Skillet Pot Pie Without the Pie
Chicken, vegetables, and gravy under a biscuit lid, cooked in one pan on a stove.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Butter or ghee | 2 tbsp | ghee keeps for weeks out of a cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Dried onion and celery flakes | 3 tbsp total | |
| Dried mushrooms | 1/4 cup | crush them small so they rehydrate fast |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Flour | 3 tbsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | makes the stock |
| Dried basil, oregano, thyme, sage | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/4 cup | |
| Freeze-dried or canned chicken | 5 oz | |
| Dried mixed vegetables | 3/4 cup | peas, carrots, corn, green beans |
| Biscuit mix | 1 cup | flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening premixed at home |
Method
- Pour 500 ml of water over the dried vegetables, mushrooms, onion, celery, and chicken in your pot. Let them sit 10 minutes off the heat. This is the whole rehydration step and skipping it gives you gravel in gravy.
- Melt the butter in the pan, stir in the flour, and cook it a minute until it smells like toast rather than raw flour.
- Add the soaked vegetables and their water, the bouillon, milk powder, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. Simmer and stir until it thickens. Add water a splash at a time if it goes past gravy into paste.
- Mix the biscuit mix with about 6 tbsp of water into a stiff dough. Drop it in six lumps across the surface. Do not spread it flat or the middle never cooks.
- Lid on, lowest flame you can hold, 12 to 15 minutes. Rotate the pan every few minutes if your stove has a hot center. The biscuits are done when a twig comes out of the thickest one clean.
The original is a baked pie, which is a nonstarter without an oven. What survives the translation is the part that actually matters: a roux-thickened gravy carrying meat and vegetables, with a biscuit lid steamed on top instead of baked. A lidded pan on a low flame is an oven for anything under an inch thick.
The fresh stuff all has a dry stand-in. Onion, celery, and mushrooms go in as flakes, milk goes in as powder, stock goes in as bouillon. The flour and butter are non-negotiable — they are what turns hot water into gravy, and without the roux you get soup with biscuits floating in it. Keep the flame low once the lid is on. The gravy scorches long before the biscuits are done.
Packing
Everything dry except the butter goes in two bags: filling in one, biscuit mix in the other. Butter or ghee rides in a screw-top jar. Canned chicken is heavy but cheap; freeze-dried costs more and saves half a pound.
Variations
- No lid or no patience: skip the biscuits and stir in instant potato flakes instead. Same dinner, ten minutes shorter.
- A foil pouch of chicken works fine and needs no rehydrating. Cut 100 ml of water if you use it.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/chicken-pot-pie-recipe