Low-Fat Chicken Pot Pie: 8 g of Fat a Serving, No Pastry Required

Low-Fat Chicken Pot Pie: 8 g of Fat a Serving, No Pastry Required

Pot pie is one of those dishes people give up on first. The fat is not really in the filling — it is in the pastry, and in the butter-and-flour roux that makes the sauce cling. Take both of those out badly and you get poached chicken in thin soup with a lid on it.

This version keeps the two things that make pot pie worth eating: a sauce thick enough to hold a spoon upright, and a golden top. The sauce is thickened with a milk-and-flour slurry instead of a roux, and the top is a thin layer of mashed potato browned under the grill. It comes out at 8 g of fat a serving, and it still tastes like Sunday.

Fat: 8 g  ·  Saturated fat: 1.8 g  ·  Calories: 415  ·  Serves: 6  ·  Prep: 25 min  ·  Cook: 40 min

Why This Version Works

A classic roux is equal parts butter and flour. Skip the butter and whisk the flour into cold milk instead, and you get the same thickening power with none of the fat — the starch does the work, not the butter. The trick is to add the slurry to simmering stock while whisking, then give it a full three minutes to lose the raw flour taste.

The second swap is the lid. Shortcrust pastry runs to roughly 25 g of fat per portion on its own. A potato top browned under a hot grill gives you the same contrast of crisp over soft for about 1 g. Skimmed milk and a spoon of Dijon in the mash keep it from tasting flat without adding cream.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 680 g (1½ lb) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2 cm pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots, sliced into coins
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 250 g mushrooms, quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 400 ml low-sodium chicken stock
• 300 ml skimmed milk
• 35 g (5 tbsp) plain flour
• 150 g frozen peas
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and plenty of black pepper

For the top

• 900 g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 80 ml skimmed milk, warm
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• A pinch of grated nutmeg
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put the potatoes in cold salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 18–20 minutes until a knife slides through without resistance. Drain well and leave them in the hot pan for a minute so the steam escapes — wet potato makes a soggy top.
2. While the potatoes cook, heat the olive oil in a wide, deep pan over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken in two batches, about 3 minutes a batch. You are after colour, not cooked-through. Lift it out onto a plate.
3. Drop the heat to medium. Add the onion, carrot and celery with a splash of the stock and cook for 8 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook 4 minutes more, until the mushrooms have given up their water and it has boiled off again.
4. Pour in the rest of the stock and the thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer.
5. Whisk the flour into the cold milk until there are no lumps at all, then pour it into the simmering pan in a thin stream, whisking the whole time. Let it bubble gently for 3 minutes; it will go from milky to properly thick.
6. Return the chicken with any juices on the plate, add the peas, and simmer 4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the lemon juice, then taste and season hard — low-fat sauces need more salt and pepper than you expect. Tip it all into a 2-litre baking dish.
7. Mash the potatoes with the warm milk, Dijon and nutmeg until smooth. Spoon over the filling and spread to the edges so the sauce cannot bubble up the sides, then rough the surface up with a fork — the ridges are what brown.
8. Grill 15 cm from the element for 8–10 minutes, until the peaks are deep gold. Rest 5 minutes before serving, or the sauce will run.

Nutrition

Per serving, one sixth of the dish:

• Total fat: 8 g
• Saturated fat: 1.8 g
• Calories: 415
• Protein: 36 g
• Carbohydrate: 45 g
• Fibre: 6 g
• Sodium: 420 mg (with low-sodium stock and light salting)

Most of the remaining fat is the olive oil and the chicken itself. If you need the number lower still, brown the chicken in a non-stick pan with a spray of oil instead of the tablespoon: that takes it to roughly 6 g a serving.

Variations

• Turkey: swap the chicken for turkey breast one for one. The fat figure drops by about half a gram.
• Vegetarian: use 400 g of drained cannellini beans and 200 g extra mushrooms in place of the chicken, and vegetable stock. Protein lands around 18 g a serving.
• Leek and tarragon: replace the celery with two sliced leeks and the thyme with a teaspoon of dried tarragon.
• No potato: top with 6 sheets of filo, each one crumpled rather than laid flat and misted with oil spray. About 2 g of fat a serving for the lid.

Storing and Reheating

Cooled and covered, it keeps 3 days in the fridge. Reheat portions at 180°C for 20 minutes, covered with foil for the first 15 so the potato does not dry out. The microwave works but softens the top.

It freezes well before grilling: assemble, cool completely, wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then bake at 190°C for 30 minutes and finish under the grill.

What to Serve With It

It is a full plate already, so keep the sides sharp and green rather than rich. Steamed green beans with lemon zest, a bowl of watercress with a splash of vinegar, or quick-braised cabbage all cut through the sauce without adding fat. Skip the bread — there is enough starch in the lid.

If you like this filling but would rather skip the assembly, the same creamy chicken base works just as well under a steamed topping. Low-fat chicken and dumplings drops both the pastry and the roux, and the dumplings still come out fluffy because they steam under the lid rather than boil.

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Questions People Ask

Can I make the sauce without flour?

Yes. Two tablespoons of cornflour slaked in the cold milk thickens the same amount of liquid and is naturally gluten free. It sets a little glossier and needs only a minute of simmering rather than three.

Will it work with chicken thighs?

It will, and it will taste richer, but skinless boneless thighs carry roughly three times the fat of breast. Using thighs throughout takes the serving figure from 8 g to about 14 g.

Why is my sauce thin?

Almost always because the slurry went into liquid that was not actually simmering, or because it did not cook long enough afterwards. Flour needs heat and time to swell. Bring it back to a proper bubble and give it another two minutes before adding more flour.

Can I prepare it the day before?

Make the filling and the mash separately, chill them, and assemble cold on the day. Add 10 minutes to the oven time before grilling. Assembling hot filling under cold mash and leaving it overnight is the one version that goes watery.