Easy Chicken Pot Pie | Mom’s Traditional recipe, PLUS, Mom’s Ultimate Bacon Cheddar Pot Pie!

Growing up, my mom made chicken pot pie for us all the time. With 19 kids in the house, she needed meals that were quick, easy, and freezer friendly. The classic version was her go-to because it was simple, comforting, and always fed a crowd. Since we were picky, she created her bacon cheddar chicken pot pie. We tested them side by side, and my childhood taste buds did not lie to me. If you like chicken pot pie, this bacon cheddar pot pie will blow your mind.
Whether you love the cozy flavors of the classic pot pie or the rich bacon cheddar twist, these recipes are proof that the best meals are often the ones that bring us back home.

Classic Chicken Pot Pie (1 Pie)

Ingredients
• 2 pie crusts (one 9” bottom and one top)
• 1 chicken breast (about 8 oz), cooked and diced
• ½ can (about 5 oz) cream of chicken or celery soup
• ¼ cup chicken broth
• ¼ cup half and half
• 1 cup mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, corn, or green beans)
• ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 egg + 1 Tbsp water (for egg wash)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Stir together soup, broth, and half and half. Add chicken, vegetables, cheese, salt, and pepper.
3. Pour into bottom crust. Top with second crust, crimp edges, and cut slits.
4. Brush with egg wash and bake 45–55 minutes until golden and bubbling.
5. Rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Bacon Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie (2 Pies)

Ingredients
• 4 pie crusts (two 9” bottoms and two tops)
• 2 chicken breasts (about 1 lb), cooked and diced
• 6 to 8 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 1 cup potato, cooked and cubed (or canned, drained and diced)
• 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken or celery soup
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• ¼ to ⅓ cup chicken broth, as needed
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 egg + 1 Tbsp water (for egg wash)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Stir together soup and sour cream, then mix in chicken, bacon, potatoes, cheddar, salt, and pepper. Loosen with broth if needed.
3. Divide filling between two pie dishes lined with crusts. Top with remaining crusts, crimp, and cut vents.
4. Brush with egg wash and bake 40–50 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.
5. Rest 10 minutes before slicing.

These pies were a staple in our home growing up. They were practical for a busy mom, easy to freeze ahead of time, and always a crowd pleaser. If you try one, let me know in the comments which one is your favorite.

#ChickenPotPie #BaconCheddarPotPie #FamilyRecipes
00:00 Introduction
02:15 Cooking the Bacon
03:48 Boiling the Chicken
08:20 Preparing the Pie Crust
10:30 Peeling Potatoes
13:55 Family Moments
18:05 Shredding the Chicken
19:20 Making the Filling
25:16 Topping the Chicken Pot Pie
29:10 Baking the Pot Pie
29:20 Bacon Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie
32:15 Cooking Memories
35:28 Eating the Pot Pie/Taste Comparison
36:55 Clear Winner

Welcome back to the Bates Kitchen. We have true Americana comfort food right here. Chicken pot pie. And we have it two ways. I should actually slide this around. I’m going to give you this one with the vegetables. And then one that us picky kids forced mom to create that is our own little chicken bacon potato combination with some cheddar cheese in there. Both of these are amazing. If you love chicken pot pie, I can’t wait for you to see the rest of this episode. So, what do I need? Okay, so there’s a couple of different ways. I think we talked ahead. We’re going to do the kids most favorite pot pie. I’m going to do them both. We’re going to do both. Okay. So, we need bacon, potatoes, and cheese for the filling of the pot pie that the kids. So, we’re going to start out probably and just cook our bacon in the oven. So, it’ll be fast. Don’t you think that’s the fast way? Absolutely. And um and we’ll prepare like our mixture and our crust is already pre pre-made. got the prepackaged crust you sent me. And so then if you want a veggie pot pie, we’ll just need frozen veggies or canned veggies or we’ll need Here’s what I want. I want your traditional chicken pot pie. Okay. So I want the traditional one that you always made growing up and then I want the one that we actually like the bacon and potato. You always made a chicken with vegetable pot pie for your dad cuz he loves the classic. He loves vegetable soup, vegetable soup, pot pie. So let’s do that one first. Yes. But for the kids, they were picky eaters. Chicken, potatoes, bacon, and cheese. It was more like your, you know, I don’t know, gourmet style, you know, not gourmet. I don’t know what you call it. I don’t know what you call it. Just good food. We liked it. It was good. Okay. Minus the veggies. So, let’s get out. Is your chicken pre-boiled and ready? Okay. So, we’ll start our chicken bowling first cuz it’ll take the longest. It won’t take long, but it’ll take the longest. And then we’ll start our bacon cooking. That’s the two longest things about this recipe is cooking your chicken and cooking your bacon. Now, if I’m doing the veggie chicken pot pie, some cheese, the veggie chicken pot pie does not have any bacon in it. I just started adding this to the meat one just to give it a little ump, you know. Yeah. So, this is good. Let’s start with this. And then we’ll do We don’t need the pie crust yet. We don’t need the pie crust yet. I have never done bacon like this, so I’m I’m going to learn this. No, Alyssa was the first person I ever saw cook bacon this way. She’s got a lot of kids and so she does things fast and efficient and it really is good. Isaiah cooks ours this way. I’m still oldfashioned, so I still fry mine most of the time. But this is if you’re in a hurry like we are today. It is a fast way. You can Google it. There’s some people say cook it on 400 for 20 minutes or however long. Some say 425. Um, Isaiah’s been doing 425 for around 20 minutes and checking it. He turns his halfway. I think Alyssa does. I can’t remember. She’s the one that first taught me. But let’s try preheating the oven to 425. We’ll turn it at about the 10 or 12 minute mark. Flip it back in and check it. And it is one pan enough bacon. We’re just going to crumble the bacon in each pie. So, yeah, we don’t need a whole whole lot of bacon. Okay. Unless we just want to sit here and munch on it. I love me some good bacon. Now, I love to cook bacon on my on my stove. I love I notic you’ve got really thick cut bacon. So, we might have to watch our time. I don’t know if that changes. Let’s do 400 then. That way, it makes sure it cooks. It doesn’t burn on the outside. Well, I didn’t like Yeah, I like that. That’s all I can fit on here. Let me show you. Scoot these little babies over. You can also rip off the pan. Oh, you’re right. But I still think I can squeeze one. This is what happens when you got 19 kids. You just try to squeeze in every every little bite of goodness that you can squeeze in. Make sure it’s all nothing hanging over there. There we go. I’ll cook the second batch if I need it. All right. All right. So, next we want to boil our chicken. Okay. I’m going just set this over on the stove for now. You’re the king at boiling chicken. You know all the time. So, tell the people how long it takes to boil that chicken cuz I always just stick a fork in it till it’s tender. But you’ve got everything all time. I just use I just use a thermometer to make it easy. You use a thermometer. See, I never had one of those fancy things. All right, where’s my scissors? Oh, sorry. I was cleaning up. You know me. I’m Dad says I move people’s plates before they finish eating. I actually got you something. The last time we were doing chicken, I didn’t have my shears. And these are so comfortable. They’re so much more comfortable than regular scissors. So, I got you a set of them. No, you didn’t. These are the best I’ve ever found. I love these. They’re so comfortable with your hand. I’m going to let you do these. Wide handles. That is when you get stuck in there. The best clicking ones ever. cannot. If somebody asked me the most important thing to me in a kitchen, I would definitely say scissors. I don’t use mine as much as you do, but I hate when I don’t have mine. I can’t live without them. I had a grandbaby I was babysitting for the other day and you know, we had some hot dogs and I use them to cut the hot dogs. I use them to cut the pizza. I use it to cut my veggies when I’m going to fry. You’re going to love these. When I’m going to fry peppers, I cut my pepper strips. I use it for everything. I love it. So, here you go. I got them washed and clean and ready to cut some chicken. Love that. All right. You know me, I cut out all the little things. So, I like to cut my chicken in strips just because it boils faster. You don’t have to do that. I actually will just cut mine in half to make it thinner so it boils faster. Yeah, I like, you know, here you go. Pile it all ready everything ready to cook. Pile it in there. I like to get off all the little fatty pieces or, you know, I don’t know. I’ve always been funny about that. When it cooks, you really can’t tell, but I’m just funny about that. And we’re gonna make four pot pies today. Two veggies and two with the bacon and potatoes. And so you’ve got three chicken breasts here. And since you’re using the chicken as a filling, that’s plenty of chicken for four pot pies. Really? And if because I’ve got some more. Well, I mean, you could do one breast per pie, but I mean, if you picture a pie the size of a pie, they’re not that big, and you picture adding all the filling in with it. You know what I’m saying? You don’t need a whole whole lot. But if you want to add one more chicken breast, we could. One per pie. Tell you what I’ll do. I’ve got the chicken I made yesterday for my chicken nugget. If you want more, I was going to make your chicken uh salad for the kids. That’s what they want for lunch, but I’ll just use some of that in this. So, Zach, your daddy loved pot pie meals and casserole deal meals because they did use less chicken. You know, we had a big family and we wanted the flavor. He likes saving money. He likes saving money. Yes, absolutely. You know, your dad’s heart, but he did like the taste of it, too. So, when you come to making pot pies, there’s all sorts of taste buds that people have. When I make chicken pot pie for Mama Jane, she loves chicken pot pie, but she does not like certain things in her pot pie. She only wants celery, potatoes, and carrots. That’s it. That’s actually a really good combination. That’s it. That’s all she wants. If you add onion to that, that would be a really good combination. If you start adding like canned vegetables and potatoes and bacon and cheese, she would not want to eat that. You know, she’d be gracious and but but her preference. So, everybody’s got their preferences. So, the good thing about pot pie is doctor it up the way you want it. Some of uh your siblings when they make it, they add a lot of uh basil and you know, other seasonings. I don’t. You know me how I cook. Salt and pepper. That’s it. That’s how I So, you got me thinking. I’m thinking if I took just a traditional mirror of carrot, celery, and onion. Yeah. And use chicken, some bone broth, and stuff like that, it’d be more like a roasted chicken in a in a pie shell. Yeah. So, the good thing about this is experiment. Find out what I’m gonna go experiment now. I’m gonna go make a piece you like. You know me, I like to cook convenient. We met a lady in Pennsylvania one time. You remember the family we stayed with up in Hershey and she would Oh, yeah. Yeah. One day out of the year, she would spread her counter and make a bunch of pot pies and freeze them and freeze them all. But she made homemade pie crusts and all the works, you know, homemade. You can do that. But you know me, Zach, I’m a simple cooker. I was always in a hurry. So, I bought prepared pre-made pie crust. It just saves time. You can do it the way you want it. But that’s what we’ve got for today. Where can I find those? I’ll go ahead and set They’re actually They’re in the refrigerator. And then I I forgot. I probably Do I need to bowl the potatoes to make them soft? The way I do the pie crust is I buy this. So, used to you’d roll out this for the top and the bottom. I did, but this is so much easier. You know why? That gives you a pan to cook it in. You don’t have to have your own pan. So easy. So if you buy this will be the bottom crust and this will be the top crust. So actually if you’re taking this to somebody that’s perfect. You can leave it because you can take it to them, stick it in the freezer and they can cook it whenever. So we’re going to add potatoes. And you can either buy canned, you know, diced potatoes. Most people like fresh potatoes. There just something about fresh boiled potatoes. So we’re going to do that. I don’t like the word canned, but it’s it’s the greatest invention they ever had. It solved world hunger practically in America. I’ve been in a pinch where I’ve used, you know, canned stuff in a hurry and I’ve and then I’ve done it where I boil all my vegetables and I will say bull tastes better just like homemade pie crust tastes better. But just depends on how big of a I’ve done a few pie crust and I will tell you that is the most difficult. I actually bought a food processor just so I could use that attachment in there to make my pie crust dough and I will say that is the most finickyce difficult pastry for me. Once you’ve done it once, you’ll see why I buy these, right? Oh, I’ve done it a few times and I I love the taste of them. I do love the taste. Yeah, but it is. It truly is. It can be so finicky. And if if they mess up, it’s like, what a waste of half a half a day. Okay, tell me. You’ve got plenty of cheese. This is too much cheese. I was wondering how much cheese. Stop. Stop. Stop. I wasn’t watching. Tell me where the potatoes are. I was hoping you was going to say when. So, once you cube your potatoes and start them boiling, get them out when they’re done, but a little on the firm side. You know what I mean? When you stick that fork through them, put them a little on the firm side because they’re going to keep cooking in the oven. Okay. I’ll tell you what I’m gonna let you do. When you dice dice potatoes, I’m going to let you put all that cheese on this plate. Okay. And then we’ll use both cutting boards. I can do that. My hands are clean. I can do that. Okay. Now, Zach, you were reminded me. It’s hard for me to keep up with who liked what and growing up, but you were reminding me. Grab you that cutting board and I’ll let you peel and I’ll You were reminded me that you were not a huge fan of chicken pot pie growing up. Okay. I was picky. I was probably your pickiest kid, to be honest. I don’t know if you were the pickiest, but you were picky. Let me show you something somebody showed me. Watch this. Yeah, show me. This is going to be as life-changing for you. Okay. I was cooking bacon in the oven. Watch this. Okay. Okay. I’m I’m curious now. What you’re You set your bag there. Yeah. And then Oh, that is smart. Now, you’re reminding me of your daddy now, cuz you’ve got this potato peeler peeler going. I was always in too big of a hurry. Now, you’re fast with that. But I would just only peel about a third of the potato and then chop it so that you know about a third about 2/3 of it still had skins on it. I would actually do that with this one if it didn’t have green on it. Yeah, I waited too long to use these. So, instead of cutting them in rounds like we used to and then cutting the rounds in quarters, watch this. Cut it in half that way. Cut it down the middle. Cut it down the middle. Luck there. Look at you. And now we just come down and just Okay. Yeah. I would do rounds, but I would stack my round stack down. Well, then you’re sitting there trying to keep them from slipping off. You’re right. With that, there’s no slipping. You ain’t going to cut yourself and they’re all eating. I don’t even know if I had a potato pillar in the house when you were growing up. I It was junk. Got me some salty water. Now, I was saying earlier how you can kind of come up with your feelings based on what your kids like. This is a chicken pot pie, but growing up, my family ate beef pot pie. Well, crazy beef used to be cheaper. Yes. And so we would make a roast and out of a roast, you know, there’s so many things you can do with the leftovers. One of the things we do with the roast leftovers is make a beef pot pie. Whatever vegetables you had had that week, you’d throw it in there and you do the same with kind of like your vegetable soup. Kind of like vegetable soup. My my dad granddad used to call it memory stew because as you were eating it, you’d guess you remember everything else you ate that week. What What day of the week did we eat these peas on? When did we have this corn? So yeah, you but you utilize your leftovers. So that’s actually I have never done beef pot pie, but that would actually taste really good from a roast if you used all the roast veggies as well. It’s very I just never have any leftovers when I make a roast. If dad had liked beef pot pie as good as chicken pot pie, I would have probably made it more often. But dad was If beef had been cheaper, he probably would have liked it more. Dad was a picky eater, too. He does like chicken pot pie with the veggies in it. When I’m in a big quick hurry, I just buy the frozen veggies and dump. That’s what I bought. I just bought the frozen veggies. I said, “This is what I remember mom using.” So, that’s what I’m gonna have. Now, for the filling that you’re going to mix up in your veggies or your potatoes, bacon, whatever you know is going in your pie crust. I always just use canned cream of chicken soup. But, you know how to make a R. I think you’ve covered that on a couple of shows. It’s the same rue that you would make for any cream of soup, any other soup. You can make your own homemade r especially if you’re going the healthy route. I don’t call myself necessarily if you’re eating chicken pot pie. Are you really being healthy though? I call myself this is a comfort food. I’m a hearty cook, not a healthy cook. I cook hardy. I want to move more in the direction of healthy. So if you are going healthy and you want to make your homemade crust, your homemade r still don’t just throw this recipe away because it is so versatile. You make it to suit and adapt your family. That’s right. I go with quick because that suits my family. Well, when you have as many kids as you did, fast is all that matters. For that base, I use cream of chicken soup. You mentioned earlier, Mom, should I buy a can of cream of celery soup? Cuz that’s growing up. I thought that’s what you would use. Growing up, I would use one can of each. But some of the kids complained about the celery. Your new kids are pickier than us old kids. I mean, we were picky, but your new kids are pickier. Some of the kids complained about the celery, so I switched to just cream of chicken soup. But I like the taste of celery. I’m like Mama J. I feel like it adds more. Cream of mushroom and cream of celery to me add the most flavor. Mushroom adds more of a earthy flavor to it. Mushroom cream of mushroom soup goes good in your beef pot pie. Oh, I bet that blends really good. Your beef pot pie. Yes. All right, let’s get our potatoes on and then let’s pull our bacon out and flip it. Okay, so I just need to So I just pull it out and flip it, right? Yep. Let’s just flip it and look at it. How’s it coming? Yep. It looks a lot like bacon. Oh, yeah. It looks like bacon. You’re funny. Yeah. Go ahead. I’m just going to use a fork because it looks warm to me. Yeah, it is warm. And my fingers are toughened from I already flipped that one. So, flip it back. Oh, flip it back. Yeah. That’s that them real chef hands. They can touch burning things and it don’t burn them. You need two pieces. Two forks. If you’re going to flip it with a fork. Yeah. Let me show you. Give me another fork, bud. I’ve got to teach you a trick or two. You’re showing me all the tricks. Give me that fork. Let me make your life easier. Watch this. Have you flipped this one out yet? Yeah, flip those. Flip that one. Like like fork chopsticks. Yeah, fork chopsticks. There you go. You can tell I stand over the frying pan a lot. Well, all you ever I still with bacon when I’m in the frying pan only use forks. That’s what I use. My forks. Forks for the bacon. They’re easy to flip. All right, there we go. They don’t get lost. Stick those back in. They’re looking good. And we’ll have to reset our timer cuz we pulled that out. Let’s set it for another add another minute or two, too. Yeah, I’ll set it for 23 minutes to start with. Okay, that’s perfect. Everybody’s oven cooks a little bit different, so we’ll play around with yours. Uh Isaiah’s got ours down to a science now cuz he cooks our baby. I want Isaiah to come make his ice cream before fall’s over cuz everybody’s bragging about his ice cream. It’s crazy seeing these young boys that you think of still as being little, you know, doing these kind and what their Well, it’s interesting to see what their interests are as they develop. You know, I think anybody would have known that I was going to cook stuff because I love changing my flavors and things like that at the house. Yeah. I don’t love cooking for crowds because it intimidates me, but I love cooking for my family and sometimes if we have people over, but it’s very intimidating for me to cook for a lot of people like you. I would have never guessed that because you’ve kind of taken over being our family get together party cook like that. Well, I that’s cuz I’m picky about what I eat. Like a True Bates, I’m picky. So, if I if I help plan it, then I get to pick what I’m eating. Sure is a lot of stress off of me because when you’re planning the food and taking over, I can plan the games and the party and stuff. Oh, you do? You do excel at the games. Now, do you egg wash your your chicken? Do you do we do an egg wash on it? I never have. Well, we will today then. So, you can teach me that. Okay. I never have. So, I got these out like I’m ready. But at this point, we need a filling to go in here. So, I’m going to set them aside. We need a big bowl. I’m ahead of We’re actually going to have two bowls. I got these new shallower bowls. Okay. Shallow and wide. That’s good. We started out and I realized the kids were picking out the vegetables. And I noticed that was me. The only thing I love the crust. The only things they were eating was chicken and potatoes. So, I said, “You know what? I’m not going to throw away good vegetables if they’re not eating them.” And so, I started at first just doing chicken and potatoes. And I said, “It just needs something else. Everything’s better with bacon. A little bit bland.” So, we added the bacon and the cheese and it was a winner. Everybody fell in love with it. You got me inspired to come up with some fillings to put in a pot pie. I’m going to do a few more fillings. Here’s how here’s how popular pot pie is. That’s when the picture is on the ro. When I’ve tasted Michael’s and some of the other kids pot pies and they use the basil and the other seasonings, I’m always like, “This is so much better than mine.” So, you’re a good I say your specialty is not just cooking, but it’s creating dishes or tasting stuff. But I just only bring you the ones that I like. I don’t bring you the ones that I tasted like, “Well, that was awful.” If you create it, though, you’re going to like it cuz you’re going to only add the stuff you do like. So, I’m going to bring our chicken over here to the counter. Yes. So, we want to always save our broth. Okay? We’re never going to waste that. That can turn into chicken. It’s hard for me to save this broth, though, because I didn’t have any veggies in it. That’s okay. Once you taste it with all them veggies in it, you’ll never go back to eating your regular broth. Freeze your broth and instead of buying canned broth for things that you’re making, always have broth on hand. I love broth. So, let’s get our chickens out. We’re going to shred our chicken. You can chop it in cubes, you can shred it, however you want to do it. Since we cut off the fat previously and we cut it into little cubes, it’s going to be super easy once it cools. Picture a dinner that you would make your family. The vegetables you’d have with it for a chicken dish. If you had chicken on a plate, what you’d put with it? Just put that in your pot pie and it’s, you know, so you create it based on what you like to eat. All right. So, Zach, you’ve got the chicken looking nice. Let’s add us some salt and pepper to it because any meat needs salt and pepper. And if you want to add some of your seasonings, you’re the season king. I’m not honestly, since this is going to Carlin, I don’t want to mess it up. She remembers. If she tastes a bunch of other stuff after just having a baby, she’s going to be like, “What did Zach do? What did Zach do to my chicken?” I learned this real quick. Don’t mess with a pregnant woman or a woman that’s just had a baby’s food. Will Carlin know if it’s cream of celery? She will. That’s why I had to stop using it. But now we are fixing to separate and do two bowls. So if you want to separate it now and put that in the veggie, there’s a cream of celery. If you want to separate that and put it in the veggie one, we can sure do that. I have cream of chicken. I think she’ll see that. Okay. Well, I’m blaming you when we take it to her house tonight. I hope she eats this before she watches this video. Okay. If I’m going say if it tastes funny, Carlin, we made it at Zach’s house. That smells good. It’s a light cream of celery. I’m not going to lie. Since we’re doing four pot pies, Zach, we’re going to add two cans of soup. Okay. Two cans of soup. So, go ahead and dump another one. Sorry, Carlin. What did I just say? Don’t mess Don’t mess with a pregnant woman’s food when I’m over here changing. It’s a good thing she’s not pregnant anymore. Yeah, but when you just have the baby, you’re still kind of in that mood. You’re in that mode for a couple weeks. You should You deserve to be pampered for a few weeks, you know. Well, I am going to say that’s one of the most beautiful babies in the world. It is the spitting image of of little Ila. It really Oh, good lord. Our bacon looks like bacon. Is that bacon done? No, that ain’t done yet. Okay. Do we need to flip it again? Yeah, I think we need to flip it again. Now, all you’ve added to this is salt, pepper, and soup. So far, that’s it. You added cream of celery. I usually add cream of chicken. You can do cream of chicken, but it already has chicken though. Only because the picky eaters of the kids, we don’t allow pickers in this house. We’re like dad. Okay. Now, Zach, at this point, I like mine to taste really creamy. And if you don’t have half and half on hand, you can use a little bit of milk. You can use a little bit of sour cream. You can use a little bit of heavy whipping cream. Anything that’s going to give it just a little I bet the potatoes are done. And I’m going to let you Oh, I bet we forgot about potatoes, didn’t we? Are they too done? Yep. Okay. Pull them off. Pull them off and just let them get cold so they won’t turn to mush. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Three tablespoons. Is that it? All right. Oh, yeah. Mom, this is See, I could eat that. Now, I hate to tell you this. Do you want some more chicken in here, by the way? Since we have the more pies to do, cuz I have more. That’s up to you. We’re fixing to divide it. So, if you want to, we’re going to divide it in half. Use the little bowl for the vegetables cuz not all of us like vegetables. Okay. Little bowl for the vegetables. Now, as I add vegetables, potatoes, or whatnot to this, it will get less juicy. So, I might have to go back in and add some chicken broth or some more cream. Good thing we saved it because I don’t want it to be too dry because as it cooks in there and you you know it’s going to absorb the moisture as it cooks. You don’t want to take a bite of it and it not be moist and you don’t want it to be soupy. It’s a fine line too hot. Okay, I’ll flip it again. I think I’d feel better flipping it since it’s cooked at a higher temperature. As much as I’m flipping it, I feel like I could have just cooked it on the stove. No, cuz this is going to be less mess. And we already had two things on the stove. And you’re going to love the fact that we didn’t have to touch this. It did it for us. Well, normally I flip it just once. And normally it’s not this thick. I normally flip it once, but see, because these ends are getting der, you did have it higher. And so maybe we’ll let Isaiah come do it for us next time since he’s the bacon pro. He can teach us. Well, maybe if I don’t turn it up to 480°, it won’t be drying out. Yeah, it’s not going to take another minute or two. Woo, I burnt my hand on that stove. Okay. So, we’re going to add some veggies. You said in the That looks like too much. The little bowl has too much chicken in it, I think. Oh, you think? How many? You’re just making one pie for the veggie, right? Oh, three potatoes and one veggie. Three potatoes and one veggie. Okay. So, we’re going to half that. Only dad likes the veggie. We’ll half that again. Right there. Okay. And if we need more chicken in the end, we’ll add it. So, we’re going to put some veggies in here. All right. Well, I usually put at least as much of that. So, this has got to fill up that pie. So, two half a cup. I’d say at least a cup. 3/4 of a cup. I’d say at least a cup. Four of a cup. All right. That’s a cup full. Let’s stir it up and see what we got. Need a little more milk, I think. Yeah. We’re going to add some broth and some milk in just a minute. I’ll get your half and half back out. And we’re going to add some potatoes to this, too, cuz your mixed vegetables here, the ones you bought, doesn’t have potatoes in it, and we want some potatoes in it, too. So, we’ll add some of our potatoes in it. Okay. barely. I just barely didn’t look like just barely. Look like a half a cup. No, barely. Keep going. A little bit more. Whoa. There we go. All right. Yeah. Now we’re talking. All right. We’re ready to get one. That’s the consistency we’re looking for. And And the visual I have found bringing y’all back into the kitchen. I have found that visual cues are a little bit easier to follow than just telling you. So, I’m going to show y’all kind of the consistency. Dan, if you want to come in here. Let’s get the consistency of of what this looks like. So, I like to put a little bit of cheese in the veggie, too, just for flavor, just cuz we are a cheese family. Just trying to max the protein. Now, we are ready to fill up one of our pie crusts. Well, let’s fill up a pie crust. All right, with potatoes. Weren’t you going to have me put potatoes in there? You know, I was. I forgot. But we’re not full as it is. Anyways, we’re not going to now. That’s actually a really good pie. This is a make as you go pie and we just made it as we went and we didn’t do it. Now, sometimes I dab just a few dots of butter on top. You do not have to. Listen, don’t tell me twice. I I butter everything. I do like the flavor that butter gives. Not too much cuz we don’t want that butter to melt and make it greasy. But too, you got that soft just a few dots of butter I feel like adds so much flavor. Again, that’s something you don’t have to add. It’s optional. Okay, let’s do it. My trusty scissors you gave me. I’m loving this. Oh, you’re going to you’re going to use those more than anything else in your kitchen. Now, you know what the favorite thing the kids did when they would help me make hot pie. How much butter? That’s That’s good. I would I would Oh, you want to cut them in half? I would cut I don’t want the butter just to be on one side, so I’d put it in four places and then when it melts, it kind of spreads. There we go. Good thing you told me cuz I was about to put I was about to put four of them on there. And you know what the favorite thing was? Making pot pies for the kids. Yeah. Getting that crust. Getting to do that all that crust and make it making designs in the crust. Some of them would get real creative. A little lattice. Little Now, when you buy this crust right here, this crust is in the frozen section with the frozen whipped cream. This crust is in the section with the canned biscuits. Okay. So, if you’re looking for these two crusts, the box crust is in the bis canned biscuit section. The other crust are frozen in the frozen food section with the frozen pies. Now, with this, Zach, all we do is we roll up the edges. Hold on. Wait till I come over there. I’m going to make my egg wash for it. Okay. Okay. So, we roll up the edges. We want the edges tucked inside because if it’s not tucked inside, if it’s in your oven, when this starts to heat up, it will droop over and fall down in your pan because as this dough gets hot, it moves. Now, if you do the bottom crust and the top crust with this kind, which I used to do, you have to have a pie plate and you’re going to have a lot more dough. You just roll it up together on the edges. That’s how I remember you doing it. Rolling them together and then pinching them because I love that was my favorite part of eating. You can take a fork and you can kind of make your little design like this one has that little design. So you can kind of press it in and give it that little pie design. Now once you’ve got your crust on here, if you’re baking a pie, you know you vent the pie. Mom. Whoa. You burned our bacon bacon. Oh, you burned our bacon, Zach. That’s why I use timers. I don’t think I burnt it. Unusable. No, not unusable. You might want another batch, though. Nah. All right. You said you like If I want another batch, I’ll do it on the oven. So, all you have to do is slit the pie crust to vent it. But you can also get creative. Our kids like to do a little heart or stuff like this. Michael does the heart. She’ll cut them out and stick them back up there. I would do a different shape so that people would know, okay, the veggie is going to be a heart. The other one may be, you know, whatever other design you are creative to do. So, yeah, we kind of would lift it like that and then put a little slit like that. And then that’s our veggie pie crust. And you can kind of see the veggies showing through when you cook it. So, it’s pretty. This is a great dish to take to somebody. We’re talking about taking it to con cuz she had a baby. You can take This is perfect for that. Take it to a church gathering. Here’s why it’s so perfect. You can take it uncooked, which we’re going to do for, you know, Carlin, I’m guessing, or are we cooking it? And then you can tell them cook it whenever you want, or freeze it. You can do either. Brilliant. So, that’s the beauty of taking a pot pie is they can really use it when they need it. So, egg wash will give it that glisteny pastry look on top. There you go. And you can use the more white you use, the lighter it will be and the more yolk you use, the darker it will be. So if you’re doing like if you were doing a roast if you were doing a roast beef pie and you wanted it to look really dark and savory, you could just use an egg yolk wash. But whereas if you’re doing this one, I’m going to leave just one yolk and two. Okay. So what did you do? This one is what? It’s just it’s one it’s two egg whites and one egg yolk. I would say let’s start that at 375 or even 400. We can always turn it down. Just go. I don’t know your oven. We’ll go with it. It cooks a little hot. It usually start. So, this is real simple. We’ve done the traditional chicken pot pie and kind of our take on the traditional. Now, this is the one the kids like. Real simple. We’re going to add our cheese. We’re going to add our crumb of bacon. We’re going to add as much liquid as we need to get it soupy. And then we’re going to fold in our potatoes last cuz we don’t want them to be especially since somebody overcooked them. Yeah. So, I’m going to let you add the bacon. This is going to make three pie crust. So, I’m going to get our three pies ready over here. I love these cuz it’s the pan like we said the pan too and you can take it to somebody and drop it off and not worry about it. Is that good for the bacon? So easy. Good for the bacon. Let’s add it. Stir it. And then we’ll need to add us some more broth and stuff to make it juicier. Is that enough bacon? Oh yeah. Here’s sour cream. Yep. Perfect. I’m starting to think of what I can do with this. Like chicken bacon ranch pot pie. Oh yes, Zach. Be creative. Pizza meat. Bring me over and let me taste it. All right. We need some broth in here. I’m not thinking healthy right now, though. I’ll tell you that. We’re going to add potatoes to this. So, we want it to be nice and The potatoes are watery, juicy. You drained them. They’re good. You sure? Yep. A little more broth. Okay. Little more broth on me. I trust you. All right. There we go. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about. This is a lot of Show that consistency again. It’s still thick. It’s just It’s not on the dry side. It’s moist. All right, we’re ready to fold. You could make your chicken casserole filling in there. You could. It’s whatever you would put on a dinner table that you like. Whatever ingredients you can put in a pot pie. You really can. Okay, here they are. Let’s see how mushy. I’m just going to show you. You’re going to barely fold them in. Barely. When I mean barely, barely fold them in. Cuz since they are mushy. If we had cooled them off better, I wouldn’t be as worried about it. But since we’re in a hurry, we’re going to be very careful. It’ll be easier than that. We’re going to be very careful. And then we’re ready to just fill up our pie crust. We have more than three pies here in this pan, but we can eat. You can eat the filling. Oh, trust me, I will. Literally, that’s my favorite part. That’s my favorite part about If you got a toddler that’s not going to eat the crust anyway, put that filling in their bowl. I’m sorry. The crust is the best part. Yeah, we are crust eaters. Crust lovers. All right, let’s fill up our pie crust back. Let’s get this going. Just kind of put a little bit in each one. Keep moving and we’ll come back and add more. This is going to be the best. I’m telling you what, if you want to try a pot pie that’s not traditional, that you’ve probably never tried anywhere else, this is the one with bacon and cheese in it. It is a whole different It is a family favorite. It does not taste like a regular pot. It does not. It is a whole different vibe. And let me tell you, you will love it. I’ve never cooked this for anybody that said they did not like it. And you can dress it up however you want. But you can’t beat the combination. And if you don’t like it, you better not tell us cuz we’re going to keep telling people that you cannot beat the combination of chicken, bacon, and cheese. You just can’t do it. So, we’re going to dab our little bit of butter on each pine. We’re going to put our lids on and we’re ready. It’s just going to be y’all are just going to be in the kitchen with us all day. Our problem is me and you enjoy our time together. So, we stretch everything out talking. We’re storytellers. I love to talk as much as But that’s how it was with granddad. When we do Thanksgiving dinner, everybody be sitting around in there making the stuff and sitting around the table talking. Stuff would go in the oven. Y’all be playing solitire or play. Not solitire. What was that card game y’all played? Uh what was it? Hand and foot. Hand and foot. That’s what it was. Canasta. Y’all be some of the oldtimers will be familiar with the term canasta. So here’s what we do. When your pot pie is cooking and you notice these edges are turning dark brown and you don’t want them to burn, but you still need your center to cook. Get you a square piece of tin foil. Fold it in half. Fold it in half again. Yep. Cut you out a little circle. Actually, you’re not cutting a circle. You’re cutting a little triangle on the end that you folded. When you open it up, there’s your hole. It’s going to be a circle. And you’re going to just drape it over your pot pie so that the center is still open. If you need to widen the circle, you can. Or if your circle’s too wide, fold it up. So, all you want is your edges covered, your circle open. That will keep your edges from burning. It’ll let the center finish cooking nicely. You want this pie crust to be like any pie, golden brown. The work the best part about every pie is this edge. This This edge crust in my opinion is the best part of any pie. You see, you don’t do anything normal. Well, look how much prettier your pie is. Mine isn’t pretty. Mine is ugly as sin. No, your piece. You made your edges look so nice and even. That’s I should have took my time and done the braided roll. But I do everything in a hurry. But that is beautiful, Zach. And when this cooks and turns golden brown. Oh my. So, we’re going to leave two uncooked for Carmen. All right. And let’s give her this one. Okay. Yeah. You going to give her your pretty one. Well, since I messed up with putting her cream of celery in there, at least she can enjoy what she’s looking at. You know, I could use scissors, but I truly just use a knife for everything. I never use we go. And then one more. And I use the extra wide everything, too. I love cooking in the kitchen with you, Zach, because I feel like I come here and you teach me. Oh, I learned something new today. I learned I am going to go home and try. I’m going to go home. I’m going to when you leave, I’m going to go make me I’m going to take my short ribs and I’m going to use the mirror paw from my short ribs. I’m going to make a new one for the base and then I’m going to try to cook my leftover short ribs next time and like a beef pie with that wine sauce. That’ll be rich. Okay, let’s throw our other pot pie in the oven. in there. We will when it’s ready. The oven’s ready. Actually, you know what? Carlen ain’t getting a nice one. I got to film. Oh, okay. Caren, sorry, sis. She don’t care about looks. She going to eat it anyway. Taste. That’s right. We hope this looks good for TV. If it looks ugly, I’m just going to feel dirty for doing this. To One thing about Carvin, she’s grateful for anything. She’s usually on the giving end. So, when you try to give her something, she says, “Oh, I don’t need anything. I don’t need anything.” Oh, no. Katie took her a big gift and she’s like she was telling don’t you don’t you leave no gift in my house and Katie’s like uh you left a huge gift at my house for my baby. I’m not not leaving you a gift. I know she’s always giving. Found my little pie cutter. Let’s cut a little pie. They are pretty pies. I’ve got it missed. Here’s the one with the little design, the little heart shape. This is the veggie. This is the bacon cheddar potato. Yes. Yes. Car’s going to want her piece of this. Oh yes, we’ve got her two to take to deliver. This is the part of the episode that I really enjoy. And there’s something special. I don’t care what kind of cuisine you get into and what kind of food you get into. There is something special about eating the food that you grew up eating. Now, I got to ask you, are you going to taste the veggie one? I did taste the veggie one. So, when I was a kid, that was the one you always cooked. I wasn’t one of the lucky kids that got to be picky. So, now that I can be picky, I’m going to grab I’m tasting the potato and bacon. Okay. Okay. What it is is I know this is dad’s favorite, but you’re saving it for me. I wouldn’t take his food from him. Oh. Oh, now this even smells like I remember. This is good. This you said at the beginning, comfort food. It really is. This is You couldn’t get this served this good at Cracker Barrel. And I’m I’m I’m definitely inspired now to go and put some other things in a pot filling. But this chicken pot pie with the bacon, potatoes, and chicken. My better taste. This is life changing. Yeah. Hang on. Get your piece right there. Let me grab a bite. I think this is the best one you’ve made. It’s the perfect amount of cheese. And the sour cream, I think, really makes those potatoes. It’s like a baked potato with a chicken pot pie at the same time. I’m not going to lie. If you’re used to the traditional chicken vegetable uh pot pie, this is next level. This is not even a pot pie. This is like something to die for. The taste of this, I’m serious. I would choose this hands down over a whole. You can honestly eat this one for breakfast, lunch, or supper cuz it really fits it all with the bacon. The combination of those flavors together. You are just going to die when you taste that. You’ll never eat regular Pope pie again. Probably you’ll I’ll have that kind of Pope pie every time. 100%. Whichever one you cook, I can promise you right now, one bite, you’ll thank us later. Mine’s gone. [Music]