How to Make Chef John's Chicken Pot Pie Pasta Bake
In this video, learn how to make Chef John's Chicken Pot Pie Pasta Bake, a comforting and delicious twist on the classic dish. This recipe combines tender chicken, savory vegetables, and creamy sauce with pasta, all baked to perfection with a golden, crispy topping. Perfect for a cozy dinner, this pasta bake is easy to prepare and sure to become a family favorite.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Chicken Pot Pie Pasta.
00:08That's right, I'm making one of my all-time favorite comfort foods, which is a baked pasta
00:13casserole that tastes like one of my other favorite comfort foods, Chicken Pot Pie.
00:18And for a first attempt, this came out incredibly well.
00:21And no matter how relaxed and happy you already are, after you eat this, you're going to feel
00:25even better.
00:27And to get started, the first thing we'll do is pull the meat off a roasted chicken,
00:31which could be home-roasted, or we can just grab a rotisserie chicken from the market.
00:35And we don't need to pull off all the meat.
00:38We are only going to pull off what I like to call the easy meat, which is basically
00:42those large chunks of breast meat, plus the easy to pull off meat around the thighs and
00:47leg.
00:48And sure, we could spend an extra five or ten minutes getting every last little scrap,
00:52but we don't want to, because once we spend a couple minutes pulling off those nice big
00:56pieces, we will simply transfer that into the fridge until we need it.
01:00And then we'll take the bones and whatever meat is left in all those nooks and crannies,
01:04and we will transfer that into some nice cold fresh water.
01:07And besides a bay leaf, we don't need to add anything else.
01:10Oh, and a quick tip, before you add the bones to the water, it's probably a good idea to
01:15break that carcass apart a little bit.
01:17Okay, since I didn't do that, I had to use the tongs once it was in, which did eventually
01:21work.
01:22This is also a really good way to get splashed in the face with cold chicken water, which
01:26unless you're into that kind of thing, is not recommended.
01:29But anyway, once everything is submerged, we will bring that to a simmer on high heat,
01:34at which point we can reduce our heat to low.
01:36And then we'll simmer this gently for a couple hours, after which we will have a beautiful
01:40homemade chicken broth, which we'll use to form the base of our sauce.
01:45And yes, technically this is optional, and you could just use some broth from a carton,
01:49but this is so easy, and we already have the bones, so why not?
01:53But anyway, our stock is done, and we'll simply turn that off and let it cool before we strain
01:58it.
01:59And we can move on to what's going to basically be a chicken pot pie filling, which we'll
02:03start by melting an entire stick of butter over medium-high heat in a pot, to which we
02:07will add our diced onion, as well as some cut up carrot and celery.
02:12And besides tossing in our salt, what we'll do is cook this stirring for about 5 minutes
02:16or so, or until our onions start to soften and turn translucent.
02:21And once it looks like that's started to happen, we can season this up with some freshly ground
02:25black pepper, a little bit of dry thyme, some garlic powder, and then last but not least,
02:31a few shakes of cayenne, just to help ward off the evil spirits.
02:35And once we stir that in, and let it cook for another minute or so, we will transfer
02:40in some all-purpose flour, and we'll go ahead and stir that in, and we'll cook what's basically
02:45a roux, R-O-U-X, for I'd say about 3 or 4 minutes, or until that flour starts sticking
02:51and kind of toasting to the bottom of the pan.
02:54And it's totally fine if it gets a little bit golden brown, but we don't want it to
02:57get too dark, which can cause an off flavor if it goes too far.
03:02So we will keep an eye on that.
03:04And once we have cooked our roux-coated vegetables for a few minutes, we can go ahead and add
03:08in 6 cups of our reserve broth, and we will stir that in, making sure we're scraping off
03:13any of that goodness from the bottom of the pan.
03:16And what we'll do is raise our heat to high, since we want this to come up to a simmer.
03:21And while we wait, we're going to sneak in one secret ingredient, which is a nice heaping
03:25spoon of chicken bouillon paste, and that's just going to give us a little deeper flavor.
03:30Since we're not just eating this stuff straight, we're going to be using it to flavor an entire
03:34pound of pasta, so we do need this to be very flavorful and highly seasoned at this point.
03:40So we'll go ahead and stir that in, and wait for this to start to simmer.
03:43And when it does, as with all roux-based sauces, you will see this start to thicken up.
03:49And once this mixture does start to simmer, we can lower our heat to medium, and we can
03:53toss in some nice fresh English peas, or some thawed frozen peas, which will work fine.
03:59And we will also toss in a small splash of cream, and we'll give that one more stir,
04:04before letting this cook on medium, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
04:09So that's what I did, and about 10 minutes later, it looked like this.
04:14And no, it's not going to be very thick, which is good, since again, we're going to bake
04:17this with a pound of pasta.
04:19And then to finish this off, we will chop up our reserved chicken into about a half
04:24inch to one inch size pieces, and we will stir that in, and we'll cook this for another
04:28five minutes or so.
04:30At which point, besides giving it a taste for seasoning, our chicken pot pie mixture
04:34is pretty much ready to use, and we can just reserve that for a few minutes, while we move
04:39on to cook our pasta, which as usual, we'll do in some very well-salted boiling water,
04:45for one minute less than the package directions.
04:48And I decided to go with a pound of shell-shaped pasta, for two very, very good reasons.
04:53First of all, the shape is going to be perfect, to catch and hold on to all that sauce, and
04:57bits of vegetable, and pieces of chicken.
05:00But also, because chicken come from shells.
05:02Oh yeah, it's true, look it up.
05:06But really, a pound of any kind of open-shaped pasta will work, so if you feel like using
05:10something else, go ahead.
05:12I mean, you are after all the ray gun, of how this should be done.
05:16And speaking of busting a move, while we wait for the pasta to cook, we can go ahead and
05:20mix up our buttered breadcrumbs.
05:23And all we need to do for that, is add a little bit of salt to our breadcrumbs, along with
05:27lots of melted butter, and then we'll simply stir that together, until we assume every
05:31single breadcrumb is coated with butter.
05:34And I do prefer to use the panko style crumbs, since they're just larger, and will bake up
05:39a little crunchier.
05:41And then once that's mixed, we'll just set it aside, and we'll go back and check our
05:44pasta, and like I said, we'll cook one minute less than the package directions.
05:49And then what we'll do is drain those very, very well, and then transfer it into our chicken
05:53pot pie mixture, and we'll stir everything together until evenly combined.
05:58And I realize this looks very soupy now, but that's exactly how we want it, because by
06:03the time this bakes, that pasta is going to absorb a lot of moisture, and we're eventually
06:07going to end up with what I think is the perfect texture.
06:11And that's it.
06:12Once mixed, we can transfer this into a nice, large 4 1⁄2 quart casserole dish.
06:17And I'm going to use a ladle to do this, so I don't splash it everywhere.
06:19OK, in a restaurant, I would have just poured that in with reckless abandon, not caring
06:24too much about making a mess.
06:27But at home, unfortunately, I have to be a little more careful.
06:30But anyway, once we have almost everything transferred in, and we've used a spoon to
06:34distribute all the ingredients as evenly as we can, we'll go ahead and top that with our
06:38buttered breadcrumbs.
06:40And once we do have those transferred on top, I think we should take the tip of the spoon
06:45and give the surface the old polka polka, just to push a little bit of that crumb into
06:50the surface.
06:51All right, for these kind of crumb toppings, I always think it's a good idea if the top's
06:55not too smooth.
06:57And that's it.
06:58Now we're ready to transfer into the center of a 375 degree oven for about 45 to 60 minutes,
07:05or until our casserole is bubbling around the edge, and our crumb topping is golden
07:09brown, and it looks like this.
07:11Oh yeah, now that is gorgeous.
07:14And it looks like something we want to start eating right away.
07:17But I really wouldn't.
07:19I think we want to let this rest at least 10 minutes before we serve.
07:22And to kill time, we could snip some chives over the top, or maybe scatter over some chicken-friendly
07:27herb like tarragon, or Italian parsley, or fresh thyme.
07:31And that's it.
07:32Once I have that garnished, and I very impatiently waited for about 10 minutes, I went ahead
07:36and served some up.
07:38And when I started this, I was hoping to end up with a texture of like a tuna casserole,
07:41or something that's very moist and not dry, but also not too soupy.
07:47And I'll have to chalk it up to beginner's luck, but this came out pretty much exactly
07:51how I wanted.
07:52So I grabbed a spoon and went in for the official taste.
07:55And that, my friends, was a rich, flavorful, tender pasta casserole that tasted pretty
08:00much exactly like chicken pot pie.
08:03And even though there was no pastry crust involved, our beautiful buttery breadcrumbs
08:06did a perfect job of substituting.
08:09So I really did think the flavor profile was spot on.
08:12And as great as I thought this came out, and as much as I loved it, I will tell you there's
08:16an alternative way to do this.
08:18Right, this is the comfort food version, where we're baking everything for a fairly long
08:22time.
08:23Okay, for a saucier, what I'll call fine dining version, we would do everything exactly
08:28the same, except we would cook our pasta all the way, and then instead of baking it for
08:32like 45 minutes to an hour, we would just put it in a really hot oven, like 475, and
08:37just leave it in there for about 15 minutes to brown the top.
08:40And that will give you something with a much saucier, soupier interior, which is also going
08:44to be great.
08:45It's just not going to be quite as comforting and satisfying as this version.
08:50But either way, if you're a fan of baked pasta casseroles, and chicken pot pie, you
08:54are absolutely going to love this.
08:57Which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon.
09:00So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
09:05more info as usual.
09:07And as always, enjoy!