Who's ready for a hearty plant-based meal? This vegan chicken pot pie is creamy, full of flavor, and super satisfying, especially on a cold day.
This post is sponsored by Chef's Choice and Nature's Charm. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.
Table of contents
- Why you'll love this chicken pot pie recipe:
- Ingredients
- Best vegan chicken substitutes
- Using pre-made pie crusts
- How to make vegan chicken pot pie
- Recipe pro-tips:
- Best pans and dishes for baking vegan pot pie:
- How to make mini vegan pot pies
- Serving suggestions
- Refrigerating and freezing vegan pot pie
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Tools needed to make this recipe
- Other vegan dinner recipes
Why you'll love this chicken pot pie recipe:
Chicken pot pie is comfort food for many, especially in the colder months when we're craving dishes that'll warm our bodies to the core. If you love savory pies like I do, you're going to love this vegan chicken pot pie recipe!
Apart from being scrumptious, this pie is:
- Easy - The filling is straightforward to make, and you only need one pie crust to lay on top. You can even use pre-made store-bought pie crust!
- Creamy - The combination of coconut milk and cashews in this plant based pot pie makes it so creamy!
- Allergen-Friendly - One reason why I love this recipe is that it's dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free, and the option to make it gluten-free by using a gluten-free pie crust!
- Family-Friendly - Everyone in my family, including my son, loves this pie!
- Customizable - You can easily customize this vegan pot pie recipe to your liking by switching up the vegetables.
Ingredients
You need 15 ingredients to make this easy vegan pot pie, many of which you probably already have if you regularly cook vegan dishes. Here's what you'll need:
- Vegan Pie Crust - Use your favorite dairy-free pie crust, either homemade or store-bought.
- Olive Oil - I like extra virgin olive oil, but feel free to use light olive oil or another neutral oil if you don’t like the flavor of olive oil.
- Onions, Carrots, Celery, and Peas - Although I went for the classic vegetable blend for pot pie, you can use any vegetables you like. Think how delicious it would be with cubed potatoes, corn, pumpkin, mushrooms, or broccoli!
- Garlic - Garlic adds great flavor and aroma to this meatless chicken pot pie. Feel free to swap it out for ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.
- Thyme - Just a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme brighten the flavors. You can use 1 teaspoon of dried thyme if you can't find fresh thyme.
- Jackfruit - I highly recommend Nature’s Charm’s young green jackfruit confit! It’s flavored with thyme, bay, and garlic.
- Vegetable Stock - You can use vegetable stock or broth. Just make sure it's plant-based and doesn't include any animal products.
- Coconut Milk - I used Chef’s Choice coconut milk because it’s creamy with simple ingredients that don't include any preservatives.
- Raw Cashews - I love adding cashews to creamy savory dishes with coconut milk! Be sure to soak the cashews in cold water overnight, or in boiling hot water for 20 minutes before using them.
- Cornstarch - Combining cornstarch with water to create a cornstarch slurry is a great way to thicken sauces, especially if you're gluten-free. If you would rather use all-purpose flour, use ⅓ cup of all-purpose flour after adding all the vegetables and before adding the stock.
- Salt & Pepper - You may need more or less than my recipe calls for, depending on how flavored your vegetable stock is.
Best vegan chicken substitutes
Although young green jackfruit is a fantastic meat substitute, especially for pulled pork or chicken, here are some other options if you can't find them in your store:
- Frozen Tofu - I highly recommend trying out frozen tofu, if you haven't already. Freezing tofu completely changes the texture!
- TVP - Textured vegetable protein (TVP), also known as textured soy protein or soy meat, is another great meat substitute.
- Seitan - Seitan is a great meat substitute, but it’s important to point out that it’s not gluten-free.
- Chickpeas - If you would like a chicken substitute that is less processed, then I would recommend chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans).
Using pre-made pie crusts
You can easily use a pre-made pie crust for this recipe! If using a frozen pie crust in a 9-inch shell, pop the crust out of the aluminum tin while it’s frozen, and let it soften so you can fit it over the filling.
If using a rolled pie crust, make sure you defrost it first before rolling it out over the filling and trim off any excess pie crust that hangs off the side of the pie dish.
How to make vegan chicken pot pie
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat and add the onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the carrots and celery in and sautée for another 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, thyme, and jackfruit to the pot, and cook while stirring for 1 minute.
- Pour the vegetable stock into the pot and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and cashews to a blender and purée them until smooth. Add it into the pot along with the peas and let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Make the cornstarch slurry and add it to the pot. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes while stirring to make sure the bottom doesn't burn.
- Pour the thickened filling into a deep dish pie plate and use a spatula or wooden spoon to flatten the surface.
- Lay a rolled-out vegan pie crust over the filling. Trim the sides and use a sharp knife to cut out some holes on top for the steam to escape.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the pie crust is golden. Tent the sides with some aluminum foil if the edges get too dark. Let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe pro-tips:
This plant-based pot pie is so easy, you'll want to make it again and again! To make sure your pie comes out perfectly every single time, here are a few tips:
- Chop the vegetables evenly. Chopping the vegetables so they're all roughly the same size helps them to cook at the same time, so you're not left with soft onions and crunchy carrots.
- Stir the pot. Don't walk away after adding ingredients to the pot! It's important to stir the pot so the onions and garlic don't burn, and the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Use a pie crust. To ensure your pie crust is flaky, make sure to chill it until you're ready to use it.
Best pans and dishes for baking vegan pot pie:
The best baking dish to use for this recipe is a deep ceramic pie dish or casserole dish. The pie dish I used was a 9 x 2.25-inch ceramic pie dish.
Ceramic dishes conduct heat evenly and slowly like glass pie plates, but many are also safe to bake from the freezer to the oven without worrying about a shattered pie dish!
Not to mention, ceramic pie and casserole dishes are beautiful to bring straight to your dining table as a centerpiece.
That said, you can make this recipe in a glass pie plate if you like!
How to make mini vegan pot pies
To make individual pot pies, put the filling in ramekins and top with pie crust. You can bake them at the same temperature but it may take about 30 minutes to bake instead of 40 minutes.
Depending on the size of your ramekins, you will end up with 6 to 8 portions.
Serving suggestions
This vegan meat pie is delicious served with a salad, mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes, garlic bread, roasted seasonal vegetables, or even mac and cheese!
Refrigerating and freezing vegan pot pie
You can store a baked pot pie in the fridge for a couple days. Make sure to wrap it with plastic or aluminum to make it airtight as possible. You can also store slices in airtight containers.
If you're making the pie ahead of time and you want to store your unbaked pie, I highly suggest refrigerating the filing and pie crust separately. When you're ready to bake, take the filling out while you preheat the oven and fit the pie crust over the pie dish.
You can also freeze and unbaked pie as well. In this case, you can fit the pie crust on top of the filling before freezing.
Be sure to wrap it with aluminum foil and store it in a freezer bag to avoid freezer burns. If you don't have a ceramic pie dish, be sure to use a disposable aluminum pie tin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Traditional puff pastry is not vegan as it's a laminated dough made with dairy butter. However, many storebought puff pastries are in fact vegan (Pepperidge Farm's Puff Pastry Sheets are vegan!).
Your pot pie may be loose or runny if your stock and cream didn't reduce properly, or if you didn' use enough cornstarch or flour.
Tools needed to make this recipe
This recipe is very simple, and you don't need many tools besides what you probably already own:
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Large pot
- Wooden spoon
- Small bowl
- Rolling pin
Other vegan dinner recipes
- Mushroom Risotto
- Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Vegan Calamari
- Thai Green Curry
- Spicy Yaki Udon
- Creamy Pumpkin Soup
- Arroz Valenciana
- Red Curry Mac and Cheese
Vegan Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 large carrots chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 cup peas
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 cans Nature's Charm Jackfruit Confit
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- ½ can Chef's Choice Coconut Milk
- 2 tablespoons raw cashews
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 vegan pie crust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat and add the onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the carrots and celery in and sautée for another 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, thyme, and jackfruit to the pot, and cook while stirring for 1 minute.
- Pour the vegetable stock into the pot and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and cashews to a blender and purée them until smooth. Add it into the pot along with the peas and let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Make the cornstarch slurry and add it to the pot. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes while stirring to make sure the bottom doesn't burn.
- Pour the thickened filling into a deep dish pie plate and use a spatula or wooden spoon to flatten the surface.
- Lay a rolled-out vegan pie crust over the filling. Trim the sides and use a sharp knife to cut out some holes on top for the steam to escape.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the pie crust is golden. Tent the sides with some aluminum foil if the edges get too dark. Let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.
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