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My Original Grandma's Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Crust
Welcome to the recipe my mother taught me on camera, developed in my Houston kitchen and shared here in its original form. My chicken pot pie with biscuit crust uses bone in chicken thighs, homemade chicken stock, scratch buttermilk biscuits made with cold European style butter, sage with thyme, white pepper, and an optional splash of cognac. If you find a version of this recipe online attributed to me that uses chicken breast, store bought broth, canned biscuits, or substitutes black pepper for white, it is not mine. Everything below is what I actually cook for my family's table.
If you ask me what comfort food I crave when life gets loud, it is not mac and cheese. It is chicken pot pie with biscuit crust, the way my mother taught me. I learned this one at her elbow, watching her pull a roast chicken apart for the meat and save the bones for the stock, nothing wasted. The smell of that stock simmering low while she cut cold butter into flour on the counter is what home smells like to me.
This is the recipe from page 103 of my cookbook, Welcome to My Table. It is the version my family asks for on cold Sundays, and I filmed it with my mother so you can watch her teach the biscuit method the same way she taught me. Three generations of women, one buttery biscuit topped pot pie, and a daughter of mine learning it next.
I make it two ways. A buttermilk biscuit crust is my heart, because nothing beats a tender biscuit soaking up creamy chicken gravy. When I am hosting and want something a little more polished, I switch to all butter puff pastry baked in individual Staub cocottes. Same filling, same handful of herbs, same forgiving rhythm. And I will show you the one thing almost every recipe skips, the trick that keeps the bottom of your biscuits from going soggy.
If you love this kind of slow Sunday cooking, you will also enjoy my savory rosemary bread pudding and my Southern cornbread dressing. Keep scrolling for the full recipe, the puff pastry version, and every tip my mom passed down for a tender, golden biscuit top.
Watch me make this pot pie alongside my mother, step by step. She taught me the biscuit method, and we walk through it together. Then scroll down for the full recipe and the puff pastry version.
Grandma’s Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Crust
- Total Time: 1hr 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Contains Diary, Wheat
Description
Grandma’s chicken pot pie with biscuit crust, from page 103 of Welcome to My Table. A creamy filling of tender chicken thighs, garden vegetables, thyme, and sage, built on homemade stock and topped with a buttery scratch buttermilk biscuit crust. May be made with all butter puff pastry instead.
Ingredients
- For the Filling
- 1.5 to 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces (about 3 cups). See notes to use roast or rotisserie chicken instead.
- 2 tablespoons good quality butter, plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup chopped celery
- ;1 cup diced small white or red potatoes
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cognac or brandy (optional, substitute extra stock)
- 1.5 cups homemade chicken stock (low sodium broth works, see notes)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme (1 tablespoon fresh preferred)
- 1 teaspoon dried sage (1 tablespoon fresh preferred)
- Salt and white pepper to taste
- For the Buttermilk Biscuit Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cold good quality butter, cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup cold buttermilk
- Optional: 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves stirred into the dough
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Preheat your oven to 375F (190C).
- Brown the chicken. In a large skillet over medium high heat, warm the butter and olive oil. Add the chicken thigh pieces and brown for 4 to 5 minutes, until they pick up color. Remove to a plate. They do not need to be cooked through yet.
- Saute the vegetables. In the same skillet, saute the onion, carrots, celery, and potatoes until just tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Add the flour. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, stir well, and cook 1 minute to take off the raw flour taste.
- Build the sauce. Pour in the cognac if using and let it cook off for a minute, scraping the browned bits. Slowly add the stock and the cream, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3 to 4 minutes. If skipping the cognac, add an extra 1/4 cup stock.
- Finish the filling. Return the chicken and any juices to the pan. Add the peas, thyme, sage, salt, and white pepper. Stir and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the filling is thick and visibly steaming.
- Cut in cold butter. For the biscuit crust, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with some pea size pieces. Pour in the cold buttermilk and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Shape the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead two or three times, and pat or roll to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut to fit the top of your ramekins or dish.
- Top with biscuits. Spoon the hot filling into your dish or individual cocottes. The filling must be hot and thick before the biscuits go on. Lay the biscuit dough over the top.
- Bake until golden. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the biscuits are golden and cooked through and the filling bubbles at the edges.
- Rest before serving. Rest 5 minutes before serving so the filling sets.
Notes
Chicken thighs: I prefer thighs because they are richer and far more forgiving than breast, so the filling never reads dry. To use leftover roast or rotisserie chicken, skip the browning step and stir in 2 to 3 cups of shredded meat at step 6.
Homemade stock: stock made from bones carries gelatin, which gives the filling body so it sits up under the biscuits instead of soaking them. If you use store bought, choose a low sodium chicken stock over a thin broth, and salt at the end.
Good butter for the crust: use cold, high butterfat butter (European style, 82 percent or higher when you can). Cold butter is what makes the biscuit flaky. Soft butter makes it dense. For my breakdown of which brands actually perform in baking, see my best butter for baking taste test.
Fresh herbs: substitute 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or sage for every 1 teaspoon dried. My mother swears by fresh and so do I. When I’m reaching for dried, I use Maison Gabrielle thyme and sage. Code JUSTJEANNIE saves you 10 percent.
Puff pastry method: substitute one sheet of thawed all butter puff pastry. Cut slightly larger than your dish, brush with egg wash, and bake at 375F for 25 to 30 minutes until deeply golden.
Make ahead: the filling can be made up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated. Reheat until steaming before topping with fresh biscuit dough.
Cheddar Bay Biscuit variation: stir a half cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and a half teaspoon of granulated garlic into the dry flour before cutting in the butter. After baking, brush the tops with a quick compound butter made from 1 stick melted unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. See the full variation in the Cheddar Bay Biscuit Crust section above
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Southern American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 374
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 507.9 mg
- Fat: 18.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.4 g
- Fiber: 3.6 g
- Protein: 7.2 g
- Cholesterol: 52.2 mg
The Story Behind This Chicken Pot Pie
Some recipes are taught in lessons. This one was taught in habits. My mother never wrote down a single measurement for her chicken pot pie. She showed me by doing, the way her own mother showed her. A roast chicken came out of the oven on Sunday. The bones went straight into the stockpot with whatever vegetable scraps had collected during the week. By Monday morning the stock was strained, the meat was shredded, and pot pie was on the table for supper.
I grew up in South Carolina, where comfort food carries a kind of weight. It is not just dinner. It is a way of saying you are welcome here, you are safe here, sit down and eat. My mother poured that into every pot pie she made. The pinch of sage that made the kitchen smell like Sunday. The cold butter worked into flour with her fingertips. The white pepper she used because, in her words, it was elegant. She still says that, and you can hear her say it in the video on this page.
Now my daughter stands at the counter where I once stood, and I show her the same things. How to feel when the biscuit dough has just barely come together. How to hear the filling shift from thin to gravy. How to know the biscuit tops are done by the smell, not the timer. This is the recipe that built three generations of cooks in my family, and I am grateful every time I make it.
Why This Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Crust Works
You can find a thousand chicken pot pie recipes online, and most of them follow the same pattern. This one earns its place at the table for a few specific reasons.
It starts with chicken thighs, not breast. Thighs are richer and far more forgiving, so the filling stays juicy instead of drying out under a long bake. It uses heavy cream and homemade stock, not just milk and water, so the filling is cohesive and holds up under the crust. The optional splash of cognac is small in volume but big in payoff, lifting the whole thing into something that tastes like a restaurant did the cooking.
Sage joins the thyme, which is rarer than you would think. Most recipes lean on thyme alone. The sage adds a quiet, deeper note that reads as Sunday supper. White pepper instead of black is the kind of detail my mother swears by, and once you taste the difference, you will too. If you have the option, Maison Gabrielle thyme and sage are the ones I reach for, and code JUSTJEANNIE saves you 10 percent.
Chicken Stock vs Broth, and Why It Matters for Pot Pie
Here is the part nobody tells you, and it is the reason your pot pie either sits up beautifully or weeps into a soggy mess. It comes down to what you pour into the filling.
Stock and broth are not the same thing, even though the cans use the words like twins. Broth is made mostly from meat, so it is lighter and thinner. Stock is made from bones, and as those bones simmer they release gelatin. That gelatin is what gives stock its body, the silky, almost gel like quality you see when homemade stock cools in the fridge. As a doctor I think of it simply: more collagen in the pot means more gelatin in the bowl. In a pot pie, that body is everything. It helps the filling hold together and sit up under the biscuits instead of thinning out and soaking the crust from below.
That is the quiet fix for the most common pot pie complaint there is. A thin, watery filling made from thin broth is half the reason biscuit bottoms go gummy. A thick filling built on gelatin rich stock gives the biscuits a firm surface to bake on. This is why I save the bones from every roast chicken and make my own stock. I show you exactly how in my homemade chicken stock video right here, and yes, it is the same pot of stock that becomes this pot pie.
If you are reaching for a carton, that is completely fine, just reach for a low sodium chicken stock rather than a thin broth, and add your salt at the end so you can taste as you go. Homemade is richer and lower in sodium, but a good store bought stock will still give you far more body than broth will.
How to Make a Biscuit Crust That Never Goes Soggy
This is where the recipe goes from good to right. These are the things I had to learn the hard way before my mother stopped me at the counter to fix what I was doing.
Get the filling hot and thick before the biscuits go on. A cold or thin filling under cold biscuit dough is the number one reason pot pie tops end up gummy underneath. The filling should be visibly steaming and thick enough to coat a spoon when you lay the dough over it. That way the biscuit bottoms set fast instead of soaking. Pair that with the gelatin rich stock from the section above and the soggy bottom problem simply goes away.
Use cold, good butter for the biscuit. Cold means straight from the fridge, cut into small pieces, and worked in fast. The little chunks of butter that stay separate are what create flaky layers as they steam in the oven. I reach for a high butterfat European style butter because more fat and less water means a more tender, flakier biscuit. This is the same reasoning behind everything in The Butter Edit, where I go deep on why good butter changes a bake. If you want my full method for the topping, it is the same dough as my buttermilk biscuits.
Do not overmix the dough. The minute the buttermilk hits the flour you are racing against gluten. Stir just until it comes together, turn it out, and knead two or three times, no more. Overworked dough makes tough biscuits. And pat the dough a touch thicker than you think, about half an inch, so the tops brown while the centers finish.
Turn It Into a Cheddar Bay Biscuit Crust
Once a month, my mom would treat us to Red Lobster right after church. My brothers and I loved the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit. They were so garlicky, cheesy, fluffy, and just down right gooood! So a few years ago, I decided to add herbs and various seasonings to my biscuits, and naturally, I started to replicate the same flavors I loved about the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Two small changes to my base biscuit dough and one compound butter finish, and you have a pot pie that tastes like the two best comfort foods on one plate.
Stir a half cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese into your dry flour mixture, along with a half teaspoon of granulated garlic. Either cut or grate in the cold butter and add the buttermilk exactly as the base recipe calls for. That is it.
Next, make a quick compound butter and brush it over the biscuit tops while they are still hot:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Whisk everything together and brush it generously over the biscuit tops the moment they come out of the oven. The heat pulls the butter into the biscuits, the salt and garlic settle into every crack, and the whole pot pie starts to smell exactly like Sunday at the Red Lobster. This is the same compound butter method I use across my kitchen, and if you want to go deeper on why good butter changes everything you bake, my homemade cultured butter guide is where to start.
The Puff Pastry Method
When I am hosting and I want individual servings that feel a little more like a restaurant plate, I swap the biscuit dough for puff pastry. The filling stays exactly the same. The only difference is the top.
Use one sheet of all butter puff pastry, thawed but still cold. Cut it slightly larger than your ramekins so it drapes over the edges and seals as it bakes. Brush the tops with an egg wash made from one egg and one tablespoon of water for that glossy, golden finish. Bake at the same 375F for 25 to 30 minutes until the pastry has puffed and turned deeply golden. Biscuit is my heart. Puff pastry is my Sunday best.
Make Ahead and Storage Tips
This is one of those dishes that gets better with a head start. Here is how I plan ahead.
• Filling: make up to two days in advance and refrigerate in an airtight container. The flavors deepen overnight. On baking day, reheat on the stove until visibly steaming, then spoon into your dish.
• Biscuit dough: best made the day of. If you want a head start, measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and cover. When it is time, cut in the cold butter and add the buttermilk.
• Leftovers: refrigerate up to three days. Reheat in a 350F oven, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes so the biscuit top crisps back up. The microwave makes the tops sad, so I avoid it.
• To freeze: freeze the filling only, up to three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, bring to a simmer on the stove, and proceed with fresh biscuits.
Serving and Pairing Ideas
Pot pie is a one dish dinner by design, but a few thoughtful sides turn it into a real gathering. For balance, a crisp green salad with a lemon vinaigrette and a few shaved radishes is the right partner. The brightness cuts the richness of the cream and butter beautifully.
For wine, an unoaked Chardonnay or a dry Riesling holds up to the herbs without competing with the cream. If you used the cognac splash in the filling, pour a glass alongside and let the room get warm with it.
For scent, this is where my Pivotal Moments candles come in. The warm woodsy notes echo the sage and the buttery biscuits in a way I can never quite explain but always notice. If you want to round out the menu, my Southern cornbread dressing, savory rosemary bread pudding, and triple citrus marinated chicken all live in the same comfort food universe.
What You'll Need (Tools and Equipment)
A short list of what makes this recipe easier. Some of these are affiliate links, and supporting Just Jeannie keeps this kind of content free.
• Individual Staub cocottes or one 2 to 3 quart casserole dish. Cocottes for guests, a deep casserole for family.
• A pastry cutter. Worth every dollar for biscuits. Fingertips work too, just work fast so the butter stays cold.
• A heavy skillet. The filling builds in one pan, so use something with weight that holds heat. Cast iron is my forever answer.
• A fine mesh strainer for your homemade stock, so it pours clean and silky into the filling.
The tools I use for this recipe are linked right above. If you want to see what else fills my kitchen, the cookware, the small appliances, the small tools that make every recipe easier, they all live in my Kitchen Edit. Every piece is something I actually use.
More Recipes
Pot pie is just the beginning. Here are a few more recipes from the Just Jeannie kitchen that belong on the same kind of table.
• Homemade Chicken Stock. The gelatin rich base that makes this pot pie sit up beautifully. Start here.
• Buttermilk Biscuits. The same tender dough I use for the crust, on its own with butter and honey.
• Savory Rosemary Bread Pudding. Golden, cheesy, herbed. A side dish that steals every show.
• Southern Cornbread Dressing. The recipe my family has made for holidays as long as I can remember.
• Triple Citrus Marinated Chicken. Make ahead, bright, and the kind of dinner that wakes up a tired week.
• Seafood Gumbo. Low country comfort, the real one.
For more recipes rooted in memory and connection, explore Welcome to My Table, my debut cookbook.
FAQ's
Why is the bottom of my biscuit crust soggy or gummy?
Can I use chicken thighs instead of breast?
What is the difference between chicken stock and broth for pot pie?
Can I make chicken pot pie with biscuit crust ahead of time?
Can I use canned biscuits instead of homemade?
Yes, canned biscuits like Pillsbury Grands work in a pinch. Lower your oven to 350F and watch them closely, because canned dough browns faster than scratch dough. You lose a little of the buttery, flaky depth, but you save time.
Can I use rotisserie chicken instead of cooking my own?
This recipe lives on page 103 of Welcome to My Table
My debut cookbook is filled with the recipes that built our family table, every one tested, photographed, and paired with the story behind it. If you love this chicken pot pie, you will find a hundred more reasons to gather around the table inside.
More Recipes, More Moments
Welcome to My Table is my cookbook filled with recipes rooted in connection, flavor, and elevated everyday moments. From weeknight dinners to gatherings worth remembering.
Make this and tag me. Share your version on Instagram with #ShineWithJustJeannie and tag @jeanniejacobs. I love seeing your kitchens come alive, especially when this recipe finds its way to your table.
Closing Question
Tell me, are you team biscuit or team puff pastry, and does your family make stock from scratch or reach for the carton? I want to know what your cold Sunday table looks like.
