For a delicious, comforting family dinner, this chicken and bacon pie is definitely a winner! It’s loaded with flavour from chicken, bacon and a rich gravy, encased in the most amazing buttery, flaky pastry. There’s a good dose of veggies for good measure too.
This is truly the comfiest of comfort foods! Leftovers are just as good as when you served it fresh, if you’re lucky enough to have any. It’s easy to make too, even making the pastry from scratch.
You’ll love this chicken and mushroom pie too.
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❤️ Why you’ll love it
- Satisfying, rich and family-friendly,
- The best ever buttery, flaky pie crust,
- Packed with veggies,
- Freezer friendly (before baking),
- Leftovers reheat well,
- Easy to make.
It’s saucy too, in the best way! Freshly baked it will have a good amount of gravy without having a soggy bottom. If you have leftovers the gravy will soak in a little bit but you can reheat it in an air fryer or the oven to get that pastry crisp again.
Ingredients
Most of the ingredients for this comforting bacon and chicken pie with vegetables are self-explanatory but I’ve added a little information below on some of them.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Pastry (not shown above): I encourage you to make the flaky pastry in the recipe. It’s easy and worlds above any store bought pastry in flavour. However, if you really don’t have the time or inclination, just buy some shortcrust pastry for the base and puff pastry for the top and you’re good to go.
- Chicken: I use skinless boneless chicken thighs. They have great flavour and stay juicy. You can use chicken breasts if you prefer but keep in mind they may have a drier texture. Make sure not to let the pieces cook all the way through.
- Bacon: Any bacon will work here whether you like shortcut bacon, middle bacon or streaky bacon. Pick your favourite.
- Apple cider: This is apple cider, the beverage, not the vinegar. It adds a touch of sweetness and complexity. If you like, you can swap it for white wine or just more chicken stock.
- Dijon mustard: Even if you think you don’t like mustard, please add this. I promise the pie doesn’t taste of mustard. The filling will taste more mustard-y from the pan than after it’s been baked too so don’t worry if you taste test the filling and you can taste it. My mum, who doesn’t like Dijon mustard, can’t even taste it in this pie but it just adds a special something.
- Thyme leaves: I love fresh thyme here but you can swap it for just ½ a teaspoon of dried thyme.
How to make chicken and bacon pie
Ok, so maybe making a pie isn’t a weeknight affair but it is easy. The pastry alone will become your new favourite – flaky, buttery goodness – and it’s made in a food processor in minutes. The filling is also super simple – fry up bacon and chicken, then saute the vegetables, add the sauce and combine it all before letting it cool. It’s all done in one pan. Then you assemble the gorgeous bacon chicken pie and let the oven do it’s thing.
This is a comfort food dinner for sure and worth every moment but you can split the steps up over a few days. You can even turn this into smaller pies. Whichever way you choose, this creamy savoury pie, with it’s golden flaky crust is a great family-friendly dinner idea.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Make the pastry
Please, please, please make the pastry from scratch – it’s the best buttery pie crust you’ll ever have, promise. Check out how easy it is.
Start by processing together flour and butter, then add an egg and process that until incorporated.
With the food processor running on low, slowly pour in the water until you start seeing clumps form. It will still be a crumbly pastry dough and that’s perfect.
Turn the pastry out onto a clean surface – it will look super crumbly like it’s never going to come together but it will. Just pull it together with your hands, bit by bit, kneading it just enough that it all sticks together.
Trust the process. You don’t want to knead it too much or the pastry will become tough.
Cut the dough slightly off-centre so you have a portion that’s just a tiny bit bigger for the base and the slightly smaller piece for the top of the pie.
Roll out the larger piece on a lightly floured surface to about 28cm/11 inches wide then lay it into the pie dish. Place that, and the smaller piece of dough wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
2. Cook the one pan chicken pie filling
Start by cooking the bacon and chicken until the bacon starts to brown. You likely won’t get much browning on the chicken at this point without burning the bottom of the pan or overcooking the chicken and it’s absolutely fine. If you would like the chicken browned to add a little more flavour to the pie, cook it in 2 batches, separate from the bacon.
Set the chicken and bacon aside, then deglaze the pan with a little water. If you don’t do it at this stage, that delicious brown “fond” on the bottom of the pan will burn and make the whole filling taste burnt, so don’t skip this step, Next, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook until the onion is translucent and softened.
Deglaze the pan with cider, then add the flour and cook it into the veggies for a minute or so.
Add the chicken stock, cream and mustard and give it a good mix to combine. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes to thicken slightly.
Add the chicken and bacon back to the sauce and vegetables then transfer it to a large wide and deep plate and allow it to cool. The larger the plate, the quicker it will cool and you can speed this up in the fridge. At this point, you can also chill the filling for 2-3 days until required (factor that time in when storing any leftover pie though).
3. Assemble and bake
Transfer the cold filling to the pastry pie crust.
Roll out the pastry for the top and lay it over the top of the pie. Trim the overhang off with a sharp knife, then use your finger and thumb from one hand, and your finger from the other hand to crimp the edge all the way round. Make sure you really press the bottom and top layers of pastry together.
Brush all over the top with egg wash and poke a few vent holes in the top before baking your chicken and bacon pot pie for 50-60 minutes until the pastry is cooked through and a nice deep golden brown.
Tips and tricks
- Use cold ingredients for the pastry. This helps to create those flaky layers.
- Try not to overwork the pastry or you risk making it tough and losing the flakiness. It is a crumbly dough and will look like it can’t possibly come together but it will. Knead it just enough to hold together.
- You can freeze the pastry: This pastry recipe freezes well and it’s easy to make, so feel free to make a second batch while your food processor is already dirty and freeze it for another time.
- You don’t need to brown the chicken or you’ll risk overcooking it. If you’d like to brown the chicken, cook it separately to the bacon, in 2 batches until just browned.
- Chill the filling: If you add the filling while it’s still warm, it may make your pastry soggy so make sure it’s fully cooled or even better, cold, before you add it to the pie crust.
- It’s deliciously saucy when served fresh which is great as it’s succulent and moist without the need to make a separate sauce to serve with it. The sauce doesn’t make the pastry soggy, don’t worry. Once it’s chilled overnight that sauce will soak into the pastry a little so your leftovers won’t be as saucy but it still tastes just as good.
What to serve with chicken and bacon pie
This creamy bacon and chicken pie is comfort food at it’s best. It’s lovely served with equally comforting sides like mashed potatoes or this cheesy potato bake.
It’s already loaded with veggies so you’d be forgiven for not adding extra veggies on the side but then some lightly steamed veggies like broccoli or brussels sprouts are great. Or try these lemon garlic green beans.
Storage
This creamy chicken and bacon pie can be made all in one day easily – it’s not difficult, the pastry doesn’t take long and while the filling takes 20 minutes or so, it does require cooling time. If you want to prep parts of this chicken bacon pie ahead, you can certainly do that too.
- Prepping the pie crust ahead: This pastry is my favourite, not only for flavour, but also because it’s quick and easy to make and you can prep it ahead. Make the dough up to 3 days before you want to bake the pie. You can either keep it in a disk and roll it out when you’re ready to bake the pie or follow the recipe and store the pie crust in the pie dish, wrapped in plastic wrap.
- To meal-prep the filling: You can cook the filling and chill it for 2-3 days before filling the pie and baking. It’s best to eat the pie as soon as it’s baked and don’t keep the leftovers for any longer than 1 day after this.
- Freezing: The whole pie, unbaked, can be frozen and baked from frozen. Wrap it well in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Once solid, take it out the the pie dish if possible and keep it in a safe place in the freezer where it won’t get knocked about. It will take at least 1 ¼ hours to bake from frozen. If you find the pastry browning too quickly, cover it with aluminium foil. You can thaw in the fridge overnight to bake it quicker but make sure to take it out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to baking so you don’t crack your pie dish.
- Leftovers: Once baked, any leftover pie should be stored for 3-4 days in the fridge, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. If you pre-cooked the filling, make sure to account for any days that was cooked prior to filling the pie within that 3-4 days.
How to reheat leftover pie
You’ll get the best results reheating your creamy chicken pie, by the slice in the oven or air fryer. Both of these options will make that flaky buttery pastry nice and crisp again.
- Oven reheating: Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and reheat the pie slices or the whole pie for around 15-20 minutes.
- Air fryer: Place a slice of chicken bacon pie on a square of aluminium foil into your air fryer basket. Air fryer at 180C/350F for around 12 minutes or until the filling is hot through.
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Ingredients
FOR THE PIE CRUST
- 450 g plain flour (all-purpose flour) (1lb)
- 225 g salted butter , cold and cubed (8oz / 2 sticks)
- 1 large egg , cold
- ⅔ cup cold water
- OR 1 ½ sheets frozen shortcrust pastry and 1 sheet of puff pastry
- 1 egg yolk mixed with a tablespoon of milk or cream the eggwash
FOR THE FILLING
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (notes 1)
- 250 g bacon , diced (8 ¾oz)
- 700 g boneless skinless chicken thighs , diced (1 ½lb)
- 1 medium brown onion , diced
- 2 medium carrots , finely diced
- 2 celery sticks , finely diced
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- ⅓ cup apple cider , not vinegar (80ml)
- 2 tablespoons plain flour (all-purpose flour) (notes 1)
- 1 ¾ cups chicken stock (430ml)
- ½ cup thickened cream (heavy cream) (125ml)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (notes 1)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- food processor
- 9 inch pie dish
- Deep large skillet / frying pan
- Wide deep plate for quick cooling
Instructions
- FOR THE PASTRY (if using store-bought, skip to cooking the filling): Combine the flour, a pinch of salt and the butter in a food processor and process until the largest pieces of butter are about the size of a pea.
- Add the whole egg and process for a few seconds until incorporated.
- With the processor running on low, drizzle in the water in and process until it starts forming clumps (it will still look quite crumbly with a few larger clumps and you’ll be able to make a clump in the palm of your hand).
- Turn the crumbly pastry out onto a clean work surface and pull it together with your hands, kneading it only as much as necessary to mostly hold together – it doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth, don’t be tempted to overwork it.
- Cut the dough just slightly off centre. Wrap the slightly smaller half in plastic wrap and chill until required. Roll the other half out to about 11 inches wide and lay it into your 9 inch pie dish leaving the excess overhanging. Chill at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
- FOR THE FILLING (requires at least 1 hour of cooling time): Add a dash of oil to a large, high sided skillet / frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and chicken and cook, stirring regularly, for 8-10 minutes until the bacon is just starting to turn golden. Transfer it all to a wide deep plate until needed.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add a splash of water to the pan and use a spatula to scrape up all the browned bits sticking to the bottom. Scrape it into the plate with the chicken and bacon.Note: if you don’t scrape this up, it will burn over the cooking time and make the filling bitter. However, if it’s brown, it’s amazing flavour you don’t want to lose.
- Add the onion, carrot, celery and thyme leaves to the pan. Cook, stirring regularly for 6-7 minutes or until the onion is translucent and the celery and carrot have softened slightly (they don’t need to be super soft).
- Add the cider and use it it deglaze the pan, again scraping the brown bits off the bottom. Cook for 1-2 minutes until it reduces by about half.
- Stir in the flour making sure all the vegetables are coated. Cook for 1 minute, stirring often.
- Stir in the chicken stock followed by the cream and mustard. Stir it all well, then bring to a low simmer for 2 minutes until it thickens a little.
- Add the chicken and bacon to the pan, stir to combine, then transfer everything back to the plate.
- Set the filling aside, to cool to room temperature. You can speed this up in the fridge.Tip: The filling can be made 1-2 days ahead an chilled until required.
- ASSEMBLING THE PIE: Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan forced)/400F.
- If using store-bought pastry, line a 9 inch pie dish with the store-bought shortcrust pastry, making sure it covers the edge all the way round.
- Fill the pie crust with the cooled filling mixture.
- If using homemade pastry, roll out the second half of the dough and lay it over the top of the filling, making sure it’s large enough to overhang the edges slightly.OR use the store-bought puff pastry.
- Trim the edges of the pastry away by running a sharp knife along the edge all the way around. Crimp using the forefinger and thumb of one hand and a finger on the other hand to create a crimped pattern than also holds the edges of the pastry together (or crimp with a fork).
- Combine an egg yolk and a dash of milk in a small bowl, whisk well, then brush over the top of the pie. Poke 3-4 vent holes in the top with a knife.
- Bake for around 50-60 minutes, turning 1-2 times during this time, until deep golden brown all over and the pastry is cooked through.
- Let the pie sit for 10 minutes before serving.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- This pie can be frozen, wrapped well in plastic wrap, for up to 3 months. You can bake from frozen – about 1 ¼ hours. Cover with foil if it’s browning too quickly.
- Apple cider – make sure you’re using the beverage, not apple cider vinegar.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
FAQs
Yes. You can make it ahead – either in parts or whole. The pastry and filling can be made 2-3 days before assembling or the whole pie can be frozen for up to 3 months.
I find a flaky buttery pie crust best here. It’s sturdy yet light and rich and comforting. Puff pastry is too delicate and regular shortcrust is just not flaky at all.
Yes. Just cook the bacon on it’s own at the start then add the chicken when you combine all the filling together at the end.
I keep it simple here with carrots and celery which add great flavour. Feel free to add frozen peas or corn kernels too. Mushrooms are great and would be best cooked until golden before adding them to the mixture.
Wrap the cooled pie well in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 3-4 days. Slices can be reheated in the oven or air fryer at 180C/350F for 12-20 minutes. I elaborate more on this in my storage section above.
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