Turn Chicken Pot Pie Into A Creamy Soup For The Ultimate 4-Ingredient Comfort Meal

In theory, chicken pot pie is a flavorful, belly-warming meal that always sounds good when you're mulling over potential dinner options. However, putting in the necessary time and effort to make such a dish doesn't appeal to everyone. Luckily though, if you love the idea of sitting down to a plate of cooked chicken and colorful vegetables enveloped in a rich and creamy broth and layers of buttery pastry, take a much-needed shortcut and make chicken pot pie soup.

While you can certainly make a quick and easy chicken pot pie filling with three canned ingredients like chicken, cream of chicken soup, and mixed veggies, you can also build an entire one-pot meal with the same convenient ingredients. Sure enough, transforming traditional chicken pot pie into a hearty, all-encompassing soup takes only a few minor adjustments. 

As a matter of fact, to make this simplified dish, you only need four ingredients: cooked chicken, frozen mixed vegetables, a few cans of cream of chicken or potato soup, and an additional liquid like broth, milk, or water. First, combine and heat the chicken, vegetables, and cans of soup over your stove. Then, in order to give this ultra-thick mixture a soupier consistency, simply whisk or stir in a decent amount of broth or milk before serving. Fortunately, chicken pot pie soup is an easy meal to upgrade with extra ingredients. Not to mention, there are many creative ways to give this alternative recipe a more signature, homemade taste.

For starters, feel free to use one or many canned ingredients that always upgrade homemade chicken pot pie. Instead of solely using bags of frozen veggies, add in cans of drained mushrooms or artichoke hearts. You can also throw in chopped water chestnuts for added crunch. On the other hand, if what you're after is a creamy chicken soup with more homemade flavor, skip the canned soup and rebuild the base of this easy meal with a roux of melted butter and flour. Then, you can pour in a deluge of chicken stock, vegetable stock, or bone broth for an extra dose of nutrition. Just don't forget to include a varied selection of dried herbs and a good pour of heavy cream for that one-of-a-kind pot pie texture.

Thankfully, whichever version of this dish you decide to prepare, you no longer need to take the crescent roll shortcut that makes classic chicken pot pie a breeze. Instead of layering cut pieces of crescent roll dough along a fully-prepared pie, simply serve your creamy soup with freshly baked crescent rolls or canned biscuits.

You can also pre-bake pieces of refrigerated pie crust layered with cheddar cheese. Then, come mealtime, simply add broken pieces of this cheesy crust to your soup and use any bigger pieces for scooping. Or, for a no-fuss addition, upgrade your chicken pot pie soup with chopped, cooked potatoes or prepared pasta.