This chicken pot pie variation is made with a tater tot crust, is super easy to make, and is the best comfort food for weeknights or weekends! Midwesterners call this hotdish, any creamy dreamy casserole filling + a tater tot crust. The filling can be made in advance for meal prep and frozen tater tots take all the guesswork out of making your own pie crust for chicken pot pie.
Oh oh oh oh HELL YES.
I am so excited for you to eat this.
It needs not a ton of introduction other than, hello, we are in a pandemic and there is just SOMETHING about this low level of anxiety that is making me really crave familiar flavors. Spaghetti, quiche, tacos, and chicken pot pie. They've all been on really regular rotation for the last three weeks, and I'm not mad about it.
Some people are trying new things, but that's just not how my brain is reacting to this time in history. Give me nostalgia, give me familiarity, give me recipes that WORK and don't make me second guess everything about myself and my life because, yes, that is how I emotionally react these days when cooking doesn't go well.
Chicken Pot Pie With Tater Tots
Ok so for this. We make a pared down, super simple chicken pot pie filling, in my favorite Staub because this is a one pot situation. Then, we throw some tots on top, bake that ish, done and done.
- We are not arranging mother effing tater tots into concentric circles of food blogging value and self worth. This is not that blog.
- If you don't have a big stove-to-oven dish, no worries! Make the filling in a pot, transfer it to a baking dish, toss on tots, move on with your life. We are good people.
Now, I boiled chicken in stock, then shredded it and used that same stock for the chicken pot pie gravy. This is also a great use for leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or any cooked chicken you can get your hands on. Hell, use ground chicken or turkey if you're into that!
Besides the chicken, we're using onion, celery, carrot, butter, flour, heavy cream, frozen peas, and tater tots.
Again, swaps: use cornstarch whisked with a bit of cold stock instead of flour for a GF version. Any veggies you like. Any kind of stock you have. Seriously go to town with swaps here.
Start by heating a large skillet to medium heat with some butter. Preheat the oven to 400F.
Add the carrots, onions, and celery with some salt and pepper and saute the veggies for 5 minutes or so, stirring as you go, until they're soft.
Sprinkle the flour over the veggies (skip this step if you're using cornstarch for GF), and stir to coat the veggies in the flour. Then, slowly pour in the stock with one hand while stirring with the other, incorporating the stock slowly as you go.
Let the mixture come to a bubble, then add the cream, shredded chicken, and peas to the mixture. Stir everything to coat and taste: add salt and pepper until the entire dish tastes GOOD.
Let the pot pie filling mixture simmer for 5 minutes or so, just to marry the flavors and thicken the sauce. Then, remove from the heat and dump the tater tots all over the dish.
I sprinkled the tots with pepper for a teensy bit of heat, but if that feels like overkill to you, skip it!
Bake. Half an hour. Clean the kitchen during this time so that when you're done eating you're DONE, you know? If you want to.
I mean.
Fresh herbs or lemon zest or flaky salt for topping? Sure. The baking time gives the filling a chance to reduce a bit more and really thicken, the tots are soft on the bottom and crispy on the top, and just UGH this is the hug we need right now.
This is definitely whole-family food, if your kids can deal with their foods being mixed. Beck adored it, mainly because she just figured out that tater tots are like hash browns which are like french fries, so all good on that front.
And there we have zero fuss chicken pot pie with tater tot crust. And, sure, yes, it's perfectly emotional for this time in our lives, but this is going on our regular menu rotation for all the time.
Enjoy!
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Chicken {tater} Tot Pie
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
Description
Savory chicken pot pie filling with a shortcut tater tot crust = the best, easiest chicken pot pie with tater tots ever. Add this to your weeknight menu rotation asap!
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken, cooked/shredded
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ onion, diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup frozen peas
- 1 bag frozen seasoned tater tots (mine was 19 ounces, more or less is fine)
Instructions
- Preheat a large ovenproof skillet to medium heat with the butter. Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Add the carrots, celery, and onion to the skillet with some salt and pepper. Stir for about 5 minutes to soften, then sprinkle the flour over the veggie mixture. Stir to coat the veggies in the flour.
- Slowly stream in the stock, stirring as you go, to incorporate with the floured veggies. Let the mixture come to a boil to thicken.
- Add the cream, peas, and chicken to the chicken pot pie sauce. Taste, and add more salt and pepper to your preference. It should taste really good at this point!
- Scatter the tater tots over the chicken pot pie filling. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if desired. Bake the chicken pot pie with tater tots at 400F for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- Let the chicken pot pie with tater tots rest for about 5 minutes before scooping into bowls and eating. You will likely have no leftovers.
Notes
Chicken: I used 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We're looking for about 3 cups of shredded meat. A half rotisserie chicken would be great, or any kind of cooked chicken you like/have!
Gluten Free: Skip the flour. Instead, when you add the stock, whisk 1 tablespoon cornstarch into the cold stock and stream in.
Veggies: Cut them however you like! I aim to have them about the same size as the peas so everything cooks evenly.
Prep: You can make the sauce in advance, keep it in the fridge in the skillet, then dump on the tots and bake right before serving. Leftovers are delicious too, if you have any!
Keywords: chicken pot pie, chicken pot pie with tater tots
This sounds SO good! Do you think I could use cream of chicken and chicken broth instead of the chicken stock and cream?
It would be a little different but I think it would work! You honestly could skip the flour step because cream of chicken soup is already thickened, then just use enough stock to make a gravy that resembles the inside of a chicken pot pie. If you try it, let us know how it works!
Ooh I just thought that I could instead maybe make a giant hash brown and stick it on top instead of the tots. Then I thought maybe I could just mix oil/shredded potatoes/salt and stick that on top and it would all cook together for maximum laziness. I wonder how that would work....
I don't know! I imagine frozen hash browns would work pretty well, maybe a little more cook time since they aren't already browned like tater tots. Grated potato might work, but wouldn't be exactly like a frozen potato product. Something about the processing makes them work really well with this, for better or for worse. But if you try something else definitely report back, I'd love to know how it goes!