Bowls Dinner Recipes
Chicken Apple Sausage, Bacon and Leek Pot Pie
A creamy one skillet pot pie with chicken apple sausage, crispy bacon, buttery leeks and caramelized Honeycrisp apples under enormous flaky Greek yogurt biscuits. High protein, made with blended cottage cheese instead of heavy cream, and an easy fall dinner that comes together in one pan.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- Chicken Apple Sausage: The backbone of the whole dish. Slice it into thick half moons so it caramelizes on the cut sides instead of disappearing into the sauce. Any fully cooked chicken sausage works, though the apple version doubles down on the fall flavor.
- Thick Cut Bacon: Two jobs here. The rendered fat is the cooking medium for everything that follows, and the crisped pieces go on at the very end so they stay crunchy. Thin bacon burns before it renders, so buy thick cut.
- Leeks: Sweeter and softer than onion, and they melt rather than staying sharp. Use the white and light green parts only, slice them thin, and rinse them well because grit hides between the layers.
- Honeycrisp Apple: Sweet and firm enough to hold its shape while it caramelizes. Pink Lady or Braeburn also work. Skip anything soft and mealy, which will turn to mush in the sauce.
- Peas: Folded in at the end for color and a little sweetness. Frozen straight from the bag is fine, no thawing needed.
- All Purpose Flour: Two tablespoons in the filling to thicken the sauce, and two cups in the biscuits for structure. A 1:1 gluten free blend works in both if you need it.
- Chicken Broth: The liquid base. Pour it in slowly while stirring or the flour will seize into lumps. Use low sodium so you can control the salt.
- 2% Cottage Cheese: The reason this is creamy with no cream. It has to be blended completely smooth with the milk before it goes in the pan, with no curds left at all. Full fat works and is even silkier.
- Whole Milk: Thins the cottage cheese into a pourable sauce. Two percent works, though the sauce is a little leaner.
- Dijon Mustard: Cuts through all that fat and sweetness. It does not taste like mustard in the finished dish, but you will miss it if you leave it out.
- Fresh Thyme, Sage and Chives: Fresh matters here. Thyme and sage go in hot with the garlic to bloom, chives go in at the end raw. Use a third the amount if you only have dried thyme and sage, and skip dried chives entirely.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: Added off heat at the finish. One tablespoon lifts the entire skillet and keeps a rich sauce from tasting flat.
- Very Cold Unsalted Butter: Cubed and cut into the biscuit flour in irregular pea sized pieces. Cold butter is what makes steam pockets in the oven. Warm butter makes a dense biscuit.
- Plain Greek Yogurt: Keeps the biscuits tender and adds protein. Use thick strained yogurt, not a thin drinkable style.
- Cold Buttermilk: A third of a cup in the dough and a brush on top for browning. If you are out, stir 1 teaspoon lemon juice into 1/3 cup milk and let it sit 5 minutes.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Both, on purpose. The powder does the lifting and the soda reacts with the yogurt and buttermilk for browning and tenderness. Check that yours are fresh.
- Sea Salt and Flaky Salt: Sea salt seasons the filling and the dough. Flaky salt goes on the buttermilk brushed tops so you get a crunchy salted bite on the crust.
Why You'll Love This Chicken Apple Sausage Pot Pie
1. Reduced Cider in Three Places; the dough, the filling, and the glaze all get it. That is why these taste like cider and not like a generic apple cinnamon bar.
2. A Pop Tart the Size of Your Hand; one 8×8 pan cuts into nine enormous squares with thick pastry top and bottom, exactly like the real thing but much bigger.
3. No Refined Sugar; every bit of sweetness comes from maple sugar and reduced cider. Real ingredients from the first step to the last.
4. The Glaze is Thick and Opaque; blended maple sugar and cider give you a frosting that sits on top instead of soaking in, which is what makes these read as a pop tart.
5. Greek Yogurt Pastry; the yogurt keeps the dough tender and soft, so the pastry never turns dry or crackery the way a lean dough does.
6. One Pan, Nine Bars; no rolling and cutting individual tarts, no crimping edges, no fussing with a piping bag. Press, fill, top, bake.
7. Made for the First Cold Morning; cider on the stove and cinnamon in the oven means the whole kitchen smells like fall before these even come out.
How to Make Chicken Apple Sausage, Bacon and Leek Pot Pie
Step 1: Crisp the Bacon and Build the Fat
Chop 4 slices of thick cut bacon and cook it in a large oven safe skillet over medium until it is properly crispy, not just cooked. Lift the bacon out with a slotted spoon and set it aside, then pour off all but about a tablespoon of the fat. That tablespoon is the flavor base for everything that follows. Rushing this on high heat gives you bacon that is browned outside and soft inside, and the fat will not have rendered enough to cook the sausage in.
Step 2: Caramelize the Sausage
Slice 1 pound of chicken apple sausage into thick half moons and lay them in the hot bacon fat in a single layer. Leave them alone until the cut sides are deeply browned, then flip and do the second side. Crowding the pan steams the sausage instead of caramelizing it, so work in two batches if your skillet is not big enough. Pull the sausage out and set it aside with the bacon. Those browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan are the sauce, so do not wipe anything out.
Step 3: Soften the Leeks and Apple
Add the thinly sliced leeks and the diced Honeycrisp apple to the same skillet and cook over medium until the leeks are completely soft and the apple edges are just starting to caramelize. This takes longer than you think, closer to 8 minutes than 3, and the leeks release moisture that lifts the browned bits off the bottom. Add the minced garlic, thyme, and sage and cook 30 seconds only, just until you can smell them. Any longer and the garlic turns bitter.
Step 4: Make the Cottage Cheese Sauce
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook it 1 minute so it loses the raw taste, then pour the chicken broth in slowly while stirring constantly. Meanwhile blend the cottage cheese and whole milk until they are completely silky with no curds visible at all, which usually means longer in the blender than feels necessary. Stir that in along with the Dijon. This step is the whole trick of the recipe. Under blended cottage cheese will look grainy in the finished sauce and no amount of simmering fixes it.
Step 5: Finish the Filling and Make the Biscuits
Return the sausage and most of the bacon to the pan, fold in the peas, and simmer gently until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Take it off the heat and finish with the lemon juice, chives, and plenty of black pepper. For the biscuits, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then cut in the very cold cubed butter to irregular pea sized pieces. Fold in the Greek yogurt, buttermilk, chives, and thyme until shaggy, pat into a thick rectangle, fold into thirds, rotate, and repeat twice more. Those three folds are the layers. Skip them and you get a scone.
Step 6: Top, Bake, and Finish
Pat the dough to 1 inch thick and cut 6 huge biscuits. Arrange them over the filling with a little space between each one so the steam can escape and the filling can bubble up around them. Brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle flaky sea salt. Bake at 400F for 22 to 27 minutes until the biscuits are puffed and golden and the filling is bubbling at the edges. Scatter the reserved bacon, more chives, thyme, and cracked pepper over the top and let it sit 10 minutes before serving so the sauce settles.
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Tips for the Best Chicken Apple Sausage Pot Pie
- Blend the cottage cheese until it is completely silky, with no curds at all. This is the single step that decides whether the sauce is creamy or grainy.
- Keep the butter and buttermilk very cold for the biscuits. Chill the cubed butter in the freezer for 10 minutes while you make the filling.
- Do all three folds on the biscuit dough. It takes 2 extra minutes and it is the entire difference between layers and a dense round.
- Rinse the sliced leeks well. Grit hides between the layers and there is no way to fix it once it is in the sauce.
- Space the biscuits out on the filling. Pushed together they trap steam and the undersides stay raw.
How to Store
- Fridge: Cover the skillet or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 4 days. The biscuits soften as they sit, which is expected.
- Freezer: Freeze the filling alone up to 3 months. Do not freeze the assembled pot pie, since the biscuits go dense and the sauce can separate on thawing.
- Make Ahead: Make the filling up to 2 days ahead and refrigerate it in the skillet. Cut the biscuits, freeze them flat on a tray, then arrange them straight from frozen over the warmed filling and add about 5 minutes to the bake.
- Reheating: Reheat in a 350F oven, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes so the biscuit tops crisp back up. The microwave works but the biscuits go soft.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use regular chicken sausage instead of chicken apple sausage? Yes. Any fully cooked chicken sausage works, and sweet Italian is a good swap. You will lose some of the sweet fall note, so add a second diced apple or a teaspoon of maple syrup to the filling to make it up.
Can I make this ahead? Yes. Make the filling up to 2 days ahead and keep it in the fridge, and cut the biscuits and freeze them flat. Warm the filling on the stove until it is bubbling, then top with the frozen biscuits and bake, adding about 5 minutes.
Can I make it without cottage cheese? Blended ricotta or an equal amount of plain Greek yogurt will both work, though yogurt can break if the pan is too hot, so stir it in off the heat. Half and half also works if you are not chasing the protein, but you will lose about 6 grams per serving.
Why is my sauce grainy? The cottage cheese was not blended smooth enough. Curds do not dissolve in the pan, so they stay visible no matter how long you simmer. Blend it with the milk for a full minute until it looks like heavy cream before it goes anywhere near the skillet.
Do I need a cast iron skillet? You need an oven safe pan about 12 inches wide. Cast iron gives the best sausage caramelization, but any oven safe skillet works. If yours is not oven safe, build the filling on the stove and transfer it to a 9×13 baking dish before topping with biscuits.
How much protein is in it? About 25 grams per serving including a biscuit, from the chicken sausage, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and milk.
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Chicken Apple Sausage, Bacon and Leek Pot Pie
Ingredients
Method
- Cook the bacon in a large oven safe skillet until crispy. Remove it, leaving about 1 tablespoon of fat behind.
- Add the chicken apple sausage and cook until deeply caramelized on both sides. Remove and set aside.
- Add the leeks and diced apple. Cook until the leeks are soft and the apple is just beginning to caramelize.
- Add the garlic, thyme, and sage and cook 30 seconds.
- Sprinkle the flour over everything and cook 1 minute, then slowly pour in the chicken broth while stirring.
- Blend the cottage cheese and milk until completely silky, then stir into the skillet with the Dijon.
- Return the sausage and most of the bacon. Fold in the peas and simmer gently until the sauce is thick and creamy.
- Finish with the lemon juice, chives, sea salt, and plenty of black pepper.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Cut in the cold butter until you have irregular pea sized pieces.
- Fold in the Greek yogurt, buttermilk, chives, and thyme until a shaggy dough forms.
- Pat into a thick rectangle, fold into thirds, rotate, and repeat twice.
- Pat to about 1 inch thick and cut into 6 large biscuits.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Arrange the biscuits over the filling with a little space between them.
- Brush the tops with buttermilk and finish with flaky sea salt.
- Bake 22 to 27 minutes until the biscuits are puffed and golden and the filling is bubbling between them.
- Finish with the reserved crispy bacon, more chives, thyme, and cracked black pepper.
Nutrition
Notes
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