11 Ways To Easily Upgrade A Store-Bought Chicken Pot Pie

Yes, chicken pot pie is relatively easy to make at home. Don't want to make every single item in your pot pie from scratch? There are plenty of shortcuts you can take — like using a grocery store rotisserie chicken rather than cooking it from raw, or using puff pastry for your crust — that will still result in a pretty delicious dinner. However, sometimes those shortcuts still aren't enough. Sometimes, you don't have the energy, fortitude, or time to sauté some vegetables, tear apart a rotisserie chicken, or roll out a pre-made crust, and that's where the store-bought chicken pot pie comes in.

Consumers will argue all day about which store-bought chicken pot pie is the best. From Marie Callender's to Banquet to Boston Market, you have options in the grocery store freezer aisle. Beyond the convenience, frozen pot pies also, for many, offer up a certain nostalgia. Many can remember eating these pot pies as a child, or maybe as a broke college student who needed something homey that they could cook in a dorm room microwave.

That said, for all the good that store-bought chicken pot pie offers ... could this grocery item be a little better? Maybe a tad improved? With minimal effort? (Because, again, a large amount of effort is what we're trying to avoid here.) Here are some simple ways to easily upgrade a store-bought chicken pot pie.

If you're only using mayonnaise on your sandwiches, you're seriously missing out on all the versatility that this simple ingredient offers. There are so many creative ways to use mayonnaise. Put it in your scrambled eggs, use it as a leavening ingredient or marinade, and, yes, brush it onto your store-bought chicken pot pie. No, brushing the pie's crust with mayo isn't going to give your pie a distinctly mayonnaise-y flavor. Instead, it's going to take the place of an egg wash. 

That's right. Mayonnaise can be used as an egg wash. While not strictly necessary for baking, an egg wash can give your baked goods, including store-bought frozen pot pies, a little extra color and shine. A traditional egg wash might just be made up of a single egg with no other ingredients, or an egg combined with water or dairy. Along these lines, since mayonnaise is mostly just eggs and fat, it can be used as an egg wash substitute. 

In addition to providing the typical golden color and gleam, the mayonnaise goes above and beyond a standard egg wash by also providing extra acidity and fat, perfect for savory baked items like a pot pie. You can apply an egg wash or egg wash substitute like mayonnaise to your frozen pie right before baking.

Whether you're baking a store-bought chicken pot pie in the oven or zapping it in the microwave, consider adding some cheese to the top of the crust in the final moments of the cooking process. You'll want to time it so that the crust is nearly all the way cooked before you add your shredded cheese.

So what's the best cheese to add to a chicken pot pie? Cheddar is a solid choice and an option that many home cooks already have in the fridge, but Monterey Jack works well, too, as does shredded mozzarella. Ideally, you'd pick a cheese that's going to melt well onto your crust over a short time in the oven or microwave, rather than just sitting atop it without fully melting (which might happen if you decided to just sprinkle some pre-grated parmesan on top of the pie). Cheeses that melt the best, evenly and easily, are typically varieties that are soft, moist, and young. Think American, provolone, gruyere, or even processed cheeses like Velveeta.

Forgot to add that cheese to your pot pie and it's already cooked completely and ready for chowing down? While you might not want to add cheese to the crust at this point, as the residual heat probably won't be enough to melt it, after you've sliced into your pie, consider mixing a small amount of cheese into the filling.

Spaetzle is a type of German, small, short, and chewy noodle, with an almost dumpling-like consistency, that's often served with comfort foods or as a part of a casserole. As such, it's a no-brainer that it would work well with chicken pot pie filling. However, you don't have to go about making spaetzle from scratch, on your own. After all, while spaetzle may not require many ingredients (just flour, eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings), it does traditionally require a bit of work and some extra equipment, namely a spaetzle board or press, which cuts the dough into the requisite shape, before you boil the spaetzle, dip it in an ice bath, and then finally sauté it.

Instead of doing all that, turn your frozen chicken pot pie's crust into a pseudo-spaetzle. Remove the crust and blend it in a food processor until you have small, spaetzle-like pieces of dough. Cook this dough like you would spaetzle and then, separately, heat the pot pie's filling. Serve the two together for pot pie flavors served up in an entirely new way. Sure, it might take a little extra work, but if you're bored of the same ol'-same ol', this trick might just be enough to get you out of a weeknight cooking rut.

If you find store-bought chicken pot pie to be on the bland side, kick things up a notch or two by busting into your spice rack and considering your broader options. If you're not sure where to start, opt for some fragrant, fresh-cracked black pepper. Fresh, complementary herbs like parsley, thyme, and rosemary are good picks. If you don't have fresh herbs on hand, reach for general Italian seasoning. Even just salt can help with blandness in a pot pie, but be careful and check your chosen pie's nutritional values on the back of the box first. Some frozen pies can be eye-wateringly high in sodium already.

Pro tip: If you're worried that the herbs and spices aren't going to stick to your pie crust, and that they'll just bounce off its frozen surface, you can utilize one of the other tips on this list. Egg washes (and mayo washes) don't just add shine and color to your pot pie crust. They also are frequently used to keep decorative elements — like coarse sugar or extra pieces of pie dough — attached to the top of baked goods. So, use your egg or mayo wash and then add your extra herbs and spices. The liquid will act as a glue, keeping the herbs and spices in place.

You're heating up a single-serve frozen chicken pot pie in the microwave. As soon as it's done, you dig in with a fork. The only problem? Eating the pie straight from the little aluminum pie plate that it came in means you're eating the pie from the top down. You get a few bites of crust first, then it's all filling, and then you're left with nothing but the bottom crust. You're never getting a cohesive bite that's the right ratio of both filling and crust.

If this scenario feels familiar, the solution is simple. All you have to do is start flipping those individually sized pot pies over after they're done cooking, onto your plate. Jiggle the pie free from the aluminum pan and now you're able to eat the pie from the side, rather than top-down. You get a little bit of both the top and bottom crust, plus the layer of pot pie filling in between, in every bite, for the perfect blend of flavor and textures.

Turns out, though, that flipping your pot pie after cooking it is a bit of a contentious issue. One Reddit thread dedicated to the subject left pie consumers arguing over the best way to eat a pot pie, while some onlookers were simply baffled that flipping the pie was even an option. Still, the general consensus seemed to be that flipping is the way to go.

If you find that your biggest issue with cooking a store-bought chicken pot pie is that, after the pie is done, the pie's bottom crust ends up largely stuck to the bottom of the pie pan, this trick is for you. Before you bake the pie and before that bottom crust has had a chance to adhere itself to the pan forevermore, remove the pie from the pan completely and spray the pan with non-stick spray. Voilà — no more struggling to cut the pie into perfect, whole pieces.

Just make sure that you don't overdo it. You don't want to apply too much non-stick spray to the pan, as that can leave behind residue, which ends up sticking to the pie itself. Thinking you might use butter rather than cooking spray? While butter is often similarly used to keep food from sticking to pans during the baking process, cooking spray might still be a better choice. Not only does cooking spray make it easier to give the pan an even, thorough coating, but it also won't add any extra moisture to the pie crust when you place it back into the pan (as butter might), which could lead to soggy crust. Additionally, cooking spray is lower in fat content.

Maybe your main challenge with cooking store-bought chicken pot pie, though, isn't annoying sticking. Maybe you seem to always run into another issue that can severely and negatively impact both your pie's texture and taste: The crust always seems to burn, especially around the edges.

If so, you're in luck, because you'll never burn your store-bought pot pie again when you start utilizing one simple pantry item: aluminum foil. All you have to do is wrap the edges of your pie in an aluminum foil collar, or shield. To make an aluminum foil shield, rip off a piece of foil that's just bigger than the pie. Fold it in half, twice. Then, cut one of the square's edges into a curve, creating a curvilinear triangle. Next, cut the triangle's tip off into a similarly shaped curve. Unfold your creation and you should have a circle that's the right size to place just over the circumference of your pie, shielding the edges while leaving the center of the pie uncovered.

Alternatively, if you don't want to dip into arts and crafts, you can place a sheet of aluminum foil over the entire pie before popping it into the oven, removing the foil in the last 10 minutes of cooking, giving the crust enough time to brown up. Only use aluminum foil on your frozen pot pies in the oven. If you put foil in the microwave, it could spark or even start a kitchen fire.

When it comes to cooking a store-bought chicken pot pie, the microwave and oven aren't your only options. If you're still on the air fryer bandwagon, you can utilize this countertop appliance to turn a frozen pot pie into a perfectly crispy dinner, fast.

Many air fryers can accommodate two single-serving frozen pot pies, but make sure that they're not overlapping. You want the hot air to circulate around the entirety of each pie. From there, most pies will cook to completion at 350 degrees Fahrenheit after 25 minutes, though it's smart to give them a little read with your cooking thermometer to make sure they've reached 165 degrees internally, before digging in. If you find the air fryer is burning the crust before the interior is cooked, reach for your handy aluminum foil again and cover the tops.

Then, if using your air fryer to cook store-bought pot pies sparks your inspiration, consider making other pies in the air fryer, too. You can make homemade, from-scratch pies in the air fryer as well, and because the fresh pie won't be frozen, it'll take even less time to cook.

If you're trying to bulk up your store-bought chicken pot pie for a more filling meal, or if you just want to make your frozen pot pie a little healthier, the solution is simple: add more vegetables.

There are a few ways you can go about this. Obviously, you're not going to be conducting surgery on the frozen pot pie so that you can add more to the filling before it bakes. Instead, what you'll want to do is begin baking your pot pie like normal and, while it's cooking, cook your vegetables of choice separately. After everything is done, you can mix the extra vegetables into the filling as you cut each individual slice from the pie.

As for which vegetables to include in your pie, the easiest option is frozen vegetables that you can simply microwave right in the bag. You can find mixed frozen vegetables that are very similar or identical to what's already included in most store-bought chicken pot pies. However, canned, heated vegetables are another easy option. Meanwhile, sautéed vegetables provide the most additional flavor. Sautéed mushrooms, onions and peppers, and spinach are all good picks.

The crust on a homemade chicken pot pie often offers a succulent, buttery flavor and tender crumb. You can replicate this flavor and mouthfeel by grabbing a stick of butter from your fridge and, when your pot pie is piping hot from the oven, rubbing a few pats into the crust. You can also add the butter  during baking, so that it melts into the crust as it cooks. If you do this, just make sure that you're cooking the pie on top of a baking sheet. You don't want the butter to melt and run off the crust and into the bottom of your oven, where it will burn. Also, note that if you're using an egg wash, you'll want to wait to add your butter until the pie is completely cooked.

But could you use butter in place of an egg wash altogether? Well, it depends. If you want the shiny, golden look of an egg wash, butter can't replicate that. Instead, butter used in place of an egg wash will give your pie crust a slightly spotty look. However, the butter will impart more flavor than an egg wash. So, if your goal is buttery flavor, feel free to use the butter in place of an egg wash. If your goal is a superior appearance, stick to the traditional egg wash only.

There's no reason to actually keep your store-bought chicken pot pie in pie form, and there's no reason to even use the crust at all if you don't really like it. Consider repurposing the pie's filling and combining it with other ingredients that you have on hand, for an entirely new dish.

For example, you could pour the pie filling over a starchy item, like you might beef stroganoff or goulash; think mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or rice. You could also turn the filling into a soup, by adding the filling to a saucepan (or stock pot, depending on how much filling you have), thinning it out with some broth, and then incorporating a few other ingredients, like extra vegetables and spices. While sticking with basics like chicken broth and mixed veggies will give you basically chicken pot pie soup, branching out a little can result in options like chicken corn chowder (lean heavily on adding frozen or canned corn), chicken and dumplings (make quick dumplings to cook in the stock), or even chicken chili (add canned white beans and spices).