Some days I want homemade chicken pot pie.
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Some days I want homemade chicken pot pie without actually making homemade chicken pot pie.
Those are Easy Mode days.
This Easy Mode Chicken Pot Pie uses canned chicken, frozen vegetables, refrigerated biscuits, and just enough actual cooking to make a creamy homemade filling. It gives me the warm, cozy, chicken-pot-pie dinner I wanted without requiring me to cook chicken, chop a pile of vegetables, or make biscuits from scratch first.
Because sometimes dinner needs to understand the assignment.
Chicken Pot Pie for Low-Energy Days
I love cooking when I have the energy for it. I also firmly believe that using convenience foods does not somehow make dinner less legitimate.
Canned chicken is already cooked.
Frozen vegetables are already washed and chopped.
Refrigerated biscuits are already biscuits.
I am not going to redo perfectly good work just to prove I can.
The one part I do make is the creamy filling, because it only takes one skillet and a few minutes, and it makes the whole thing taste like a proper cozy casserole instead of a collection of shortcuts.
The result is thick, creamy, chicken-forward, and hearty, with fluffy golden biscuits baked right on top.
Easy Mode Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 (10-ounce) bag frozen seasoning vegetables (onion, celery, peppers, and parsley blend)
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can chicken broth
- 1/2 cup plain , non-vanilla extra-creamy nondairy milk
- 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Salt, to taste
- 1 (12-ounce) bag frozen peas and carrots
- 2 (12.5-ounce) cans chicken breast, well drained
- 1 (16-ounce) tube flaky jumbo refrigerated biscuits (8 biscuits)
- A light smattering of shredded cheddar, optional — about 1/4 cup
Instructions
How to Make It
- Heat your oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 2 1/2- to 3-quart baking dish.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add the frozen seasoning vegetables and cook for about 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want them softened and most of the extra moisture cooked away.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables. Stir everything together and cook for about 1 minute.
- Gradually stir or whisk in the entire 14.5-ounce can of chicken broth.
- Add the 1/2 cup milk, thyme, sage, garlic powder, and black pepper.
- Let the sauce simmer for 3–5 minutes, stirring often, until it has thickened enough to coat a spoon.
- Stir in the frozen peas and carrots and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Fold in the drained chicken.
- Give the filling a taste before adding any salt. Between the broth and canned chicken, you may find that it doesn't need much—or any.
- Spoon the hot chicken mixture into your prepared baking dish.
- Arrange all 8 biscuits over the top, leaving a little space between them.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake uncovered for another 5 minutes.
- If you're adding cheese, now is the time for a little smattering over the biscuits.
- Bake uncovered for another 5 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and the cheese is melted.
- Let the pot pie sit for 5–10 minutes before serving. The filling will continue to thicken a little as it rests.
Notes
Why I Cover the Biscuits First
This was the part I was most suspicious of.
Putting raw refrigerated biscuits on top of wet pot pie filling seems like a very good way to end up with beautifully browned biscuit tops and goo underneath.
Covering the casserole for the first 20 minutes solves that problem.
The foil holds in the heat and steam while the biscuits start cooking. Then removing it for the final 10 minutes lets the tops finish browning.
So you get fluffy biscuits with cooked bottoms instead of eight tiny golden hats sitting on raw dough.
Important distinction.
A Few Easy Mode Notes
I used Great Value frozen Seasoning Blend, Great Value Peas & Carrots, two cans of Great Value chicken breast, and Great Value Flaky Jumbo Butter Biscuits for this batch.
For the milk, I used Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Extra Creamy Original almondmilk. You don't specifically need almondmilk; regular dairy milk should work too. Just make sure whatever you use is plain and not vanilla, because vanilla chicken pot pie is not an adventure we're taking together.
I also added just a little Great Value Triple Cheddar over the biscuits at the end.
The cheese is completely optional. This isn't meant to be a cheesy chicken casserole. I just liked that little bit of salty, melty goodness on top.
Don't Thaw the Vegetables
Both bags of vegetables go in frozen.
The important part is letting the seasoning vegetables cook long enough at the beginning for their extra moisture to evaporate. That helps keep the finished filling thick and creamy instead of watery.
This Is a Thick Chicken Pot Pie
If your favorite part of chicken pot pie is an enormous puddle of gravy, this particular version may not be your pot pie.
I wanted plenty of chicken and vegetables held together by creamy gravy—not chicken soup hiding under biscuits.
It's substantial enough that when you scoop it into a bowl, you actually get dinner.
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This Is What I Mean by “Easy Mode”
Easy Mode isn’t necessarily the absolute fewest ingredients possible.
It’s looking at a recipe and asking:
Which parts actually need my energy?
For this chicken pot pie, I decided cooking and chopping chicken didn’t.
Chopping onions, celery, and peppers didn’t.
Making biscuits didn’t.
Making a quick creamy gravy? That I could handle.
So that’s where I spent my energy.
The result still tastes like I cooked dinner because I did cook dinner. I just let the grocery store handle some of the prep work first.
Let the Groceries Come to You, Too
While we’re outsourcing things, grocery delivery is one of my favorite ways to save a few more spoons.
I use Walmart+ delivery for a lot of our groceries because it takes the entire trip to the store off my list—and, as a bonus, I’m much less likely to come home with $40 worth of things I didn’t know I needed until I walked past them.
If you qualify, Walmart+ Assist offers a discounted Walmart+ membership for people receiving certain government assistance benefits.
For me, Easy Mode isn’t just about shortcuts once I’m standing in the kitchen. Sometimes the biggest shortcut is not having to go to the store in the first place.
The same idea applies to the tools I keep in my kitchen. The best ones aren’t necessarily fancy—they’re the ones that make cooking easier when I actually need them. If you’re building your kitchen around that idea too, I’ve rounded up my favorite Dream Cottage Kitchen upgrades for making everyday cooking and prep a little easier.
And on a low-energy day, that can be the difference between getting the cozy dinner I wanted and deciding that crackers and peanut butter count as a meal.
Again.
