Flaky Butter Pot Pie Crust No Shortening

How to make a homemade pot pie crust with no shortening, or a double pie crust for savory pies! Perfect for beef, pork, vegetable or a simple chicken pot pie.

Pot Pie Crust no Shortening

Whether you are making a from scratch with ground beef or leftover turkey pot pie you may want this goodness on the bottom and top of your filling. NO problem. You just need butter, flour and water y’all. Seriously, it is just that simple!! It is way more time consuming to make the middle but no need to buy this at the store.

Yes there are boxes you can buy. They are thin, with no flavor, sometimes dried, out, rolled up and usually break when you unroll them. The measurements below will be enough or 2. You can use them both on the bottom, or make a double crust pot pie for savory choices.

Savory Pot Pie Crust Recipe

I am not a fan of shortening. There isn’t any flavor, it’s oily, and isn’t as firm as just using cubed cold butter. I like using salted which will add a bit more flavor to this. Of course you could sprinkle in some pepper or even a tad of garlic powder too if you wanted. This is just the base you can tweak as you like with;

What is the crust on a pot pie made of?

• 2 c all purpose flour
• 2/3 c butter unsalted, cold
• 5-6 tbsp ice water that is very cold

You do not want to over stir this too much, it will change the texture. Combine it all with in a bowl with a pastry cutter ideally. You will need a rolling pin and cutting board or work surface that has been lightly floured too. Do not use a food processor, just good old fashioned elbow grease is better to get the right consistency.

Beyond that you will make your homemade chicken pot pie filling or whatever you’re making to fill it separately. Below will make one double crust. If you wanted to make two pie recipes with butter pie crusts then you’d need to double it of course.

Ok so the key to making flaky pie crust is the butter. It has more moisture in it than shortening which means it will steam up, fluff up and get that break apart fall apart texture you want. If you have leftovers you can make a steak pot pie to make a whole new meal. Pure comfort food y’all.

How to Make a Flaky Crust for Chicken Pot Pie

• Prepare the pie crust by mixing flour and 2/3 cup cold butter.
• Use a pastry blender (or criss-cross two butter knives together) to press ingredients together to create a crumbly texture.
• Add cold water in one tbsp at a time, fluffing with fork, until pie dough can form a ball that is not too wet, but holds together.
• Spread flour onto surface, take half of the crust dough and roll out into a large round shape big enough for your pie plate.
• Place dough into your pie plate, pressing in to form around the inside as needed.
• Pour pot pie mixture into homemade pie crust. Set aside. Roll other half of the dough into another large round shape.
• Place dough on top of pot pie mixture to create the top layer of the pot pie (if you want one on top).
• Crimp the edges using your thumb and forefinger to seal it on the edges.
• Use a knife to cut small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Another way to use this would be to roll out and slice into rectangles to make pot pie hand pies! For these you could add your filling to the center with room on the edges. Lay another piece on top and seal all the way around. Make two slits on the top and either fry or air fry until browned. Super fun finger food idea.

Pot Pie Crust Recipe Butter

Now if you needed a dairy free pie crust that is easy too. The texture will be a bit different because plant based vegan butter products aren’t as firm. We buy them often for my husband and there is a slight difference but still better than Crisco. As far as the filling is concerned there are hundreds of versions out there you can make and fill this with.

We have an easy Bisquick chicken pot pie recipe with frozen mixed vegetables using diced precooked chicken breasts. With a bit of chicken broth and frozen peas with carrots and green beans it is probably the simplest semi-homemade version. You can easily tweak this one with different types of meat inside too.

Now below we explain how to make this with the filling already inside. You may want to bake it as is though without anything else. Why would you do this? If you had a cool filling of some sort you may prefer to have it as is, or if you wanted to bake it ahead of time and fill later. We will talk about this a bit below….

Should you prebake the bottom crust of a chicken pot pie?

Yes, prebaking (or blind baking) the bottom crust is a good idea to help prevent a soggy crust, especially since pot pie fillings are typically quite moist. This step gives the dough a head start so it can bake through and stay crisp even after you add the filling.

How Long Should You Blind Bake

First of all, what does this even mean? We share how to make a crust below, just that. Let’s say you wanted to just bake that in your pie pan and then add the insides later. That is what this term means. You can easily do this in the oven quickly with these instructions here;

1. Preheat your oven to 390 degrees F or 200 degrees C
2. Follow directions as stated below to make the dough
3. Line your dish with parchment paper
4. Lay your dough inside
5. Crimp your crust and cut off excess along the outsides
6. Lay baking beans inside so the bottom doesn’t puff up
7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until firmed
8. Remove the beans and bake for another 5 minutes or until lightly browned

Take out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. You can then fill it or allow it to completely cool to room temperature and use it a bit later. If you wait you want to keep it crispy so you’d want to slide it into a freezer bag and suck all the air out. I wouldn’t let it sit that way longer than 24 hours. Fresh is always best though, period.

Double Crust Pie Dough

Why would you want to use two instead of one? Because you love the taste of the crust and/or it has a different look. You can lay it on top like this to cover the whole thing or cut it into strips to make a lattice pie crust. The latter is typically reserved for fruit pies but anything goes when it comes to homemade. It’s a criss cross pattern that just makes it prettier.

Another idea is to cut the second one with small cookie cutters so you can peek thru, or set the shapes right on the top. You can see what I mean by this here. As with the criss crossed idea this is usually used for sweeter fillings like cherry pie but up to you.

If you do want to make a sweet version that is SUPER EASY I would totally go with the pour over top pie crust. That you don’t have to roll out or anything so you just mix it up and pour it over your filling. Literally that is it. You wouldn’t want to use it with meat though because it is sweet with sugar in it. Perfect with pie filling though.

How do you store pie crust dough?

You will want to roll it out before you put it into the fridge. If stored in a ball it will harden and be harder to shape even when thawed a bit. Once rolled out lay it on a piece of plastic wrap. Put another layer of saran wrap on top of that and slide the whole thing into a freezer bag. Zip and it will keep nicely in the fridge for up to 3 days this way.

When ready to use sit on the counter for 20 minutes so it will mold to your pan easier. Remove the wrap and lay in your pan once it’s softened and pliable. The top and bottom can be done this way. If you have more than one though put a piece of parchment paper in between so they don’t stick together. Then fill to your hearts desire and bake away!