Skillet Chicken Pot Pie - Cook with Erica (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep the bottom crust of a chicken pot pie from getting soggy? ›

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Remove frozen pie from plastic wrapping and place in oven on middle rack. Heat for 60 minutes or to your liking. For best results, let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

The sauce in chicken pot pie is typically a gravy. I use a seasoned white gravy made from scratch with flavor-building ingredients, chicken broth, and half-and-half.

Adding flour to the chicken and vegetable mixture will set it up for becoming thick and creamy once you pour in the broth. Just let it simmer for a few minutes until it thickens. But if you've already added the broth and realize it's too thin, you can always make a slurry to stir in.

Prebaking — baking the pie crust before adding the filling — is your answer. Bake your crust, add the filling, and bake until the filling is done. I promise you, the crust won't burn on the bottom; the filling will insulate it.

You can make, bake, cool and freeze. Or you can make, assemble and freeze. Either way when you're ready to cook, there's no need to thaw; just add a good 15-20 minutes of extra baking time. Another way is to just make the filling, cool it and store in freezer-quality bags.

If you have the time, thawing a frozen chicken pot pie overnight in the fridge will ensure a more even cooking time. However, it is not completely necessary.

Add a little more salt and black pepper. Taste to see if it's less bland. Sauteed garlic and onions in oil also add a good flavor. Try adding a squeeze of lemon juice over the chicken before mixing.

A Thick and Creamy Filling

If it seems like it's not thickening up as fast as you like, scoop out about 1/4 cup of the sauce, whisk in a tablespoon or two of flour until no more lumps remain, and then whisk this mixture into the skillet.

Watery filling

Water can be released from your pie filling while cooking in the oven. To avoid turning your pie into a sloppy mess, add flour to the filling or add some nuts to thicken it up, like in our Chicken and Leek Pie. This will help to absorb any excess water while it's cooking and will keep the pastry crispy.

Should I cover chicken pot pie with foil when baking? ›

Bake the pot pie until the center of the crust is evenly golden brown—and don't forget that the crust edge loves to bake at a faster rate than the filling—so covered it with strips of foil or make a foil collar of foil as pictured, to protect the crust edge from getting overly baked while you wait for the center to ...

I only gave my pot pie a top crust, because I feel like the bottom crust always gets soggy. If you do want to add a bottom crust, I suggest blind baking it. What does blind baking mean? It's when you bake your pie crust without a filling in order to crisp it up.

To prevent it, you need to either create a barrier between the wet filling and raw pie dough, or ensure the pie dough browns and sets before the filling has a chance to soak it.

One of my very favorite kitchen tricks is to brush a bottom pie crust with an egg white wash before filling. This keeps the filling from seeping into the crust and creating a soggy bottom. I like to avoid soggy bottoms at all costs. Egg white and water is also perfect for sealing edges, like when making a pie.

Pre-baking is a must if you're looking for a flaky pie crust. It's especially helpful for recipes with a wet center. Recipes for most tarts, pies, and quiches call for pre-baking to ensure that the final product doesn't end up soggy.