Chicken pot pie doesn’t sound like something you’d make from food storage, does it? This family favorite comfort food uses shelf stable and frozen ingredients. Everything that I used to make this came from my food storage. Some ingredients were home canned or frozen.
No frozen or home canned food? You can use canned or dehydrated food in place of the frozen or home canned items in the recipe.
If you choose to use dehydrated food, just make sure you rehydrate the ingredients first or add additional water and allow sufficient time for the food to rehydrate and cook. I recommend rehydrating for 20 minutes then cooking. See my post, Dehydrating 101, for more information on dehydrated food.
Chicken Pot Pie Ingredients
- 1 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup frozen diced onions
- ½ cup frozen chopped celery
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 pint home canned chicken thighs in own juices
- 1 quart home canned diced potatoes (optional)
- 1-12 oz. bag peas and carrots (or mixed vegetables)
- 2 cups chicken gravy
- ½ tsp. poultry seasoning
- 1 tsp. crushed rosemary
- 1 tsp. whole thyme
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 Pie crusts, room temperature
- 1 egg
I made the filling in the time it took to preheat my oven. I would have had it completely ready in the pie pan, but I stopped several times to take pictures for this post. It cooks up fast. Watch out, if you take too long, you won’t have enough moisture.
You can put the pie crust in the pie pan before preparing the filling, or wait until it is simmering like I did. My pie crust wasn’t completely thawed when I started the process, so I decided to give it the extra few minutes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Sauté onion in olive oil until translucent, adding celery after a couple of minutes. Add minced garlic for the last minute of the sauté.
- Add jar of chicken including any juice, mixing well and shredding the cooked chicken.
- Add rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning, and pepper to the mixture and stir to mix well.
- Pour quart jar of diced potatoes with the juice. The juice will have potato starch which will act as a thickener for your pot pie filling.
- Add bag of pre-steamed/cooked frozen veggies to your filling. Stir to mix well. This way they are hot and don’t cool down the mixture, increasing the prep time.
- Bring mixture to a boil and cover. Then turn down to a simmer while you prepare the chicken gravy.
- Mix 2 cups of Chicken Gravy using the directions on the package. I store Trio Chicken Gravy Mix in my food storage. It mixes up smoothly and has a really good taste. I weigh the powder so that I get the correct amount. Weighing is much more accurate for things like powdered mixes.
- Add any additional seasonings to taste. This is the point to increase the poultry seasoning, rosemary or thyme if it doesn’t have enough flavor and to add salt or more pepper, if desired.
- Simmer, covered while preparing pie pan. You can skip this step if the pan was prepared in advance.
- Put one crust on the bottom of the pie pan. No greasing necessary.
- Ladle filing into the middle of the crust and spread toward the edges until almost full.
- Place the 2nd crust on top and tuck the edges in between the bottom crust and the pan. Crimp the edges
- Brush the top with an egg wash (1 beaten egg) using a silicone brush.
- Make 4 slits in the top crust for expansion.
- Bake on a baking sheet for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
- Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
Substitutions
Canned chicken breast can be substituted for chicken thighs, although chicken thighs have more flavor and are preferable for a chicken pot pie. You can also use store bought canned chicken. Most commercially produced canned chicken is breast meat.
Home canned chicken is packed in its own juice while most store bought chicken is packed in water. When using water-packed chicken, you may want to add some chicken bouillon for additional flavor.
You can substitute 2 cups of chicken broth for the gravy mix, adding it directly to the mixture in the pan. A cornstarch and water slurry would then need to be added to the boiling mixture as a thickener.
You can use canned vegetables if you have no frozen or dehydrated options.
Notes and Variations
If you don’t store ready-made pie crusts in your freezer, or if you have none left, you can make pie crusts from flour, lard (or shortening), and salt. Here’s a great video from Living Traditions Homestead that shows how to make and roll a great pie crust from scratch.
This chicken pot pie can be made as individual single crust pies. Just pour it directly into a ramekin or oven safe dish, cover with a piece of pie crust enclosing the top and extending slightly over the edge. Crimp crust to seal to the edge of the dish.
You can also serve this chicken pot pie as a traditional casserole in a square baking dish with a variety of toppings.
- Dropped biscuit topping: Drop baking mix biscuits on the top and bake until the biscuits are done.
- Refrigerator biscuit topping: Cut refrigerator biscuits in quarters, cover the mixture, and bake until biscuits are done.
If using biscuits as a top crust, you must make sure the biscuits are thoroughly cooked.
You can leave the crust or biscuits off completely and just serve it as a chicken stew right out of the pan. This eliminates most of the prep time. Just serve with rolls or crackers on the side.
My crust was a bit old and was easily torn, but it still baked up well and tasted delicious. It just wasn’t the most beautiful thing. Good thing this isn’t a food blog.
Food storage isn’t just your 20+ year long-term wheat in a bucket. When you have a working pantry for your food storage, you can make delicious meals out of items you already have on hand. What other foods can you make with your food storage? Leave a comment and tell us what regular foods you can make from your food storage.