in the recipe.
Alissabeth says
Fabulous recipe! I modified the filling by adding xantham gum because it was too runny. Used the biscuit recipe for the top and it would make killer biscuits I bet. I will have to see how hubby likes the sweetness as he missed dinner tonight. We might just go for the plain crust recipe next time, but I surely liked the biscuit one. I also did this in a pie dish, halving the dough ball for a bottom crust. Plenty of crust! Three thumbs up from my three kids.
lynda says
Can you make this crust with coconut flour? If so do you have a recipe?
Erica says
not the same ratio of ingredients. coconut flour on it's own as a pie crust is challenging and I don't have a good one to share.
Heather Y says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I've made it twice now, and it's so yummy and nice to have a comfort food again since being on SCD. I used the butter biscuit recipe for the crust, but used coconut oil instead of butter, and only one egg. It still works out, just probably not as good as the original. 🙂 I also use coconut milk instead of almond milk in the pot pie, and I bake it in a 9x13 pan with the crust kind of crumbled and pressed on top. Yummy, thank you!
Erica says
Good to hear! Yeah, the butter flavor can't be beat, but I like your change-ups. Thanks for sharing them!
Erin says
Can this be made/assembled a day ahead in a pie pan and then cooked later?
Erica says
Yes. I would keep the topping separate from the pie filling until you're ready to bake it.
Erin says
Thanks, I made it in a 9x9 baking dish and it turned out great! That crust is amazing!
AJ says
It was delicious!! I used my homemade almond milk and bone broth. Thank you again!!
Erica says
good to hear! thanks!
AJ says
Lovely pot pie! I'm going to make this in a few days. I make our almond milk and buy it sometimes too; i am wondering if store bought imparts a sweet flavor to the sauce at all? I suppose unsweetened wouldn't though. My homemade stuff is really creamy so might be yummy in this!
Erica says
Thanks. I haven't had store bought almond milk in ages (and probably never will again now that I've had homemade). You can sweeten the almond milk with some honey if desired. Enjoy!
Ginger Burke says
I love your recipes! I use this crust recipe for everything - crust, biscuits, crackers, pop tarts....
And I haven't had any problems freezing it. Usually I double the batch and store the dough in a ziplock in golf ball size balls.
Erica says
Thanks! glad it's working for you. 🙂
Veronique says
I am perplexed- states makes four small pot pies, calls for six ramekins, and says you won't use all the dough. Does it really make four? Or six? I am feeding a family of five :). Thanks!
Erica says
woops. sorry. My fault. I changed it, it should have been for 4, but it will depend on the size of your servings/ramekins also. I also added a note that I prefer not to freeze the dough, so you'll be good to make the entire dough recipe and use all of it (to serve 5). Any leftovers are a bonus. One other idea: you could use my butter biscuit dough recipe for the topping. Best wishes, Erica
Rebecca says
Do you do anything with the cup of stock that you remove? Or is it just to make the filling less liquidy once you've boiled the veggies?
Erica says
I don't, but I if it's fresh stock you can refrigerate or freeze it.
Manon says
Thank you for this recipe ! I did not have all the ingredients needed for the filling, so I used steamed broccoli, chicken, cauliflower cheese sauce http://glutenfreescdandveggie.blogspot.com/2011/08/cheese-sauce-gf-scd.htm
and a little more grated cheese under your crust recipe. Looking forward to trying your filling.
Pamela King says
I made this recipe tonight and it was delicious! Some of the previous comments made me nervous about the crust turning out. I made the full version in the food processor and it turned out amazingly light and flavorful. We liked it so much, I plan to use the crust for some other recipes. I used a very fine almond flour from Benefit Your Life. Thanks for the great recipe. I just discovered your site and will definitely be back!
Erica says
Thanks. Coming back to these comments, and I now realize that some were probably using almond meal, which is not the same as blanched almond flour. As a side note, I now use the biscuit recipe as a topping for pot pies and it works quite well.
Andrea says
I'm kinda stuck with the same result as LYM BUT for what it's worth, once we took the crust off (mostly, what we could), the inside was FANTASTIC. Used coconut milk because that's what I had, and with the cold going through the house right now, I will definitely give eight enthusiastic thumbs up in our household for basically a chicken soup. 🙂
Erica says
I'm a bit baffled because it works so well for me. I did find that freezing the dough did not give the same great results - it became a bit crumbly once defrosted. I process the dough in a food processor - I wonder if that makes a difference?
Audri says
It should be noted that not all almond flour is created equal. I have a hunch that the almond flour is using using is "Blanched Almond flour". Unblanched doesn't give the same results and that could be what some of the readers are running into with their attempts at this recipe.
Erica says
Ah, good point, although I have made pie crust with almond meal without issue. I did change the crust ingredient, above. Thanks!
Erica says
LYM - all photos are mine - thanks for the compliment. I make this recipe often and I've never had a problem with the crust. Read over the directions - maybe you're leaving something out or you need to bake it longer.
Candice says
Made it with yogurt, and it turned out great! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Caryn says
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it is awesome! The first time I made it my husband was less than enthusiastic about hearing that we were having Chicken Pot Pie for dinner, but once he tasted it, he and all of us were hooked :-). I had totally forgotten about how much I enjoy Chicken Pot Pie since being on SCD. I also tried using coconut milk instead of almond milk, and it was very good. I really appreciate your blog, it has been so helpful to me :-).
Erica says
Well, yes, the dough can be frozen, but seal it well. My experience is that is gets dried out the longer it's in the frig or freezer.
chandi says
THanks! Can the dough be frozen for later use?
Erica says
Thanks, Amy!
Amy says
Cannot wait to try this! Your site is awesome!
Erica says
Hi Chandi - absolutely. My kids like getting a small size bowl - I guess it's a novelty. I haven't done this yet, but what I would do is place the cooked filling in a 9-inch pie dish, place a pie crust over the filling and bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees F (or until the crust is browned).
chandi says
Can this be adapted to make one whole pie instead of the individual? I don't have any of the small dishes.
Trish says
Looks delicious. The crust looks like it turned out well!
Erica says
I thought about using yogurt, but I was afraid it might give it a sour taste. Let us know if you try it.
Tracee says
What a great idea! My husband loves pot pies. Maybe I could use yogurt for the almond milk.
Karen says
Gorgeous picture! I can't wait to make this one...
Hänni says
Pot pie that's dairy-free and grain-free? Amazing! I will have to try this.