Chicken Pot Pie Crumble
This chicken pot pie crumble is unique because it is covered with a toasted-parmesan crumble topping. It is also simple and crazy delicious.
This meal is crazy delicious.
I’ll be honest that chicken pot pie has never been in my must-make-or-die list. It’s good and all but I’ve never craved it. Until now.

This chicken pot pie version is unique because it is covered with a toasted-parmesan crumble topping.
That alone would sway me to add chicken pot pie to my make-immediately list, but combine that with the fact that the chicken is basking in a creamy, vegetable-and-flavor-laden sauce and it just about put me into a chicken pot pie coma.
Calorie free? Heavens no. Delicious and worth every one? Oh yeah.
What to Serve With This
- Steamed broccoli or roasted cauliflower or even corn on the cob
- Fresh fruit
- Green Salad
One Year Ago: Baked Brown Rice
Two Years Ago: Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Three Years Ago: Fabulous BBQ Ribs
Chicken Pot Pie Crumble
Ingredients
Chicken and Sauce:
- 1 ½ pounds chicken, about three medium-size chicken breasts
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
- 3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced (about 1 cup)
- 2-3 stalks celery, chopped (about ½ cup)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cup frozen peas
Crumble Topping:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- To prepare the chicken, place the chicken and broth in a large Dutch oven or pot and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Cook the chicken until it is just done (don’t overcook or it will dry out) – about 10-12 minutes. Alternately, if you are planning in advance, you can place the chicken and broth in a slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours. Transfer the cooked chicken to a medium bowl. Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a liquid measuring cup and reserve. Return the pot to the stovetop (no need to wash if you used it to cook the chicken).
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Sprinkle the chilled butter pieces over the top of the flour. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the Parmesan cheese. Add the cream and stir until just combined. Crumble the mixture into irregularly shaped pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the crumble topping until fragrant and starting to brown, about 15 minutes, tossing halfway through. Set aside.
- For the filling, heat the olive oil in the now-empty pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 5 minutes. While the vegetables are cooking, shred the chicken into small bite-size pieces. Transfer the cooked vegetables to the bowl with the chicken; set aside.
- Over medium heat melt the butter in the empty pot. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the reserved chicken broth and milk. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn the bottom. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Remove from the heat and stir the chicken, vegetables and peas into the sauce.
- Pour the mixture into a 9×13 pan. Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the filling. Place the 9X13-inch pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until the topping is well browned, about 15-20 minutes. Let the casserole stand for 10 minutes before serving.
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Recipe Source: adapted from Favorite Family Recipes
gonna try this recipe for my husband this weekend.
Have you ever tried freezing this meal? I’m in a freezer group and was really wanting to make this!
Never mind! Haha I just read through the comments- can’t wait to try this!
This was so good! I made a few substitutions to make it easier (rotisserie chicken & frozen veggies) and healthier (kodiak cakes mix & 1% milk) and it turned out great! Now a regular at my house.
i love love love this recipe and i have family coming into town for christmas and wanted to make and freeze this ahead of time. i have scoured all the previous comments and not found one about freezing. i would definitely freeze the topping separate but i just don’t know what to do for baking it… bake it frozen? what temp would you suggest and how long? and at what point would i add the frozen topping? i am a recipe follower so i’m not good at winging it!! help me please!!
I know it’s long after this was posted, but I freeze the whole thing after I add the topping but before the oven stage. It works great and have used it many times for recipe swaps. Sometimes I add lemon, or an additional veggie and it works great.
any idea how many this will serve?
6-8
Delish!! The crumble topping is amazing- and pepper but now it makes sense. Just the right amount of heat without being “weird”! I made chicken in the crockpot hours ahead of time, this recipe is a little time-consuming but very worth it.
So I made this dish for the first time last Thursday. Took me a little while, but I told my family that I think it will be worth the wait (I even took a short cut and used a rotisserie).
So when it was time to eat, I said it was a ‘Mel’ recipe and, boy, it did not disappoint. My husband RAVED about it. He said that we should buy (or send ) you a gift (lol–not sure how we would do that!), and then he said that you should get a raise. So I guess he has some pretty strong feelings about this pot pie. I will say that I whole-heartedly agree with him. It was so good that I am making another half batch for supper tonight.
Thank you for another super recipe! Your check is in the mail 🙂
Haha, thanks, I’ll look forward to that! 🙂 So happy this meal was so well-received!
SO yummy! My first time making chicken pot pie and it was fairly easy! This is my favorite food blog EVER!
Thank you!
Made this for dinner last night, and it was a raving hit.
made the topping (of my goodness that’s good!)…..working on my rue….smells fabulous…going to serve individual sizes using my muffin tin…stay tuned. I am excited!!!
ok on hindsight the muffin tin not the best idea since there is no bottom crust. Duh. Luckily I thought of this before I started spooning into the tin. I made individual crocks and I really think this might be the best pot pie I have ever tasted. Seriously. I eye ball a lot of stuff but I was close to the recipe. Only thing I added were a couple dashes of green pepper sauce to the chicken/veggie mix. Fantastic.
I just made this tonight and it was amazing!! I got a tip from my daughters to shred the chicken in my kitchenaid mixer. It did a great job of shredding and is soooo fast! I am definitely going to make this again for my family. Very flavorful! Thanks for the recipe! I love your website!
I might have already commented on this recipe before, but seriously we love it that much!! We have 2 toddler boys and this recipe is such a great way to get them to eat veggies. It’s also super adaptable. My husband hates peas so we use green beans, and I love that we can just add the veggies we have on hand. We also had to go dairy free last year because of food sensitivities, so I typically make this with unsweetened almond milk for the gravy and use a dairy free pie crust crumble. It is still amazing (But we do miss the crumble topping when we do it dairy free)!!!! Thank for a truly adaptable recipe that my family enjoys over and over!
This took a lot of time to prepare (as compared to the quick meals that I usually make on week nights), but totally worth it. We loved it! Thanks for another great recipe!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I should’ve taken the advice of others and doubled it to freeze for a second meal. I was worried about how long it would take to put together, but it was only 65 min from start to table. This will be definitely making my meal rotation!
This is probably a silly question, but why do you put the 9×13 on a rimmed baking sheet? I halved the recipe and stuck it in an 8×8 (chopping up almost the same amount of veggies and adding broccoli to fill up the pan a little). I can be clumsy so I was afraid if I put the 8×8 on a baking sheet I would drop it taking it all out, so I just stuck the 8×8 in there by itself. One of my guesses as to why was in case it bubbled over, but my 8×8 didn’t look close to spilling so I thought I might be ok. I am curious to know your reason, though 🙂
Yep, you are right – it’s so if it bubbles over it won’t make a mess inside your oven. 🙂
This was a big hit at our house, my husband said this is the best chicken pot pie he has ever tasted. Hank you Mel, I can always count on you for a great recipe. I did reduce the salt a little.
I made this tonight–very yummy! I’m not gonna lie though, I did not like all of the “steps”. I baked mine right in the skillet that I cooked everything in to save on a pan. Next time, I might just dump on the topping without prebaking and see how it goes! I’ll just make sure that the filling is bubbling when I put it on. My kids ate seconds (and thirds for my two-year-old!).
Absolutely loved this! And we love a lot of your recipes. Just one question…how do you keep from eating the crumbles before they go on the chicken pot pie? 🙂
I know, right?? The crumble is delicious!
We have had this recipe about 4 times the last three weeks. I love how I can throw tons of veggies and goodness in for the kids, and that it’s from scratch. Plus the parmesan bread bites on the top are delicious. We used green beans instead of peas because my husband isn’t a fan plus we had a ton of green beans from our garden. That was the only change we made though. This is definitely a family favorite and I’m sure with winter coming we will be eating it often!
This is one of my husband’s favorite Mel recipes (and we’ve tried a LOT!). My new brilliant idea is to make the recipe until right before you put it all in pan to put in the oven and put the stewy part in one gallon zip lock bag and the biscuit topping in another, freeze them, and bring them camping to cook up in a Dutch oven. I feel like I’m cheating when camp food tastes that good! 🙂
I made this tonight and it was delicious. Thank you. I used whole milk instead of cream because I didn’t have any on hand and didn’t want to go to the store. Also, a friend suggested adding lemon juice to flour-based sauces to balance flavor — and that worked for this, too. Anyway, thanks a lot for a great recipe and for saving my family, once again. I use your recipes many times a week. You’re great. Thanks for all the work and time you put into your blog.
This is divine. The only changes I made was to sub in evaporated milk for the regular milk (as that is how I make my pot pie) and add some white cooking wine to the sauce. Fantastico. For those who deem this labor intensive…some things are worth it. My advice for you is to make more than one at a time. I made 3 and it was not any harder than making one. As you finish phases of cooking, just dump it into a freezer bag. Cook the veggies in oil and cool. Dump it into gallon bag. I used steamer bags of mixed veggies…steamed them, cool slightly and dump into the bag. Make the sauce, cool slightly and dump into the bag. Add pre-cooked chicken that has cooled and dump into bag. After cool, seal and mix inside the bag. Cool completely and freeze. Make crumble, bake, cool and dump into another separate bag. After filling mixture is frozen to bottom of upright freezer bag, stuff the crumble topping carefully into filling bag. This keeps them together so they won’t get lost in freezer. These were alot of words, but I just wanted to describe the process for those of you who think it takes to much time to make it from scratch. It may take an hour, but you just make 3-4 meals that all you have to do is thaw and bake! Actually, my family will only eat an 8×8 of pot pie (not a fan of leftover pot pie) so we can get double the amount of meals by splitting each meal into 2 bags. Making 6 meals! Just plan ahead and love every bite!
This dish made me happy,happy, happy. Used leftover roasted turkey breast, added fresh thyme and rosemary from by garden in a pot. So good!
Hi, first off I discovered your site when I saw a very delicious looking picture of a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake (I can’t remember where) and I really really really wanted to know how to make it. Thus I am here right now 😀 I ended up browsing through your recipes and saw this. I’ve always wanted to try this and finally got the chance to make one today. IT’S VERY DELICIOUS! VERY! omg thanks for sharing this! my family is loving it too 🙂 I think I’m preparing this for Christmas… it’s a must!
p.s. i still have that chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake on my to-do-list 😀 I can’t wait to try it 😀
I’ve made this before but not for awhile & I forgot how amazing it is. Thankfully I was alone in the kitchen because the way I licked all the utensils clean you would think I had made a chocolate cake! Fab-u-lous!!
I have tried this recipe and loved it! My question is- could I use the filling to make a traditional chicken pot pie?
Brianne – although I haven’t tried it, I think it should be ok. Good luck experimenting!
This was FANTASTIC! My hubby has never liked pot pie…but he REALLY liked this. Plus, all four of my kids (including the 1 year old) happily ate it. Your website is officially my favorite!
I’ve made this several times and it’s always a big hit! Although, we seem to have tons leftover. Can I freeze 1/2? Biscuits baked off first and frozen or no? Thoughts? Thanks again – I love your recipes and this website. 🙂
Karen – I think someone else commented that they froze successfully so it’s definitely worth a try!
I found a way to shorten prep time for those who mentioned that. Didn’t have refrigerated pie crusts tonight for my normal pot pie and wanted to use some of my cooked shredded chicken from the freezer so I gave this recipe a try. I usually keep 2-cup portions of it in the freezer from when I’ve bought a family pak of chicken breasts on sale. Anyway, thawed that and also used half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas/green beans/carrots) plus the onions. Added thyme to the filling mixture along with the salt/pepper. It gives it a unique taste and I always add it to my usual pot pie recipe.
From what I tried of the recipe before it went into the oven, it is going to be amazing!!
P.S. Britney – mine looked/tasted like biscuits too rather than streusel but I was fine with that! Not sure how to make them more crumbly instead of biscuit-y but again, it tasted great so I’m happy with it.
Hi Britney – the topping is not biscuits – it’s more like a crumbly savory streusel. And as a sidenote, I usually buy the Herdez brand of green enchilada sauce or salsa.
I am a huge fan of yours. I visit your blog daily and my Hubbie is a big fan of the new recipes. I am struggling with the topping to this dish. I am creating biscuits. Is that what it is? First I thought it was because I melted the butter but the next time I followed your recipe to the t with the same results. As a side note it would be very helpful if when you are using things like( green enchilada sauce) you would post the brand you prefer. Like you did for the basil coconut curry chicken dish. Yum! You posted the brand of curry you buy. That is very helpful. Your site is amazing. Thank you for it.
I make this on a regular basis and let me tell you, its amazing. I never change a thing and it comes out delicious and perfect each time. Ive served it for company as well and it gets rave reviews!
Alicia – I always use fresh Parmesan and grate it on the small holes of my box grater but I won’t tell if you use the canned Parmesan. 🙂 It could be used in a pinch, for sure, but the fresh stuff will be better taste-wise.
Hi,
I was wondering when you say grated cheese in a recipe like this can you use the dry kind that you shake on speghetti or do you have to buy a block of parmesian and shred or grate? I know the later would be tastier but in a pinch can the “shakey cheese”, as we call it in our house, be used? thanks
I added poultry seasoning to the veggies, too. I would increase the sauce a bit – it’s delicious and I’d like a little more. I’ll be making those drop biscuits again and again in other recipes! YUMMY.
I made and assembled the casserole about 6 hours ahead of dinner time. Baked the biscuits and let them cool. When it was time to heat up, I topped the casserole with the biscuits. It worked out perfectly, as it takes a bit to prepare.
I had a pot pie craving and decided to try this tonight. The only changes I made was using a rotisserie chicken instead of cooking it myself (lazy, I know) and I added about a teaspoon of thyme to the veggie mix…it was AWESOME! Love your site, can’t wait to try more recipes!
I’m done prepping everything and would like to assemble and bake later tonight. Has anyone tried this? Thanks, can’t wait to try!
Stephanie – I believe one of the earlier commenters said they froze this and it worked just fine. You might consider storing the crumble topping in a freezer-safe ziploc bag and then sprinkling it on before baking (after taking both components out of the freezer).
Do you think this could be a freezeable meal? I’m going out of town for a week, and trying to put together a menu of freezeable meals that I can prepare before hand so my hubby just has to pop it in the oven, and my fmaily will steal be getting wonderful delicious and nutrious meals.
this is my go to recipe for new moms! i always buy the square baking tins and divide it into the 2 pans. there is plenty to feed both families and everyone loves it! thanks for another yummy recipe.
I have yet to find a recipe on your site I don’t care for. This is another wonderfully tasty one!!
Oh, I used leftover turkey also, it was awesome
Made it last night, very delicious. I added 3 small/medium peeled diced potatoes to the vegetables. My 11 year old said I should add corn, good suggestion, so next time I make it I am going to add frozen corn. Definitely a keeper recipe!
OH MY GOODNESS!
I tried this recipe tonight and the hubby and I are definitely going to be making it again.
Every recipe I try from your site is a hit. Seriously.
If you’re ever in Louisiana, please let us know. We would love to meet such a food genius in person 🙂
Tomi Ann – I think 2% is probably worth a try, especially if it means avoiding a trip to the store – just keep an eye on the mixture, you may need to add less or more to get the right consistency.
I’m making this tonight for Pi Night! Do you think I could get away with using 2% milk instead of cream? I don’t have any on hand.
Can I just say that this is one of my go-to recipes now? And I de-fattened it the best I could… replacing fat free half & half for the cream or milk. Also, for anyone that has to cheat sometimes and use the shaker parm cheese, I found that 1/4 c of shaker cheese = ~3/4 c freshly grated parm. FYI: it’s awesome for lunch at work the next day (just finished mine)!! Love these recipes… thank you for being here and making my dinner cooking so much easier!
Amy, THANK YOU for the comment about using evaporated milk! Heavy cream was the only thing I didn’t have and was bummed I couldn’t make it. That’s why I love you commenters that let me know what worked for you! Excited to try this today!
Like Maureen, made this with leftover Thanksgiving turkey and it was fantastic. Just to confirm your response to Ang, I used 2 cups chicken broth in the sauce and it was perfect. I also added some fresh thyme and nutmeg to the sauce because I love those flavors in a white sauce. What a great way to use leftovers, thank you!
I made this tonight with my leftover Thanksgiving turkey and everyone agreed that it was delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe!