Gluten-Free Chicken Pot Pie
By America's Test KitchenPublished on May 23, 2019
Time
1½ hours
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Before You Begin
If you don’t have a rimless baking sheet to use for baking the crust, use an inverted rimmed baking sheet.
Instructions
- Roll pie dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper into 10-inch circle. Remove top parchment sheet. Fold in outer 1/2-inch rim of dough (creating 91/2-inch circle). Using index finger of one hand and thumb and index finger of other hand, crimp folded edge of dough to make attractive fluted rim. Using paring knife, cut 4 oval-shaped vents, each about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide, in center of dough. Transfer dough, still on parchment, to baking sheet and chill in freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake shaped dough on upper-middle rack until golden brown and crisp, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer crust, still on sheet, to wire rack and let cool slightly. (Do not turn off oven.)
- Meanwhile, melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook until tender and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and thyme and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour blend and cook until golden, about 1 minute.
- Slowly whisk in chicken broth until no lumps remain. Add chicken, cover, and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until chicken registers 160 degrees for breasts and 175 degrees for thighs, and sauce has thickened, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Transfer chicken to large bowl and let cool slightly. Using two forks, shred into bite-size pieces.
- Stir peas, heavy cream, parsley, and sherry into thickened sauce, then stir in shredded chicken with any accumulated juices. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into 91/2-inch deep-dish pie plate and place parbaked pie crust on top of filling. Bake on lower-middle rack until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 10 minutes. Let pot pie cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Time
1½ hoursYield
Serves 4 to 6Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
With its flaky pastry topping and flour-thickened gravy, chicken pot pie might be the most quintessential comfort food—so it’s all the more disappointing that it’s typically off-limits for anyone avoiding gluten. We knew we’d be using our own gluten-free pie dough for the topping, so we moved on to tackle finding a roux replacement that would deliver an equally velvety, rich sauce. We tested every gluten-free thickener we could think of: arrowroot, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, white rice flour, gelatin, and even xanthan gum. The latter two turned the sauce gloppy and unappetizing, while most of the starches produced fillings that were slimy and oddly translucent. Finally, we turned to our own flour blend. While perhaps not as straightforward as using a single starch or flour, it amounted to minimal extra work since we needed it for the pastry topping anyway. We found that just 1½ ounces provided sufficient thickening power, and because it contains a combination of flours and starches, it didn’t turn the gravy slimy, like starches alone, or gritty, like flour alone. The rest of the filling came together very easily. We followed the classic method for building the sauce, lightly browning aromatic vegetables in butter before adding tomato paste for color and flavor. We then stirred in the flour blend, making sure to cook it briefly before whisking in the chicken broth. We poached whole chicken breasts (or thighs, if you like more flavorful dark meat) in the sauce. When the chicken was cooked through, it was cooled, shredded, and stirred back into the sauce along with peas and cream. Once our classic filling was prepared, we unrolled the dough over the hot filling and popped it in the oven. But instead of baking up nice and flaky, the dough turned out gummy because of all the liquid. So instead we first parbaked the rolled-out dough until it was golden, then slid it over the filling. All the assembled pie needed was about 10 minutes in the oven to finish cooking through and unify the flaky crust and hearty, comforting filling.
Before You Begin
If you don’t have a rimless baking sheet to use for baking the crust, use an inverted rimmed baking sheet.
Instructions
- Roll pie dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper into 10-inch circle. Remove top parchment sheet. Fold in outer 1/2-inch rim of dough (creating 91/2-inch circle). Using index finger of one hand and thumb and index finger of other hand, crimp folded edge of dough to make attractive fluted rim. Using paring knife, cut 4 oval-shaped vents, each about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide, in center of dough. Transfer dough, still on parchment, to baking sheet and chill in freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake shaped dough on upper-middle rack until golden brown and crisp, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer crust, still on sheet, to wire rack and let cool slightly. (Do not turn off oven.)
- Meanwhile, melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook until tender and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and thyme and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour blend and cook until golden, about 1 minute.
- Slowly whisk in chicken broth until no lumps remain. Add chicken, cover, and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until chicken registers 160 degrees for breasts and 175 degrees for thighs, and sauce has thickened, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Transfer chicken to large bowl and let cool slightly. Using two forks, shred into bite-size pieces.
- Stir peas, heavy cream, parsley, and sherry into thickened sauce, then stir in shredded chicken with any accumulated juices. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into 91/2-inch deep-dish pie plate and place parbaked pie crust on top of filling. Bake on lower-middle rack until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 10 minutes. Let pot pie cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
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