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Chicken-Tarragon Pot Pie
Updated April 30, 2024
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- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2cups all-purpose flour
- 14tablespoons (1¾ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1tablespoon cold vegetable shortening
- Scant ½ teaspoon salt
- Scant ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1egg
- 5tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1cup chopped carrot
- 1cup chopped celery
- 1cup thinly sliced leeks
- 1tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
- 1cup frozen baby green peas
- 4tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2½cups chicken broth
- 1cup heavy cream
- ¼teaspoon salt
- ¼teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 3cups leftover roast chicken, cut into ½-inch chunks
For the Crust
For the Filling
Preparation
- Step 1
To make the crust, combine flour, butter, shortening, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse together just until the mixture is crumbly and butter is broken into small pieces. Pour ⅓ cup ice water into the machine, and pulse 3 or 4 times. Squeeze a little dough in your hand to see whether it clumps together and is evenly moist. If not, add another tablespoon of water, and pulse 1 or 2 times more. Don't overmix so that the dough forms a ball.
- Step 2
Turn out dough on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Lift ends of plastic to gather dough together inside. Press into a large disk, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 days.
- Step 3
To make the filling, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, leeks and tarragon, and cook, stirring, just until slightly softened but not browned (reduce the heat if necessary to prevent browning), about 3 minutes. Transfer cooked vegetables to a bowl, wipe out the skillet, and place it back on the stove.
- Step 4
Add remaining 3 tablespoons butter, and melt over medium heat. Whisk in flour, and cook, whisking, until the mixture bubbles and smells cooked. Do not let it brown. Whisk in 2 cups broth, and cook, whisking, 1 minute. Whisk in cream, and cook 2 or 3 minutes, just until thickened. Add salt and pepper. If the sauce is too thick, whisk in remaining broth.
- Step 5
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Add cooked vegetables and peas, chicken and sauce to 8-inch deep pie dish or other baking dish, mix gently, and taste for seasoning.
- Step 6
Flour a work surface. Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out the dough, turning and flouring often, and cut a shape approximately the size of your baking dish plus 1½ inches overlap all around.
- Step 7
Roll dough up onto the rolling pin, and unroll over dish, so it rests evenly on top of filling. Fold the edges under and crimp. Poke tip of knife through crust to create 3 vent holes near the center. Whisk the egg with a teaspoon of cold water. Use a pastry brush to lightly coat the entire crust with egg wash. Place on cookie sheet, and place in oven.
- Step 8
Bake 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375 degrees. Bake 25 to 30 minutes more, until crust is golden and filling is bubbling through vents. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I use a double pie crust; one on the bottom and one on the top because we like a lot of crust. Before pouring the filling into the raw pie crust, I brush it with an egg white. This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy.
When making poultry stock I would leave it in the fridge overnight and then remove the fat on top. This fat I would then use in making the crust for an intense flavor. This also works for duck, goose, and turkey.
I regularly make chicken pot pie with a recipe similar to this, and use 2% milk instead of cream… works beautifully!
This is a great template for any kind of pot pie you like. I confess I use pre-made crusts, mainly because I loathe baking in all its forms and making a pie crust counts as baking.
I had trouble with the crust, so I compared this recipe to the original by Child and Pepin. They recommend a half batch of the crust recipe. They use an oval eight-cup baking dish, preferably about 10" long and 3" deep. Other useful instructions: The sauce should barely cover the chicken and vegetables, and it should be within 1/2" of the top of the dish. To help the crust adhere to the baking dish, brush a thin layer of the egg wash on the rim of the dish before adding the crust.
This is a fine basic savory pie recipe for using up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Don't forget to season the roux to taste. The dish will be dismally bland if you skip that step. Eight main-course servings is optimistic. Six is more like it. Make that four if you've got teenage mouths to feed.
Love the simplicity of this recipe.
To take advantage of Thanksgiving leftovers- substituted chicken w/ 4 cups shredded turkey and 4 cups turkey broth also included mushrooms and potatoes. Substituted tarragon with fresh sage and dried thyme. Yummy!!
I have made this dish several times, and every time it was a hit. I did use half & half rather than cream, however; once I omitted it altogether (for the lactose intolerant), substituting a bit more broth, and it still came out well. I use a double crust, so I followed the suggestion to use egg white on the crusts (inside and out), using an oversized 9" glass pie pan. This recipe is now in rotation with a couple dozen regulars.
If you like more crust, make one for the bottom too, but pre-bake it so it remains crusty and doesn't get soggy from the pie filling (about 15 min. @ 400 deg) You may need to weigh it by filling it with dry beans while baking to prevent it from rising up. Then coat it with egg to further seal it from getting soggy. Makes a really nice crusty bottom.
I make this often, but to save time on a weeknight I sometimes use puff pastry instead of making a pie crust. With a salad and a dry white wine, it makes a company-worthy meal in under an hour.
I freeze pot pies and they come out great. I make the pies in disposable aluminum mini pie plates, put the uncooked dough on top (I usually cheat and use store bought pie pastry or puff pastry), put the pies on a baking sheet to flash freeze them in the freezer, then transfer them to a large ziploc bag for long term freezer storage. When I'm ready to bake them, I let them thaw in the refrigerator for a day, then brush the dough with egg wash, cut a slit in the top, and bake in the oven.
I often make this with left over roteserie chicken and pre-made pie crusts.
New cooks will be puzzled about the egg. There is no mention of its use anywhere. I'd think the egg is brushed on the crust prior to placing pie in the oven.
I used a fillo dough crust and half and half instead of the cream, but otherwise followed the recipe. Super yummy! Notes: 2 large stalks of celery, 2 large carrots and 1 large leek work for the quantities needed in the recipe.
One can make a perfectly delectable filling without cream. Just make the roux with broth and skip the cream. It's still creamy and flavorful. Adding some white wine is also nice.
Ive made this and the actual recipe with scratch poached chicken from the book dozens of times to no fail every time! It’s incredible! I highly recommend using the dough recipe and if you like the crust inside as well like I do just double it. The crust is far superior to anything you can buy and makes this recipe a marriage of heavenly bites!
I’m still trying to get this right! This time I used a full tablespoon of Tarragon and herbs du providence as the main source of spice along with 2 teaspoons of salt. I made my own pie crust, and rolled it thick so I only had enough for the bottom. I think it was the best ever
Does anyone make this with Melissa Clark's dough recipe? Seems unnecessary to use sugar & shortening for a savory pie.
Does anyone know if I can premake the filling the day before? Would it still be okay?
Yes absolutely. You can make the whole pie the day before and even freeze it to great success
Delicious! Forgot the peas though. I’m not very familiar with crusts and was anxious every step making this one, worrying that I was going to overwork it, but that was definitely not the case - it was a perfectly delicious light flaky golden crust! The tarragon is SUCH a nice touch and worth hunting down fresh! Will make again!
This is one of the worst pie crust I’ve ever made. Totally dry and crumbly..
Made Bechemel with 2 C milk, 1C cream & 1C broth form poached chicken. Used julienned vegetables for poaching chicken in pot pie.
For a vegetarian option I substituted 2 cans of chickpeas for chicken. I mashed them a little before adding them to my gravy and it turned out great!
Made as recipe calls for except: I did use better than bouillon (about 1 tbsp) for the 2 cups of broth. I also added some fresh ground nutmeg to the roux and omitted the peas. Amazing. One of our new favorites!!
The recipe for the filling resulted in a very delicious dish. Not sure what happened with the crust recipe, but mine was an utter failure… the pastry seemed undermixed following the directions… must not have ever gotten fully incorporated in the food processor… as it baked with a very grainy texture and nearly completely disintegrated as it baked. .
This is wonderful - I usually use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store which makes it a relatively fast dinner to prepare and it always feels special.
Absolutely wonderful and perfect for leftover roast chicken! We were lucky enough to have on hand some leftovers from Nigella Lawson’s Tarragon Chicken recipe. The light lemon and tarragon in the leftovers was an added boost to the already delicious savory pie, plus I added one mined shallot. I make my own bone broth so used a combo of 3 parts chicken to 1 part beef broth. This recipe shines. So good, lots of mmmmm mmm at the dinner table!
Delicious! I used leeks, shallots and part of an onion in place of just leeks. Otherwise, I followed the recipe except for topping with high quality refrigerated biscuits, which my family prefers to crust, I divided each biscuit in 1/2 before baking in order to cover the entire pan. I cooked everything in my Le Creuset braiser and baked in the same pan for 20 minutes. So good and easy!
I am making this today, and just noticed there isn't a bottom crust. I told my English husband and his expression was priceless. He said, "Is it too runny for a bottom crust or is it just sheer laziness?"
So delicious! Added thyme with the tarragon. My turkey dinner leftovers were so amazing with this including green beans with mushrooms. And since I had been cooking all weekend I used frozen pie crusts. I didn’t make extra homemade crusts when I made my pies. But the pot pie turned out delicious!!
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