Skip The Oven And Cook Your Next Chicken Pot Pie This Way

Chicken pot pie gets its name from how it was made in olden times: By lining the insides of the pot with pastry dough and then filling it with meat and vegetables. We've come a long way from there, but the dish remains a fixture on dining tables everywhere. The warm, creamy filling combined with the crispy, flaky crust of a good chicken pot pie makes the perfect bite. The dish is no-nonsense comfort food that's easy to make, and even easier to finish off (yes, we've all eaten it straight out of the baking dish). In case you've never made one yourself and would like to, or are looking for a weeknight-friendly version of the chicken pot pie that suffices as a meal for one, there's a simpler way to make it using the air fryer.

Skipping the oven and using the air fryer simplifies this already easy dish further. The latter's hot air convection quickly gives the crust a nice browning. Best of all, it works with both frozen as well as made-from-scratch pies, meaning you get to decide how much time and elbow grease you want to put into making this classic dish. Throw some air fryer hacks into the mix, such as preheating the chamber and not overcrowding the basket, and the results are as good as what you'd expect from the oven, but much faster because you don't need to wait around for the oven's (much larger) interior to come up to the required temperature. In fact, the only thing you have to watch for is the air fryer cooking the pot pie too rapidly and burning it; trust us, this is a good "problem" to have with an easy solution.

Your favorite frozen chicken pot pie can be ready to eat in under 30 minutes when cooked in the air fryer. While it's not as fast as when reheated in the microwave, and the bottom crust can be made more crisp in the oven, the air fryer offers a middle ground that is arguably the best option for when you want a quick-and-tasty pot pie with minimal effort. The only aspect you need to watch for is that the pie fits in your appliance's basket. If you're reheating multiple pies, remember not to stack them in the air fryer.

It's best to preheat the air fryer to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit or to the oven temperature stated in the frozen pie's reheating instructions. Place the pie inside and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Since the air fryer tends to cook faster than an oven, check to ensure the crust doesn't burn before the filling is heated through. Alternatively, cover the pie with foil for the first 15 minutes or so to ensure everything is heated thoroughly, and then cook uncovered for another 10 minutes or till the crust has achieved flaky perfection.

Your favorite chicken pot pie recipe can be made in the air fryer instead of the oven, provided you're making a small pie that fits in the air fryer tray. This can either be in a small baking dish or even ramekins to make single-serving pies. Start by making the filling as you normally would, and prepare the pastry dough. As with any pie, the one aspect that can put a damper on the dish is a soggy crust. The flaky exterior is essential, and making a great, flavorful crust is one of the best ways to upgrade chicken pot pie (you can also use biscuit dough to elevate a homemade pot pie).

The oven's lower heating element helps the bottom of the pie firm up. However, this option isn't available in an air fryer, so you have a couple of options for tackling the crust. The first is to skip the bottom crust and simply add the top crust over the filling. This ensures no soggy bits of dough at the bottom of the pie, and you get the essential textural contrast between the filling and the crust. Another option is to make the filling slightly less saucy. You can also make the dry and wet parts of the filling separately, layer the dry meat and vegetables over the bottom crust, cover it with the creamy sauce, then top it with pastry dough. This helps avoid the bottom from getting too soggy. Finally, you can also precook the bottom crust in the air fryer to ensure it firms up before adding the filling and the top crust.