I love chicken pot pie. My best friend recently suggested that I come up with a paleo version. I accepted the challenge and got busy baking!
Honestly, I’d never had homemade chicken pot pie. I’ve had the frozen variety a couple of times (to my mother’s horror) and order it in restaurants when I want a warm, cozy, American classic.
I know I’m preaching to the choir when I say that the crust is the best part of a chicken pot pie. With my incredibly high standards for a flaky, savory, take you back to childhood crust, I started my paleo conversion. The experiments were a success. This recipe is DEAD ON.
I adore Ina Garten and used her pot pie recipe as a rough go by. Like the classic recipe, hers calls for green peas. The paleo friendliness of green peas is arguable. I left them in because to me, it’s not pot pie without green peas. Feel free to substitute with broccoli if you want another option.
In addition to these little pies being simple and delicious, they also make for surprisingly easy cleanup. The baked-on bits that unavoidably spill over wash off with ease – another testament to why cooking with almond meal is a great idea.
The instructions may look long, but it’s a simple process. Don’t be intimidated and jump in. Be sure you let the pot pies cool after baking; just like their non-paleo cousins, these little guys come out boiling lava hot.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
CRUST:
- 3 cups Almond Meal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ cup Coconut Oil room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Cool Water
PIE:
- 2 Chicken Breast Halves Roasted and Cubed about 1 lb raw
- 2 cups Yellow Onions Chopped
- 2 cups Frozen Green Peas
- 2 cups Frozen Carrots
- ¼ cup Coconut Milk full fat
- ¾ cup Almond Meal
- 4 cups Low Sodium Chicken Stock
- 3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil EVOO
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 Egg for egg wash
Instructions
ROASTED CHICKEN:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Wash chicken breast and pat dry.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Drizzle and rub 1 Tbl EVOO on the chicken breast.
- Sprinkle with generous amount of kosher salt and cracked black pepper.
- Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes.
- Remove from oven when finished and let cool.
- Cut into about ½” cubes when cool enough to handle.
CRUST:
- In a food processor, mix the dry ingredients together (almond meal, salt, and baking powder).
- Add the coconut oil and slowly pulse until it’s evenly mixed. It should have the consistence of peas.
- Slowly add the water and pulse until it forms a dough-like texture.
- Remove from food processor, roll into a ball and wrap in cling wrap.
- Put the dough into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- [Now is a good time to start on the pie fillings]
- Dust a pastry board (or cutting board) with almond meal.
- Place the ball of dough on the dry almond meal and cut into 8 even sections. (Roll into one large piece if you’re making one large pie.)
- Using your hands first and then a rolling pen for even thickness, press and roll each of the 8 pieces into a circle.
- Keep dusting the top and bottom of dough with dry almond meal so that it doesn’t stick.
- Use the ramekin or dish you are baking in to cut the right-size circle in the dough.
PIE:
- Heat the EVOO in the bottom of a large pot.
- Add the yellow onions and cook on medium/high until they’re brown.
- Slowly add the almond meal and reduce the heat.
- Slowly add the chicken stock and stir.
- Add the coconut milk, 1 tsp salt, and black pepper.
- Add the peas, carrots, and chicken.
- Spoon an even amount into each of the 8 ramekins (or other oven-friendly bowls).
- Place the crust on top of the filling.
- Scramble one egg and paint the crust of each pie generously.
- Sprinkle with kosher salt and cut 3-4 slits in the top.
- Bake at 375 for one hour.
- Let cool, then ENJOY!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Ok, so this may seem a little silly, but I have small ramekins at home and while at the store this weekend I noticed they sell large ones as well. So for this receipe should I use small or large?
Hi Hilary! Either will work – I recommend using the ramekin size that best fits your serving size preference. That being said, the larger the ramekin, the more carefully you’ll have to place the crust on top. Hope that helps!
I made this a couple nights ago and it was really great! The only thing is that it was a little salty for me, but I’ll just use a little less next time. Wonderful recipe! Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it, Dawn! I do tend to use a little more salt (now moved onto mineral salts) when working almond flour into a savory dish – it helps to offset the sweetness.
Hi Cassandra,
This look delicious and I’m dying to make it. However I have a question: are there different sizes of ramekin? I’ve been trying to figure out how big yours are by the photo, they seem bigger than mine. Mine are about 3 inches in diameter. Will they do?
Hi Jayme! I think those ramekins are about 4″ in size. As long as you cut the dough with the ramekin you plan to use, they should work fine. Hope you love ’em!
would love to know how to make a full one without the crust falling apart into the pie when i try to put it on top….love the flavor hate the construction
Hi Amy! While the delicate dough definitely requires some special finesse, I know some who have maneuvered the dough with either a cookie sheet or parchment paper. Hope that helps some!
I have got to say, that was amazing! My Hubby and little Girl loved it. I rolled the dough out very thin between two parchment papers and baked in a pie dish. Crust was flakey, which we really enjoyed. Thank you for sharing!
So glad you loved it, Crystal!
Reblogged this on Teach.Pack.Eat and commented:
I love when I discover that something I thought I’d have to give up can be something I can enjoy even more :).
I made these tonight for dinner and OMG! SO delicious! Comforting, filling, tasty, easy, this is definitely going into my rotation for dinners. My un-Paleo husband gobbled up two! I followed the recipe exactly, and it was perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! A+++++!
Woo!! That’s great feedback, Stephanie! Thank you! So glad y’all liked them. Isn’t feeding tasty Paleo food to non-Paleo eaters the MOST fun?!
Reblogged this on Yoga4friends and commented:
We are in a paleo dinner mood in my house. Here is another one that neice Nicole plans to make–soon, I hope. I modified this recipe. Use fresh carrots. I dry and use the meal left over from making almond milk..after all, the almond meal is only here as a vehicle for oil and water to form into dough. You could also use rice flour, garbanzo meal, or Pamela’s gluten free flour. I love the pictures.
So I just thought I’d chime in with my experience. I’m vegetarian, but I’m gluten free as well. And thus many paleo recipes are of interest to me. I changed out the chicken for Beyond Meat, which is soy based and thus not paleo. And didn’t use the egg wash.
I had an issue with my crust cracking really bad, and it wouldn’t make it from the cutting board to the ramekin without the help of plastic wrap. But once baked it was amazing, even without the egg wash.
I really liked the recipe! Check out my site for a picture. ^.^
Great feedback! Thanks, Gabby!
Do you think this would work with coconut flour? I can’t eat almonds, but I’d love to add this to my menu for fall/winter.
Hi Lauren! I haven’t made it with coconut flour, so I can’t say for sure. I definitely recommend you experiment (you’ll need to use less flour and more liquid in the crust) and come back to let us know!
Hey this looks great! I was thinking of using canned tuna instead of chicken.. do you think that would work as well?
Hm, it’s definitely worth a try! I’d love to know how it comes out!
I made this tonight and unfortunately it was a complete fail… Although the flavor was amazing… So maybe not COMPLETE. I tried making the crust dough twice without luck. After refrigerating at least 30 minutes, the dough completely fell apart when trying to roll it. I tried again without luck, this time letting it cool and set up or whatever even longer. I ended up just using a normal pie crust and dealing with the gluten; however, are we sure the four cups of chicken stock is right? Mine ended up completely soupy inside the tasty (but not paleo) crust. Like we are talking chicken soup runny -not like chicken pot pie type creamy. I’m guessing its cause of the four cups of broth among other things. The flavor was wonderful however so I won’t complain about that at all!
I’m glad the flavors were good! The recipe as written is how I make it on a pretty regular basis. I’m sorry you had so much trouble with the dough.
I am definitely going to try this soon. Looks like a great recipe! 🙂
Thank you! I hope you love it.
I made this tonight for Sunday dinner and my husband said it was the best thing he has ever eaten – and we eat very well. great recipe and thanks! I could only eat half- it was so filling! I used TJs almond meal and it was no problem. I liked the texture actually! I used zucchini diced instead of peas to keep carbs lower. I also used pretty large ramekins as it was the only offering at dinner- no sides or salad. so the yield was about 5 instead of 8.
thanks again!
Hi Claire! Thank you so much for the comment. I’m thrilled that you and your husband liked it! My family raves about this dish too. I’m also glad to know that the TJs almond meal worked out for you.
I found your recipe earlier this week and I have been waiting for Saturday to come so I could make it. Even though it took a bit of time to prepare and bake, man, it was SO worth it! I served it with a side of cauliflower and it was just superb. The crust was a bit of hard work and I didn’t get it as nice as yours but it still tasted great.
I made 4 individual ones and one large one. For the large one I cut the crust into strips to make it easier to lay over the pie and that worked out really well.
I didn’t use peas but I did put in green beans and that worked really nice too.
Thank you so much for this Cassandra, it really hit the spot. The recipe was easy to follow and I didn’t need to make any adjustments, it just worked! This is great comfort food and I know I’ll be making this a lot when winter comes around. Or maybe like every week? Haha.
My in-law’s loved it, definitely a keeper!
Hi Stephanie! I’m so thrilled that you and your family liked the pies! Cutting the dough into strips sounds like a brilliant idea. Thank you for the sweet comment.