How do you plan a chicken pie for two?
For two people, use a 15 to 18cm dish or two individual 10 to 12cm dishes and roughly half a standard recipe: about 250g cooked chicken, 200ml sauce and 200g pastry. Baking time drops only slightly, to around 25 to 30 minutes at 200C (400F), because depth matters more than width.
By the chickenpie.net test kitchen · Published 21 July 2026
Choosing the format
Two individual pie dishes give the best pastry-to-filling ratio and a neat presentation, but a single small pie in a 15 to 18cm dish is less washing up and holds heat better at the table.
A small ovenproof frying pan also works well for two: build the filling in the pan, top it with a pastry lid and bake. This is the fastest route on a weeknight because nothing is transferred or lined.
Baking times barely shrink with the pie. A 15 to 18cm pie still wants 25 to 30 minutes at 200C (400F), and individual dishes save only five minutes more, because pastry needs the same heat however much filling sits beneath it. Judge by colour and by the filling bubbling at the vent, not by the clock.
Scaled quantities
Halving a recipe for a 23cm pie gets you close, but sauce reduces faster in small volumes, so keep a little extra stock on hand to loosen it if needed.
| Component | For two | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked chicken | 250g | Two thighs or one large breast |
| Vegetables | 200g | One leek and a handful of peas covers it |
| Sauce | 200 to 250ml | Err generous, small pies dry faster |
| Pastry | 200g | One sheet of ready-rolled puff is plenty |
Making the leftover problem work for you
Pastry packets rarely come in half sizes, so plan for the surplus rather than fighting it. Spare puff keeps in the fridge for a few days or freezes flat; spare shortcrust makes a couple of jam tarts from the scraps.
Alternatively, cook the full quantity of filling and freeze half before it meets any pastry. Frozen filling defrosts overnight in the fridge and turns into a second pie in the time it takes the oven to heat, which is the cheapest meal planning trick in the pie repertoire.