If you’re looking for personalized, kid-friendly comfort food, you and your kids will love this recipe! Muffin Tin Pot Pies are comfort food at its finest and allow extra customization for picky eaters. Crispy on top and colorful and gooey in the middle, these pack in flavor, texture and nutrients for you and your family.
What You’ll Love about Muffin Tin Pot Pies
- Well-rounded blend of 5 food groups (protein, whole grain, veggies, dairy, fat)
- Packed with vitamins and minerals-full of protein, fiber, iron, vitamin A, antioxidants, and collagen
- Kid-friendly steps-a great recipe for teaching your kids in the kitchen (see steps below)
- Customizable for picky eaters and food allergies (see variations)
- Baby-Friendly-soft, colorful and flavorful, this meal is naturally appropriate for older infants and can be modified as necessary for younger babies.
- Healthy, Delicious, Nostalgic and Truly Comforting!
Ingredients for Muffin Tin Pot Pies
Filling:
- Chopped Cooked Chicken– I like using a roaster chicken, but 2 chicken breasts also work well.
- Finely chopped onion, carrots and celery-Carrots and onions fall in the clean 15 list, so organic isn’t necessary. Be sure to wash celery thoroughly before using, and you can opt for organic if desired.
- Peas-Frozen or canned work fine. If using canned, opt for low/no salt added and rinse thoroughly. These are a “clean 15” food, so organic is also not necessary.
- Diced Potatoes-To save some time, I like to use low/no salt added canned potatoes. You can also peel and parboil your own potatoes and dice them if desired. Potatoes are neither dirty dozen or clean 15, but if you’re concerned, know that washing and peeling them removes most of the risky residue.
- Chicken Broth-You can make your own from the juices of the roaster chicken or you can use bone broth for added protein and nutrients. I often add a small amount of bone broth to cook the chicken in, and this volume increases as the chicken cooks. I also leave the giblets in while cooking to add some extra nutrients.
- Butter or Ghee-I’ve used butter and ghee in this recipe. Both work equally well. If you have any sensitivity to dairy or lactose intolerance, ghee is a better option.
- Flour-I typically use unbleached all-purpose flour for this part of the recipe. You can also use gluten-free flour if needed.
- Milk-All types of milk will work fine for this recipe. I used grass-fed whole milk, but whatever dairy or non-dairy alternative you have on hand will work.
- Salt & Pepper-Once again, any type of salt or pepper is fine. You may need more or less, depending on if you used a seasoned broth.
Crust:
- Butter or Lard-You can use either interchangeably and they will each give a slightly different flavor and texture to the crust.
- Oil-I like to use olive or avocado oil for their nutrient benefits.
- Unbleached All Purpose Flour-If finances allow, opt for organic when possible.
- Whole Wheat Flour-I like to mix in part whole wheat or whole wheat white flour for extra nutrients and fiber.
- Salt-If using unsalted butter, lard or oil, you may want to add salt for extra flavor.
- Iced Water-A plain cup of water with ice will do.
How to Make Muffin Tin Pot Pies
Despite the grand intro, I don’t want to leave you feeling deceived…Muffin Tin Pot Pies (or any homemade pot pie for that matter) are a labor of love. I’ll offer some short cuts, but to maximize the nutrients and health benefits from the ingredients, the fewer short cuts the better! This may be a “few times a year” type of meal, but I can assure that it’ll be memorable.
You’ll also benefit from multitasking throughout this recipe (see more tips below).
Filling
- Place chicken in an instant pot or slow cooker with at least 1 cup of broth or water (if using instant pot).
- Cook chicken for 8 minutes/lb (instant pot) or 4-6 hrs on high/8-10 hours on low (slow cooker).
3. Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the slow cooker to cool. Shred and set aside.
4. If using the broth, strain into a glass measuring cup and set aside.
- If making a butter crust, take the butter out of the fridge to soften.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop the carrots, celery and onions and place into large pot or Dutch oven.
8. Add the butter or ghee and saute over medium-high heat for ~5-10 minutes until the veggies are softened and translucent.
9. While the veggies are sauteing, combine the chicken broth and milk in a glass bowl or measuring cup and microwave for approximately 2 minutes to warm (this step isn’t required, but helps the mixture to boil and thicken more quickly).
10. Once the veggies are soft, add the flour and stir approximately 2 minutes to create a roux.
11. Add chicken broth and milk (or warmed mixture) to the veggie roux. Reduce heat to medium, stirring almost constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Continue to stir for 1-2 minutes until fully thickened.
12. Drain and rinse peas and potatoes (dice potatoes if necessary).
- Stir shredded chicken, peas, potatoes, salt and pepper into the pot-pie mixture.
- Set mixture aside until the crust is ready.
Crust:
- Combine flour(s), salt, butter and oil with a pastry blender to form pea-sized clumps.
- Stir in ice water and use your hands to form into 2 equal-sized balls. If the dough is too crumbly, add an additional tablespoon of water.
- Flatten the dough balls into disks and roll out one disk into a large rectangle (16×12″) onto waxed paper or pastry mat.
- Cut the rectangle into 12 fairly even squares (~3×4”).
- Press dough squares into muffin tins; roll crust edge under and crimp as desired.
- Repeat steps 3-5 with the second dough ball.
- Scoop ~3 Tbsp chicken pot pie filling (above) into each muffin tin.
- Bake for ~15 min until crust is flaky and pot-pie is bubbly.
Time Saving Tips
- You may find it easier to cook and shred the chicken a day ahead of time. Just be sure to save the broth for the next day.
- Making the crust ahead of time, whether earlier in the day or the day before (and refrigerating in a disc shape) can also help to save time on the day of.
- If you decide to cook all on one day, start prepping the veggies and/or crust dough while the chicken is cooking.
- This recipe creates a lot of dishes…once you finally get your masterpiece in the oven, be sure to start working on the dishes!
Variations & Substitutions
Chicken Pot Pie for Babies
This recipe includes finely chopped, soft cooked veggies, making it very suitable for older babies (9-12 months).
- To reduce the risk of allergic reactions, be sure that your infant has tried at least most of the ingredients separately before introducing this meal
- Cut the chicken and crust into small chick-pea sized pieces
- Flatten the peas with a fork
- For infants who are not yet ready for these textures, feel free to put this through a food mill to create a more uniform texture
Chicken Pot Pie with Rotisserie Chicken
- You can easily use rotisserie chicken as a short cut in this recipe. This works when you’re in a pinch, but just know that it takes away the added benefits of homemade broth and adds some extra ingredients from the brine solution. Be sure to check the ingredients list if you’re avoiding any allergens or additives.
Dairy-Free Chicken Pot Pie
- For the filling: Sub out the butter for the equal amount of dairy free butter (i.e. Earth Balance, Country Crock Plant, Violife etc), or olive, avocado or coconut oil. The dairy free butter will provide the most similar flavor to butter, but the other options will also work! Replace the milk with an unsweetened mild flavored plant-based milk such as almond or cashew. Oat and coconut milks can tend to give off a more noticeable sweet flavor in this savory dish, so I don’t recommend them unless you’re allergic to nut milks.
- For the crust: Sub out the butter for an equal amount of lard, dairy-free butter or olive, avocado or coconut oil. Lard and dairy-free butter will give you the most similar result to regular butter. Coconut oil tends to make a slightly chewier crust and liquid oils like olive and avocado will make a smoother, less flaky crust. Olive oil also has a more noticeable flavor.
Chicken & Biscuits
- Use the filling recipe above, but instead of serving it in a crust, serve it with your favorite biscuit recipe. I love Cappello’s Buttermilk Biscuits (in the frozen section) as a quick, delicious option.
Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie
- Check out this allergen-friendly variation of muffin tin pot pies.
- Since this recipe makes a larger amount of filling, you can easily alter it for muffin tins by cutting the filling recipe in half and by doubling the crust recipe.
- Then, follow the crust rolling and baking steps from the muffin tin recipe (above).
- Note that gluten free crusts can be crumbly. Pressing them into the muffin tins can help them to stay formed. You can also add an egg to the recipe to reduce the crumbliness.
Ramekin Chicken Pot Pies
If your kids are anything like mine and have different food preferences, this variation makes the recipe easy to customize. This is basically upside down muffin tin pot pie.
- You can leave out the potatoes and/or peas altogether or customize each individual ramekin.
- Split the filling between 8-12 ramekins. You may have leftover filling, so if you don’t have enough ramekins, you put any remaining filling into a smaller pie plate or baking dish.
- Using the crust recipe above, roll out one ball of dough and cut individual mini round crusts with a large biscuit cutter or an upside down wide-mouth glass cup. Top ramekins with mini crusts.
- Roll out the second ball of dough and use to cover any remaining ramekins and/or the extra pot pie dish.
- Your kids can then decorate their individual pot pie crust with their initials or by adding extra cookie cutter crust designs.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and pot pies are bubbly. If you’re also baking an extra side of pot pie along with the ramekins, this may take an extra 5-10 minutes.
Double-Crust Whole Wheat Pie Crust
- If you’re just looking for an easy, tried and true double-crust whole wheat pie crust recipe, you can use the same crust recipe as above.
- Be sure to use a low flavor oil like avocado or canola oil.
- Roll out the first ball into a 12” circle on waxed paper or a pastry mat.
- Trim the edges, place the pie plate upside down over the pie crust and carefully invert the waxed paper and pie plate right side up. Remove the waxed paper.
- Fill pie with desired filling.
- Role out the second dough ball into a 12” circle and either place on top of pie filling or slice into strips to make a lattice pie crust.
- Fold the bottom crust edge over the top crust and crimp as desired.
- Bake according to pie filling directions.
Kid-Friendly Steps
This recipe is another great way to get your kids involved in cooking!
- Age 2-3: unwrapping the butter, dumping the cans, adding salt & pepper, stirring the filling mixture
- Age 4-7: shredding the chicken, using the chopper, measuring and dumping crust ingredients, using the pastry blender
- Age 8-9: peeling and measuring the veggies, rolling out the crust
- Age 10-12+: making the pie crust, rough-cutting the veggies, measuring the liquids, assisting with the entire recipe
Note: Children should always be supervised by an adult when using sharp utensils such as graters and peelers and when using the oven.
Best Side Dishes for Chicken Pot Pie
As a dietitian, I’m always looking for ways to add more color to meals. This meal already includes 5 different food groups with an entire serving of veggies in each portion. But if you want to round it out even further, I encourage adding a quick fruit or veggie side (that doesn’t take up extra oven space). Since the meal takes a while to make, quick is the key word. My favorites sides are:
- Applesauce
- Side salad
- Steamed frozen veggies
Muffin Tin Pot Pies
Equipment
- 1 Crockpot or Instant Pot
- 2 Large Glass Bowls
- 1 Chef Knife
- 1 Veggie Chopper
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Large Mesh Strainer
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 2 Muffin Tins
Ingredients
Filling
- 2-3 cups chicken (cooked, chopped) ~2 chicken breasts or 2 lb roaster chicken
- ~1 cup onion, peeled and finely chopped approx. 1 small onion
- ~1 cup carrots, peeled and finely chopped approx. 3 medium
- ~1 cup celery, finely chopped approx. 4 stalks
- 2 ½ Tbsp butter can substitute ghee or olive oil
- ¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken or bone broth can use leftover broth from cooking chicken
- 1 cup milk can substitute dairy-free alternative
- 8.5 oz small can peas, rinsed and drained
- 1 can potatoes, rinsed and chopped
Crust
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- ⅔ cups whole wheat or whole wheat white flour
- ½ cup butter or lard can substitute coconut oil or dairy-free butter
- ½ cup oil avocado or olive
- ¼ tsp salt if using unsalted butter or oil
- 8-10 Tbsp iced water
Instructions
Filling
- Place chicken in an instant pot or slow cooker with at least 1 cup of broth or water (if using instant pot).
- Cook chicken for 8 minutes/lb (instant pot) or 4-6 hrs on high/8-10 hours on low (slow cooker).
- Once chicken is cooked, remove from the slow cooker to cool. Chop or shred and set aside.
- If using the broth, strain into a glass measuring cup and set aside.
- If making a butter crust, take butter out of the fridge to soften.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Using a veggie chopper or chef knife, finely chop the carrots, celery and onions and place into a large pot or Dutch oven.
- Add the butter or ghee and saute over medium-high heat for ~5-10 minutes until the veggies are softened and translucent.
- While the veggies are sauteing, combine the chicken broth and milk in a glass bowl or measuring cup and microwave for approximately 2 minutes to warm (this step isn’t required, but helps the mixture to boil and thicken more quickly).
- Once the veggies are soft, add the flour and stir for approximately 2 minutes to create a roux.
- Add chicken broth and milk (or warmed mixture) to the veggie roux. Reduce heat to medium, stirring almost constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Stir for 1-2 minutes until fully thickened.
- Stir in shredded chicken.
- Drain and rinse peas and potatoes (dice potatoes if necessary) and stir into the pot-pie mixture.
- Set mixture aside until crust is ready.
Crust
- Combine flour(s), salt, butter and oil with a pastry blender.
- Stir in ice water and use your hands to form into 2 equal-sized balls. If the dough is too crumbly, add an additional tablespoon of water until a smooth ball can be formed.
- Flatten the dough balls into disks and roll out one disk into a large rectangle (16×12”) onto waxed paper or pastry mat.
- Cut the rectangle into 12 fairly even squares (~3×4”).
- Press dough squares into muffin tins; roll crust edge under and crimp as desired.
- Repeat steps 3-5 with the second dough ball.
- Scoop ~3 Tbsp chicken pot pie filling (above) into each muffin tin.
- Bake for ~15 min until crust is flaky and pot-pie is bubbly.
Notes
FAQs
Can I make the muffin tin crusts ahead of time?
Yes, making the muffin tin crusts ahead of time can help to save time on the big cooking day. Ideally, you would make the dough ahead of time and form it into 2 disks. Then secure them in waxed paper or an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.
Can I use olive oil instead of butter in this recipe?
Yes, I’ve used olive oil in both the roux and pie crust before. I personally prefer the flavor of the butter and find that my roux turns out a little better with butter or ghee. But olive or avocado oil will also work. You can also use all oil in the pie crust, though it will give a different flavor and texture. I prefer mixing part oil and part butter to lower the saturated fat while still leaving some buttery, flaky texture.
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