The Ultimate Chicken Pie (Video)

A great chicken pie is built long before the chicken goes in. It starts with a proper shortcrust pastry, then flavor is built up by roasting whole chickens and reducing the bones into a stock with the body of a ramen broth.

In South Africa, we grew up on hoender pastei made with puff pastry, nostalgic but not as good as this. What I learned cooking professionally is that the depth comes from three things: roasting, reduction, and a velouté finished with tarragon.

It is a project, not a weeknight dinner, but the payoff is the best chicken pie I know how to make. You can make the pastry and filling ahead, and both freeze well, so you can batch it and pull out a showstopping centerpiece whenever you want. Serve it with a simple green salad with rosemary vinaigrette and maybe some luxuriously creamy mashed potatoes if you have a healthy appetite.

What makes this chicken pie worth the effort

• Roasted vs boiled chicken - Roasting browns the skin and meat, renders usable fat, and leaves a tray of concentrated chicken juices to harvest.
• Reduced stock - Instead of making a classic clear chicken stock, we go the extra step and make ramen-style concentrated broth with triple the flavor and richness.
• Mushrooms browned hard - I cook the chestnut mushrooms until they're deeply colored before anything wet goes near them. That builds a savory backbone and makes this as much a chicken and mushroom pie as a classic chicken pie.
• Chefy umami trick - A spoon of soy sauce and a little nutritional yeast add loads of umami that would otherwise be missing. They complement and layer depth and flavor rather than standing out on their own.

Chicken pie vs. chicken pot pie

These names get swapped around, but they are not quite the same dish, and knowing the difference tells you how to build this one.

A chicken pie in the British, Australian, New Zealand, and South African sense usually has a pastry top and bottom - a true enclosed pie you slice and lift. The filling is chicken in a thick, savory sauce, and the whole thing holds together on the plate. This recipe is that kind of pie, baked in a springform so you can release the sides and reveal a fully pastry-wrapped pie. South African home cooks know it as hoender pastei, although the traditional version is made with puff pastry and done in a flatter pie dish.

A chicken pot pie, in the American sense, is generally a single top crust over a looser, creamier, vegetable-heavy filling baked in a dish and served by the spoon. Both are worth making. If you want the pot-pie version, the variations section shows the one-step change.

For a chicken pie from another tradition entirely, Moroccan pastilla wraps spiced chicken in crisp phyllo pastry and finishes it with cinnamon. Same same, but much different.

Ingredients

For the Pastry

We use a savory shortcrust pastry for our chicken pie. It can hold a juicy filling yet still stay flaky, buttery, and short when done right.

• Flour - Use all-purpose flour for the best texture. It contains less gluten, making it harder to overwork and turn tough. You can use gluten-free flour, but the pastry will be a touch harder to work with.
• Butter - You could use salted butter, but remember to use half the salt called for if using unsalted butter. I like using unsalted simply because I can better control the saltiness. Not all salted butters contain the same amount of salt. Keep your butter in the freezer before cutting it. The biggest trick to making the best pie pastry is keeping your ingredients cold. Especially the butter.
• Eggs - I use large eggs. They weigh 50 grams each out of the shell, so you can substitute them with pasteurized whole eggs.
• Water - Ice-cold water will help prevent the butter from melting.

For the egg wash

The egg wash is as important as any other ingredient in making the best chicken pie. Its color, shine, and the first impression when you serve it.

• Eggs - For the pastry itself, it's okay to use pasteurized, pale-yolk eggs. For the egg wash, use bright orange farmer's eggs for the best color and shine.
• Liquid - I prefer using water instead of milk to thin out my egg yolks. The milk solids inside milk tend to color unevenly, and when you make a showstopper like this pie, you want even color all around.

For the filling

• Two whole chickens - Breaking down whole chickens gives you legs for flavor, breasts for tenderness, and bones, skin, and wings for the stock and rendered fat. You use all four legs and two breasts in the pie and reserve the other two breasts for juicy oven-baked chicken breasts. Deboned thighs are a faster route if you want, but you'll lose out on serious flavor.
• Dried shiitake, bay, and peppercorns - Simple but powerful aromatics. Dried shiitake adds a ton of umami, almost meaty depth that pushes the stock towards something more like a ramen than a chicken stock.
• Chestnut mushrooms - Browned properly, they add a massive layer of flavor in an already rich dish. Use chestnut or cremini for the deeper color and flavor over plain white button.
• Soy sauce and nutritional yeast - Two more umami stars. The soy is reduced into the mushroom base, and the nutritional yeast goes into the sauce. You won't pick up either one individually in the final pie, but they play a vital role in creating the right taste.
• Tarragon and thyme - Tarragon is the finishing herb, and the one that lifts this pie from good to memorable. Its anise edge cuts the richness. Stir it in at the end so it stays bright and fresh. If you cannot find it, see the variations, but it is worth tracking down. Thyme is a fantastic aromatic to use with chicken and onions. You could use rosemary, but in my experience, it's a touch harsh, and you also need more garlic, which together could easily overpower the chicken's flavor.
• Rendered chicken fat - Saved from roasting, it goes back into the vegetables and the velouté. It is the most chickeny flavor to add, and it's a big reason the filling tastes so good.
• Aromatics - Carrot, celery, onion, leek, and garlic. We use these in the stock and some in the filling. They are classics, and when used right, set up the foundation for the flavor marvel we are about to build.
• Dijon mustard - Stirred into the velouté. It's one of those chefs' favorite ingredients to let other ingredients taste more of themselves. Skip it if you like, but this is an important little gear in this simple yet complex flavor-and-texture machine.
• Wine - optional, used to deglaze the pan juices. You could easily leave it out and replace it with water and a touch of lemon juice.
• Cream - We use double cream in the sauce that binds the filling. It adds richness and smoothness that you would otherwise miss.
• Flour - All-purpose flour to thicken the sauce. You can also use gluten-free flour or xanthan gum in the appropriate amounts if you are gluten-intolerant.

See the recipe card for quantities.

How to make chicken pie

Shortcrust pie pastry

The chicken stock and filling

9. Deglaze the roasting tray with white wine or water, scraping up all the fond.

12. Cook down until you have a deeply browned, soft, mushroom and leek base with little to no liquid left.

15. Simmer the stock until reduced by half to a concentrated, full-bodied broth, then strain it.

20. Cool the filling completely until thick and set. Never fill the pastry when it's warm. You can make it a few days ahead for convenience.

Assemble and bake

25. Line the tin with the base, pushing it into the walls, and trim to a 2 cm overhang.

28. Whisk the egg yolks with a splash of water to make the egg wash.

29. Brush the lid, then crimp the edges all the way around to seal and decorate.

32. Bake at 200°C (390°F) fan for 40 to 45 minutes until deep golden brown.

Watch how to make it

Pro tips for chicken pie

• Keep everything cold for the pastry - Cold eggs, ice water, cold butter, and a cold bench all keep the butter from melting into the flour. Melted butter makes greasy, tough pastry. If anything warms up, put it back in the freezer for five minutes.
• Make it across two or three sessions - Roast the chicken and make the stock one day, the filling and pastry the next, and bake on the third. The filling actively improves after a night in the fridge, and splitting the work makes a big recipe manageable.
• Use a springform if you have one - Releasing the walls lets you bake a fully pastry-wrapped pie and still cut clean slices with crisp sides. A regular pie dish works, but you lose the exposed pastry wall.
• Chill the assembled pie before it bakes - Ten minutes in the fridge firms the butter in the pastry so it bakes short and delivers the best texture.
• Save the rendered chicken fat - It keeps in the fridge for weeks and is worth more than the pie. Use it here, then for roast potatoes or to start the next batch of vegetables.

Troubleshooting chicken pie

• Soggy, greasy bottom crust - Either the filling went in warm or too runny, the pastry was not chilled, or the oven was not hot enough. There is no fix once it is baked, so it is all in the prep. Cool the filling completely and make sure it is thick, not runny. Chill the lined tin before filling, and bake in a hot oven so the base sets fast. A metal springform placed directly on an oven rack or oven floor for the first ten minutes helps the bottom along. Do not bake it on another tray, as heat conducts poorly when it has to pass through an oven tray first.
• Bland-tasting filling - The chicken was boiled instead of roasted, the stock was not reduced, or the mushrooms were not browned. These are the three flavor steps, and none can be added back later with salt. If you are starting over, roast the bones dark, reduce the stock by half, and brown the mushrooms properly before anything else.
• Cracked or shrunken pastry - The dough was too cold and forced when rolling, or overworked when mixing. Let it reach about 13°C (55°F) before rolling, so it bends without cracking, and press it together rather than kneading. Overworked dough builds gluten, shrinks in the heat, and turns tough.
• Dry breast meat - The breast was roasted too far or treated like the legs. Pull it at 69°C (156°F), and remember it will cook again inside the pie. The legs can reach 74°C (165°F) because they have fat and connective tissue that help them stay moist.

Substitutes and variations

• Faster version - Use deboned chicken thighs, or pick the meat from a roast or rotisserie chicken. You lose the rendered fat and the harvested roasting juices, so reduce a good store-bought or homemade chicken stock, soy, and nutritional yeast to make up for the loss of flavor.
• Wine substitute - Skip the wine and deglaze the roasting tray with an equal splash of stock or water instead, scraping up all the fond the same way. Stir a teaspoon of lemon juice into the finished velouté to replace the faint acidity.
• Gluten-free version - Use a gluten-free flour blend for both the roux and the shortcrust. The roux thickens the same way. Choose a blend that holds together for the pastry, and chill it well, as gluten-free doughs are more fragile.
• Dairy-free version - Cook in oil or the rendered chicken fat instead of butter, use a dairy-free cream for the velouté, and make the pastry with shortening.
• Chicken pot pie version - Skip the bottom pastry. Spoon the cooled filling straight into a baking dish, top with a single pastry lid, egg-wash, vent, and bake. This is the American version.
• Mushrooms - Leave them out and add an extra half-portion of leek. The filling loses some savoriness, so use a bit more soy and nutritional yeast to compensate, but cut down on the salt.
• Tarragon - Use flat-leaf parsley instead, stirred in at the end. It keeps the filling fresh but loses the anise note that makes this version distinctive, so use a little more than you think.

Storage and make-ahead

• Make-ahead: This recipe is built for it. Roast the chicken and make the stock up to 3 days ahead, and the filling 1 to 2 days ahead - it improves overnight. The pastry keeps wrapped in the fridge for 2 days or frozen for a month. Assemble the pie on the day when you want to bake it.
• Refrigerator: Baked pie keeps 3 days, covered. Reheat slices at 180°C (350°F) for about 15 minutes so the pastry re-crisps. The microwave works, but softens the crust.
• Freezer: Freeze the assembled unbaked pie, well wrapped, for up to 3 months and bake from frozen at 190°C (375°F), adding 15 to 20 minutes. The cooled filling also freezes well on its own.

What to serve with chicken pie

The pie is the star of the show, so keep any sides simple and complementary. In my experience, a simple green salad with rosemary vinaigrette is the standout winner.

For something a bit heartier, go with a potato dish like potato puree or simply buttery baby potatoes. For a healthy side, I like serving a Georgian salad. Fresh and filling, both at once.

Frequently asked questions

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