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Pie crust is great, but it’s also the reason most people never make chicken pot pie on a weeknight. This version swaps in drop biscuits which are substantially less work than a traditional crust with a result that’s even better than traditional pot pie.
Table of Contents
Why This Chicken Pot Pie with Drop Biscuits Recipe Delivers
When developing this recipe, my main focus was delivering a comforting chicken pot pie experience with less effort than the traditional pie crust version. So I’ve opted to switch the topping from a finicky pie crust to a 5-minute buttermilk drop biscuit that bakes right on top of the filling. These biscuits are crunchy on top, super buttery, and saturated underneath with the creamy, flavorful chicken sauce.
This recipe also tackles the common shortcomings on the filling side with a few ideas from restaurant cooking. Mainly a more diverse aromatic base, a big spoonful of chicken bouillon, and proper sauce-making technique. The final result is cozy and delicious. Perfect for a chilly night.
Brian’s Pro Tips
Roast the Thighs, Don’t Poach Them
Roasting the thighs separately on a wire rack as opposed to poaching them directly in the sauce tastes better. It also saves time because the chicken cooks while you prep the veg and build the filling. Cook them to 170° or 175°F (78°C) instead of the prescribed 165°F “safe to eat” temperature. This will render out more fat and break down some connective tissue. That’ll equal thighs that are more easily shreddable, less flabby, and more tender.
Cool the Filling Before the Biscuits Go On
If the filling is too hot, the butter in the biscuit dough will melt before it gets into the oven and you’ll end up with flat greasy biscuits instead of tall flaky ones. Pull the skillet off the heat and make the dough while the filling cools. Warm is ok, boiling is not ideal.
Frozen Butter
Frozen butter is firm enough to hold its shape and stay differentiated when you cut it into the flour at the start of mixing. This will leave little pockets of butter in the dough that melt and create steam during the bake. That means a lighter fluffier biscuit with better texture and flavor. If the butter is at room temp, it smears into the flour so there are no pockets to create steam, and you end up with a denser flatter biscuit
Key Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
A full list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
LEEK AND FENNEL
When I cooked professionally I often used these two vegetables to level up a standard mirepoix (usually just onion, carrot and celery). Leek has a soft grassy flavor thats much more interesting than plain onion, and fennel has a gentle sweetness with a whisper of anise.
Substitute – You can skip the leek and fennel and sub in more onion, carrot and celery. It’ll still be good, just a little more standard.
POULRY SEASONING
This blend of thyme, sage, marjoram, and rosemary makes everything taste like thanksgiving. I call it nostalgia powder. It’s not common to see in chicken pot pie, but I think it’s the move. It ups the coziness by 15% at least.
BETTER THAN BOUILLON
Boxed stock doesn’t really taste like chicken. It’s still better than water, but if you want a dish to have a strong base of chicken flavor you’ll need to do 1 of 2 things. Either make the stock yourself, which is time consuming and expensive, or you can use a high quality bouillon product. I like the Better than Bouillon brand linked here.
Substitute – Another bouillon paste that you like or bouillon powder. Bouillon is SALTY so be careful with how much you add.
BUTTERMILK
I like buttermilk over plain milk for the biscuits because its acidic tang cuts through the fat of the butter. It also brings a really nice flavor kind of like sour cream that’s fun and zippy.
Substitute – If you dont have buttermilk, sub in 225g Milk and 25g sour cream.
DRY WHITE WINE
A little acidity from the wine keeps all the butter and cream from tasting heavy. Don’t open a new bottle just for this. Instead keep a mini Bota Box of chardonnay in the fridge for cooking. Once opened those stay good enough to use for technically a month (but I usually push it to 3 months).
Substitute – If you don’t have wine, no need to substitute with anything.
How to Make Chicken Pot Pie with Drop Biscuits
Full ingredient list and amounts are listed in the recipe card below.
1. Freeze the Biscuit Butter. Dice 230g (about 2 sticks) unsalted butter into ½ inch cubes and throw them in the freezer on a small plate. The night before is ideal, but it will be firm enough to spin in about 25 minutes.
2. Salt and Roast the Chicken.
Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Season roughly 650g (1 1/2lb) of boneless skinless chicken thighs generously with salt on both sides. That’s about 8 to 10g of salt total, or roughly 1.5% of the chicken’s weight.
Lay them flat on a sheet tray with wire rack and roast for 20 to 25 minutes until they look nice and roasty.
3. Prep the Vegetables and Aromatics. While the chicken roasts, small dice the following into approximately 1/2 inch pieces:
- 200g yellow onion
- 100g celery
- 100g carrot
- 50 to 75g leek – Use only the white and light green parts. The dark green tops are tough
- 50 to 75g fennel – Trim off the stalks and fronds, halve it and cut out the core before dicing.
Toss all diced veggies into one bowl. Press 10g garlic and keep it in its own pile since it will be added in to cook last.
How do I clean a leek? Split it lengthwise and fan the layers under running water. Dirt hides between those layers and you won’t know it’s there until you crunch on it.
4. Sweat the Vegetables.
Heat about 2 tablespoons of neutral oil in a 12-inch cast iron pan over medium heat. Then add the diced veggies with a strong pinch of salt and cook for about 6 to 8 minutes while stirring occasionally. Try your best not to caramelize or brown the veg. This will make the final dish taste dark and heavy.
Once the veg is softened and the onion is translucent, add the garlic and sweat 1-2 minute more until fragrant.
5. Build the Roux.
Stir in 75g unsalted butter until it’s fully melted. Then sprinkle in 75g AP flour and 1g poultry seasoning. Stir until everything is coated. Cook for 1 minute while stirring constantly to cook off the raw edge of the flour.
Why not just sweat the veggies in the butter? The butter would most likely start to brown before the veggies are softened, and the veg would soak up a lot of the fat we need to bind with the flour to make the roux.
6. Deglaze with White Wine.
Pour in 75g of white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to lift up anything stuck to it. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the raw alcohol flavor cooks off.
7. Add the Stock and Simmer.
Add 750g chicken stock and 10g Better Than Bouillon while stirring to prevent lumps and bring it up to a simmer. Once bubbling, drop the heat to medium low and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Keep scraping the bottom and corners so the roux doesn’t scorch. By then the sauce should be thickened and the veg mostly tender. They don’t need to be 100% soft because they’ll keep cooking from carryover heat, AND the whole thing is going into a hot oven for 25 minutes.
I’ve got lumps. Can I fix it? Yes, most of them will dissolve as the sauce comes up to a boil. To get rid of stubborn lumps just press them flat against the side of the pot with the back of your spatula or a spoon. Next time, add the stock in 2 or 3 batches so the roux absorbs it more evenly.
8. Shred the Chicken.
By now the chicken should be done. Pull the tray from the oven and let the thighs rest on the rack for 5 minutes. Drop the oven to 400°F/205°C. Shred the thighs into small ragged pieces, then run a knife through the pile once or twice to break it down into 1 inch pieces.
9. Add Chicken, Cream, and Peas, Then Taste.
Off heat, gently stir the shredded chicken into the pan along with 75g cream and 150g frozen peas straight from the freezer.
Taste for seasoning here. You may want to add a strong pinch or two of salt. Once the biscuits are on top we can’t adjust any further. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP!!
Allow the filling to cool for 5 to 10 minutes while you make the biscuit dough.
10. Mix Drop Biscuit Dough.
- Add 275g flour, 20g sugar, 5g baking soda, 12g baking powder and 8g kosher salt to a food processor and pulse once or twice to mix. Add the 220g frozen butter straight from the freezer and pulse in short 1 to 2 second bursts (maybe 20 in total) until the butter is chopped down into small gravelly lentil sized pieces.
- Tip everything from the processor into a mixing bowl. Pour in 250g cold buttermilk and toss and stir with a spatula.
- The final dough should be a shaggy, lumpy mess but relatively homogeneous with the exception of the flecks of frozen butter throughout.
Why move it to a bowl instead of adding the buttermilk in the food processor? The blade would overmix it in seconds and start developing gluten. That would make the biscuits tougher and less fluffy.
11. Drop the Biscuits.
Scoop the dough into roughly 15-16, 50g portions. Start by lining them around the edge of the skillet first, then fill in the center. Fill in any large gaps with leftover dough.
Press biscuit dough pieces down gently with the back of a spoon. This spreads them slightly and also creates texture on top for more craggy, browned bits during baking.
What’s the best biscuit shape to use? This is by no means a science, but I like to shape the biscuit dough by making rough quenelles with two spoons. To do this, scoop a portion with one spoon, the scrape it into another spoon, and back into the first spoon before dropping onto the pie. This should give you a rough triangular prism shape.
12. Bake.
Set the skillet on a sheet tray and bake at 400°F (205°C) for 25 to 30 minutes. You want the top to be DEEPLY golden brown, not just blond. If the top is browning too fast, lay foil loosely over the biscuits for the last 10 minutes. Bubbling over is normal. That’s why the sheet tray is under there, so don’t skip it.
Why drop the oven to 400°F for the bake? The biscuits are sitting on a wet filling, so they need time to cook all the way through. At 425°F the tops would brown before the middles are done.
13. Rest and Serve. Let it cool for 10 minutes so the filling can thicken and the biscuits can fully set. Be careful. This dish is pure lava straight out of the oven.
Storage & Make-Ahead
The filling is the part to make ahead. It keeps up to 3 days in the fridge or a couple months in the freezer. Rewarm it gently in the skillet before the biscuits go on. You want it just warm, not bubbling, for the same reason you let it cool in the first place. Make the biscuits fresh.
Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in a 350°F (175°C) oven with foil on for 15 minutes. Take the foil off for 5 more to re-crisp the tops. The microwave works, but the biscuits go soft.
More Recipes to Try
- Peach Cobbler – another biscuit topped classic comfort food
- Flaky Biscuits – my standalone biscuit recipe with tons of flaky layers
- Chicken Noodle Soup – a cozy staple in my house during cold-weather months
- Chicken and Dumplings – creamy, cozy comfort in a bowl
Chicken Pot Pie with Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 650 g boneless skinless chicken thighs
- kosher salt
- 2 tbsp neutral oil, (avocado, canola, etc)
- 200 g onion, small diced
- 100 g celery, small diced
- 100 g carrot, small diced
- 10 g garlic, minced
- 60-75 g leek, white and light green only, small diced
- 60-75 g fennel, cored, small diced
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 75 g AP flour
- 1 g poultry seasoning
- 75 g dry white wine, (unoaked chardonnay, sav blanc, etc)
- 750 g chicken stock
- 10 g Better Than Bouillon, chicken flavor
- 75 g heavy cream
- 150 g frozen peas
For the Biscuits
- 220 g unsalted butter, diced and frozen
- 275 g AP flour
- 20 g granulated sugar
- 5 g baking soda
- 12 g baking powder
- 8 g kosher salt
- 250 g buttermilk, cold
Instructions
- Dice 220g butter into ½ inch cubes and freeze for at least 25 minutes or overnight (preferred).
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Season chicken thighs on both sides with 8 to 10g salt. Roast on a rack set in a sheet tray for 20 to 25 minutes.
- While the chicken roasts, small dice onion, celery, carrot, leek and fennel. Press garlic and keep it separate.
- Heat about 2 T neutral oil in a 12 inch cast iron pan over medium heat. Sweat the veg with a strong pinch of salt for 6 to 8 minutes without browning. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
- Stir in 75g unsalted butter until melted, then add 75g flour and the poultry seasoning. Cook, stirring for 1 minute.
- Deglaze with white wine and stir for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add chicken stock and Better Than Bouillon while stirring. Bring to a simmer, then drop to medium low and cook 3 to 4 minutes while scraping the bottom and corners.
- When the chicken is cooked, pull it from the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Drop the oven temp to 400°F (205°C). Once rested, shred the chicken then run a knife through it to make 1 inch pieces.
- Off heat, stir the chicken, cream and frozen peas into the filling. Taste and adjust salt. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes while you make the biscuits.
- Pulse flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Add the 220g frozen butter and pulse in short bursts about 20 times until the mixture forms lentil sized pieces. Transfer to a bowl then add cold buttermilk and stir gently with a spatula until a shaggy dough forms.
- Drop 15-16 portions of 50g each around the edge of the skillet first, then fill in the center. Press each down slightly with the back of the spoon to create some texture on top of each piece of dough.
- Set the skillet on a sheet tray and bake at 400°F (205°C) for 25 to 30 minutes until biscuits are deeply golden brown.
- Rest for 10 minutes before serving.
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Frequently Asked Questions
I wouldn’t. Breasts dry out and go stringy by the time the biscuits are done. Thighs have the fat and collagen to survive being cooked twice. If you want to save time, use rotisserie chicken instead and skip the roasting step entirely. Go for about 400g of picked, chopped rotisserie chicken.
A wide Dutch oven close to 12 inches works the same. A deeper, narrower Dutch oven works too. You’ll just have some extra dough left over. You can also use a deep 10-inch skillet, but you’ll need to scale down the batch. Whatever you use has to be able to go from stovetop to oven.
Yes, Pillsbury store bought should work well. My best guess is you need 1.5 cans. I’m not exactly sure since I haven’t tested it, but Im confident that will taste good (cause those biscuits taste good)
Yes. Grate the frozen butter on a box grater right into the dry mix and toss and break down until every shred is coated in flour. A pastry cutter or your fingertips work too. Just move fast so your hands don’t melt the butter.
Yes. A 1:1 gluten-free flour blend works in place of AP flour in the roux with no changes. The same blend works in the biscuits. They’ll just likely come out a tiny bit denser and more fragile.
Can’t wait to try.