As fall starts to creep in, it is time for some cool-weather recipes. What better to start with than a chicken pot pie? If you need some good comfort food, give this recipe a try.
Where have I been?
Hey everyone! For those of you who keep an eye on the blog regularly or are signed up for emails (thank you to everyone, by the way!), you have probably noticed that I have been away for a fairly long time. I can’t make any promises that a hiatus like that won’t happen again at some point, but for now I am super happy to be back. Let me tell you a little bit about why. Don’t worry – you can skip all this if you want by clicking that “Jump to Recipe” link right above this paragraph.
So where was I? I was here. I was home. And life just happened. This summer, like many of our summers, was packed and it was great. I finished off my spring and started off my summer by stressing over how little work I was doing for the blog. But the blog is a hobby and it is a hobby that’s a lot of work. I develop the recipe, test it (sometimes several times), take photographs, edit the photographs, write the recipe, and calculate nutrition, all before finally getting to the stage of writing the blog post. All that to say that it is all really time consuming and I do it in the free time that I have between a family and a full time job. So when spring and summer rolled around and we started working on house fixer-upper projects, something had to give. I simply did not have time to do everything and for better or worse, the blog slid to the back burner.
Back to Blogging
But don’t worry, I am back now and spent a good part of my day today sorting through recipes that I have already tested, some that I hope to test soon, and a few that I even have photos for (yay!). Which brings us to today’s recipe for a delicious pot pie.
This recipe uses a biscuit crust seasoned with garlic and thyme. It comes together more quickly than a pie crust since there is no rolling and trimming of dough. I do have a couple of tips for you, though:
- Check your frozen green beans for sodium. I find that frozen vegetables are a toss-up when it comes to whether or not they have sodium added. Just be careful that you check your labels to make sure that the green beans you use for this recipe have no salt added.
- When I mix the milk plus vinegar, I put 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a 2-cup measuring cup. Then I add milk until the mixture measures one cup. This is much easier than measuring the milk separately.
- For the chicken, if you start with a pound to one and a quarter pounds of raw chicken, it should come to about three cups once it is cooked. You can cook the chicken any way you like. I typically plan dinners and/or lunches that will use shredded chicken more than once over the course of the week. Then I throw a bunch of boneless/skinless breasts into the crockpot and let them cook. This way, I can pull out the cooked chicken just before dinner. You can also freeze cooked shredded chicken for quicker weeknight meal prep.
Oh and if you like this recipe, you might also like my recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup, another cool-weather classic remade for a low sodium diet
That’s enough of my jibber jabber. On to the recipe!
PrintOpen Faced Chicken Pot Pie
SODIUM COUNT: 159.3 per serving; 1275 mg in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
- 15 Tablespoons milk ((one cup minus 1 tablespoon)*)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ Tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 1 Tablespoon sodium-free baking powder
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter ((1 stick))
Filling:
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup slice carrots
- 1 cup frozen pearl onions
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup frozen cut green beans (unsalted)
- ½ teaspoon ground thyme
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups milk
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 3 cups cooked shredded chicken**
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- Juice from ½ lemon
- Black pepper ((to taste))
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- In a small bowl or cup, stir the vinegar into the milk and set aside.
- In a larger bowl, whisk together the flour, thyme, garlic, and sodium-free baking powder.
- Cut in the cold butter using a fork or pastry cutter until the butter is roughly pea-sized. Stir in the milk and vinegar mixture, mixing until just combined.
- Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the crust begins to set up.
- Remove from the oven and use a spoon to press the center down to make space for the filling. Set aside while you prepare the filling.
Filling:
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, and mushrooms and sautee until the liquid evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Add the green beans and thyme and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Stir in the flour to coat the vegetables. Whisk in the milk and soy sauce. Cook until slightly thickened, about 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in the chicken, parsley, and lemon juice. Season with pepper.
- Add the filling to the crust and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is browned. Let the pie stand for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 8 servings
Sodium: 159.3 mg, Calories: 420.0, Total Fat: 19.2 g, Saturated Fat: 11.2 g, Cholesterol: 90.7 mg, Carbohydrates: 35.9 g, Fiber: 2.1 g, Sugar: 2.3 g, Protein: 25.0 g.
* The easiest way to measure this is by placing the vinegar into an empty 2-cup measuring glass. Then slowly add milk until the mixture totals one cup.
** About a 1 to 1.25 pounds of raw chicken should yield 3 cups cooked chicken. You can cook the chicken any way you like.
Hello this is Heidi Maxson, sis of Betsy. This recipe looks delicious but I confess that I haven’t tried it yet.
I just wanted to praise a new product that I have been using. Coconut aminos. They work as a lower sodium alternative to soy sauce. Have you tried this?
Thanks for your wonderful blog. It’s always fun to see a new post from you.
Hey Heidi! Yup, I have tried coconut aminos and I use it frequently in place of soy sauce. Definitely one of our favorites! I used soy sauce in this recipe because I tend to think the coconut aminos has a slight sweet flavor. That makes it perfect for things like glazes and marinades (which are even better with added sweetness), but I shy away from it for more savory recipes. Because the numbers worked out okay for Joe’s diet using soy sauce, I went ahead and used that instead.
Best,
Kathy
Made this tonight for dinner, and the family really liked it! I may be making just the biscuit dough for drop biscuits separately – it was so good!
★★★★★
So glad you liked it!
Recently found I have high blood pressure. Found your site and your recipes are a godsend. Made this one today and it is amazing. Thank you so much!!
So glad that you like the recipes!
I made this last week. The flavor was great. It didn’t sink in that you had made it in a really deep pie dish until I was already in trouble making it. I put the crust in a 9 1/2″ regular pie plate. There was no way that filling was going to have room inside that crust. I ended up cooking the crust a lot longer and then poured the filling over the crust when I served it. Maybe if I use a 10″ or 12″ regular pie plate next time. I definitely will make it again.
★★★★★
I just joined. Am waiting for my sodium free baking powder arrives. Had to order it as none of the grocery stores here had it.
I was wanting to know if you used regular soy sauce in this, or should I assume its low sodium?
And what would you recommend to substitute for cut green beans? I do like French cut green beans but the rest of them my mouth just spits them back out without me even telling it to. Lol and I would like to try this recipe.
Yes, you should use low sodium soy sauce in this. You can replace the green beans with frozen peas or omit them. It should still turn out fine. ☺️
I just started making this. The crust is pre-baking and damn, it smells divine! Can’t wait to see how this dish turns out! Btw, your photo for this recipe is stunning! I’m salivating already!
Made this twice now. First time in a regular pie plate and the second time in a 1.5 qt dish. worked much better. Smells and tastes divine!! Thanks for this keeper tecipe!
★★★★★
do I have to prebake the pie crust?
Yes. It helps to make sure it is cooked through.