Chicken Pot Pie topped with buttermilk biscuits is a family favorite. Loaded with chunks of chicken and bite-size vegetables in a creamy white sauce, it’s comfort food with an elegant feel.

This recipe is so flexible. Vary the vegetables to suit the season or your mood. In summer, corn fresh off the cob is obvious. In winter, bulk it up with potatoes or turnips. Green beans and carrots are regulars. Make it meatless. You get the picture.

Then consider options for the topping. Biscuits give a homey feel, they’re my go-to. Homemade pie dough is luscious (and makes it an actual pie!) but feels like more of an effort. Store bought puff pasty is an elegant alternative.

The full recipe feeds a crowd, filling a 9″ x 13″ inch baking dish. Since I’m an empty nester, I often bake half the filling in a medium-size (2-quart) baking dish with a whole batch of biscuits on top (or as many that fit, baking any extras on a separate sheet.) Then I freeze the other half for another meal.

Chicken Pot Pie with Buttermilk Biscuits

Chicken Pot Pie with buttermilk biscuit topping is a family favorite and it feeds a crowd. Loaded with chunks of chicken and bite-size vegetables in a creamy white sauce, it’s comfort food with an elegant feel. Vary the vegetables according to the season or your preferences. This recipe is adapted from The Perfect Recipe, by Pam Anderson. It’s a great cookbook that has inspired many family favorites.

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Prep Time 45

Total Time 1 10

Servings 10 people

Ingredients

Topping:

1 batch buttermilk biscuits uncooked (recipe below)

Filling:

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast(s)
2 cups chicken broth
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion chopped
2 large carrots peeled, sliced lengthwise, then into ¼ inch sections
1 cup fresh green beans cut into 1 inch pieces, microwaved till crisp-tender
1 – 2 ears corn on the cob kernels cut from cob (or 1 cup frozen corn kernels)
¾ cup frozen peas
4 Tablespoons butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
1½ cups milk plus more if needed
½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
¼ tsp salt, more as needed
black pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons dry sherry or dry vermouth, optional

Instructions

Make buttermilk biscuits, don't cook them yet, refrigerate until the filling is ready.
Cook the chicken. To poach, put chicken in medium size sauce pan. Add enough water to cover. Add large pinch of salt. Maybe throw in a bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover the saucepan and simmer gently until chicken is done throughout. Cooking time depends on the number and size of chicken, could be 10 to 15 minutes, though check doneness earlier with smaller pieces. Discard poaching liquid and set cooked chicken aside.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Precook fresh green beans in microwave till just tender.
Heat oil in Dutch oven on stove top over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, green beans, corn, and peas. Add a sprinkling of salt. Sauté until onions soften, about 5 – 7 minutes or so.
Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. Combine chicken with sautéed vegetables, stir well, transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
Melt butter over medium heat in Dutch oven. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute, until bubbly.
Add chicken broth, milk, thyme, salt and pepper, then whisk assertively. Bring to a boil, whisking continuously. Reduce heat to a simmer, cook 1 minute more, whisking continuously as sauce thickens. If desired, season to taste with more salt and pepper.
Stir in sherry. If sauce is too thick, stir in 2 Tablespoons milk, return to simmer. Add chicken-vegetable mixture to white sauce. Stir thoroughly.
Pour filling into 13 x 9 inch pan. Place uncooked biscuits directly on top of filling, spacing them out evenly. (Put any extra biscuits on separate baking sheet.) Bake until biscuits are done and filling is bubbly, about 20-25 minutes. Start checking for doneness after 18 minutes. Cool slightly and serve.

Notes

Find my recipe for buttermilk biscuits below or use your favorite recipe.
Add some aromatics to the poaching liquid, like bay leaf or garlic clove. Use another method to cook the chicken if you prefer.
I find precooking the green beans is needed so they are sufficiently tender in the finished dish. The microwave is convenient, but you could also steam/sauté the green beans in the dutch oven before adding the onions and remaining vegetables. I’ve tried canned green beans (drained) when fresh were not available with acceptable results. There’s no need to precook canned green beans, but they’re definitely not as good as fresh.
Potatoes or turnips could take the place the place of corn or peas, but need to be precooked until just tender before sautéing with onions and other vegetables.
My preference is to use homemade chicken broth, I’ve often got a stash in the freezer. If using canned, choose low-sodium chicken broth. If using broth made from Better than Bouillon paste, you may want to omit added salt in the white sauce.
The sherry is optional but really adds depth of flavor. Sometimes I use dry vermouth in place of sherry.
This recipe makes a lot, so I often bake half the filling in a smaller baking dish, freezing the remaining half to bake later with a fresh batch of biscuits or other topping. To cook half the filling, I use my 9-inch Fiesta Square Baker or a round 2-quart casserole dish, topping with as many biscuits from the full batch that fit, baking any additional biscuits on separate baking sheet.

Buttermilk Biscuits

This is my go-to biscuit recipe. I’ve always got butter in the freezer at the ready. If there’s no buttermilk in the fridge, I use 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar stirred into a scant cup of milk. I’ve streamlined the method so there’s no repeated rolling, no hassling with biscuit cutters. My recipe was inspired by “Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits” in The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson, among the most used cookbooks in my collection.

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Prep Time 15

Total Time 32

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
¾ tsp kosher salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter frozen (or refrigerated works also)
1 cup buttermilk plus extra drops as needed

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Use the large holes on a box grater to coarsely grate butter into the dry ingredients, stopping a time or two to toss grated butter into the flour. Give a final stir to evenly distribute butter in dry ingredients.
Pour in buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together. If necessary, add extra drops of buttermilk (or milk) and gently mix a bit more as needed.
Transfer dough onto a floured work surface and pat into a rectangle (roughly 7″ x 10″). Fold one of the short sides of the dough in towards the center. Fold the other short side on top of the first fold as if folding a business letter.
Gently reshape the dough and pat into square about ½ inch thick. For cleaner edges and better rise, use a sharp knife to trim off the outer perimeter of dough. Then cut the dough into 9 biscuits. Recombine and shape the scraps into an additional biscuit (it won’t be pretty but still tasty).
Arrange biscuits on baking sheet. Bake until tops are starting to brown and bottoms are golden, about 15 to 17 minutes, internal temperature should register 200 to 205 degrees.

Notes

Folding the dough (step 3) encourages some flakiness, but no worries if you omit this step. Just skip folding if it seems fiddly.
You can skip trimming the outer edge of dough (step 4), but the uncut edges won’t rise as well as the cut edges, resulting in an uneven height.
Some baking authorities may suggest it’s not always the optimal substitution, but in my experience, vinegar-in-milk works very well in place of buttermilk for this recipe (1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar stirred into a scant cup of milk in place of 1 cup buttermilk).
I use Morton® coarse kosher salt.