Chicken pot pie filling served over penne instead of under pastry. The sauce, the vegetables and the chicken are all the same; only the starch changes.

It is a sensible swap. Pot pie filling is essentially a thick veloute with chicken and vegetables in it, and thick sauces and pasta have always gone together.

Use the same pot for everything

Cook the pasta, drain it, then build the sauce in the same pot.

This is the practical detail that makes it a weeknight dish rather than a project. One pot, one colander, no separate saucepan.

The pot will still be warm, which helps the butter melt evenly.

Sweat the vegetables properly

Onion, carrots and celery diced and cooked in butter five to seven minutes until soft.

This is a mirepoix, the same base a pot pie uses, and the time matters. Carrots in particular take the full seven minutes to soften, and undercooked carrot in a creamy sauce is unpleasant and obvious.

Dice them all to a similar size so they finish together.

Coat the vegetables in flour before any liquid

A third of a cup sprinkled over and stirred to coat everything evenly.

This makes a roux using the butter already in the pan plus the moisture from the vegetables. Coating the vegetables means the flour is distributed rather than sitting in one place, which is what prevents lumps later.

Let it cook a minute before liquid goes in. Raw flour tastes pasty and that carries through the whole sauce.

Whisk the liquid in gradually

Two cups of chicken broth and one cup of milk, added slowly while whisking, until there are no lumps.

Gradually is the instruction that decides whether this works. Liquid poured in all at once seizes the flour into lumps that will not whisk out.

Then simmer about five minutes until it thickens. It should coat the back of a spoon.

Everything else is already cooked

Two cups of cooked shredded chicken, frozen peas and dried thyme stirred in.

The chicken needs heating rather than cooking, and the peas go from frozen to done in a couple of minutes in a hot sauce. Neither needs long.

Rotisserie chicken is the obvious source. Leftover roast chicken works and is what this kind of recipe is traditionally for.

Pasta last

Added to the pot and stirred through so every piece is coated.

Cooked al dente, since it sits in a hot sauce and keeps softening. Fully cooked pasta going into a thick sauce comes out soft.

Penne is specified and any short shape with ridges or hollows works, since a thick sauce needs something to hold onto.

About the source

This recipe comes from a page with no author expertise attached to it and no stated times or yield, which is worth knowing.

The method itself is standard and sound: it is a roux-based sauce with cooked chicken and vegetables, which is a technique with a long history. Nothing about it is unusual or risky.

The times and servings given here are estimated from the method rather than taken from the source. Around forty minutes and four to six servings from eight ounces of pasta.

Why this works as a swap

Pot pie filling and pasta sauce are closer relatives than they appear.

A pot pie filling is a veloute, which is a stock-based sauce thickened with a roux, with things suspended in it. Plenty of classic pasta sauces are built the same way. The technique transfers directly.

What you lose is the pastry, which is a real loss if that is what you wanted. What you gain is a dish that takes forty minutes instead of an hour and a half and needs no rolling, chilling or blind baking.

Serving

Chopped parsley over the top, which adds colour to a dish that is otherwise entirely cream coloured. <p>It needs nothing alongside it, being protein, vegetables and starch together. ## Seasoning it properly Salt and pepper to taste, and this dish needs more than you might expect. A cream and flour sauce is bland by default, and two cups of broth plus a cup of milk is a lot of liquid to season.

Taste after the sauce thickens and before the pasta goes in, which is the last easy moment to adjust.

Adding more vegetables

Mushrooms sauteed with the mirepoix, or corn added with the peas, both suit it. Anything watery should be cooked off first, since extra liquid thins a sauce you just spent five minutes thickening.