The Expert-Approved Tip For Upgrading Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

When the weather outside is frightful, there's nothing better than cozying up inside with warm, homemade comfort food. Chicken pot pie is the ultimate cozy meal that's sure to please the whole family, and offers plenty of opportunities for customization. For the filling, use mushrooms and winter squash for a sophisticated twist on a classic, or experiment with the various canned ingredients that can give your pie a cost-effective upgrade.

Don't forget to maximize one of your pie's most important elements, though: the crust. There are a number of ways to create your crust, from using store-bought puff pastry to swapping in Cheddar Bay Biscuits, but if you're committed to making everything from scratch, nothing beats a homemade pie crust made from butter and shortening. For the best-ever homemade crust for your savory pie, pastry chef Saura Kline suggests you "add in some herbs."

Kline is the pastry chef at Local Jones in Denver, CO and author of The Essential Pie Cookbook, so she certainly knows her way around a pie dish. According to her, an herby crust is the easiest way to take your savory pie to the next level. "For a chicken pot pie, I'd add in one tablespoon of chopped thyme, and one teaspoon of chopped rosemary," she says. "Just add it in with your dry ingredients before you make it."

Picture this: You've added thyme and rosemary to your homemade pie crust, and it's smelling heavenly ... but when you bake it with your filling, it falls apart in a soggy mess. In order to avoid the common crust mistake that can result in this disappointment, Saura Kline says she would treat chicken pot pie crust as she would "any other crust" by remembering that temperature is key. "I keep the butter cold while I'm making it, and make sure the filling is completely cooled before I pour it into the crust," she says. "Once fully baked, the crust should not get soggy."

Novice bakers might assume that room temperature or even melted butter is better for pie dough since it mixes easier, but that's actually not the case. The key to making a flaky pie crust with structural integrity is in the cold, solid bits of butter that don't melt into the dough. You want these butter pieces to separate the starchy layers of your dough; once they melt in the hot oven, the water in the butter evaporates and releases steam, which creates air pockets in the dough and leavens it.

When it comes to a pastry with a particularly liquid filling like chicken pot pie, it's equally important to let it cool before you combine with the crust and bake. This ensures that the hot liquid won't prematurely melt the butter in the dough and allows the bottom crust to firm up properly in the oven, preventing sogginess.