A pot pie is a type of baked

Baking

Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...

 savory

Umami

Umami , popularly referred to as savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.-Etymology:Umami is a loanword from the Japanese meaning "pleasant savory taste". This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai "delicious" and mi ...

 pie

Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....

 with a bottom and top completely encased by flaky crusts and baked inside a pie tin to support its shape.

This is in contrast to the Australian meat pie

Australian meat pie

An Australian or New Zealand meat pie is a hand-sized meat pie containing largely diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese and often consumed as a takeaway food snack. The pie itself is similar to the United Kingdom's steak pie.It is considered iconic in Australia...

 and many British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 regional variants on pie recipes, which may have a top of flaky pastry

Flaky pastry

In baking, a flaky pastry is a light, flaky, unleavened pastry, similar to a puff pastry. The main difference is that, in a flaky pastry, large lumps of shortening , are mixed into the dough, as opposed to a large rectangle of shortening with a puff pastry...

, but whose body is made from heavier, more mechanically stable shortcrust

Shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart or pie. It does not puff up during baking because it usually contains no leavening agent. It is possible to make shortcrust pastry with self-raising flour, however...

, hot water crust

Hot water crust pastry

Hot water crust is a type of pastry used for savoury pies, such as pork pies, game pies and, more rarely, steak and kidney pies. Hot water crust is traditionally used for making hand-raised pies....

 or similar pastry.

The pot pie is a variation of the pasty

Pasty

A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...

.

An American pot pie typically has a filling of meat (particularly beef, chicken or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, green beans and peas). Frozen pot pies are often available in individual serving size.

Variations

Some American pie variations have no bottom crust and are more similar to a baked casserole

Casserole

A casserole, from the French for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or casserole pan...

 (or chicken and dumplings

Chicken and dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is a popular comfort food dish, commonly found in the Southern and Midwestern United States, that is also attributed to being a French Canadian meal that originated during the Great Depression...

) than to a traditional meat pie. Since the remaining top crust is not required to offer any structural support, it can be made by closely spacing small dollops of drop biscuit

Biscuit

A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....

 dough onto the stew-like filling before baking.

In the Pennsylvania Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...

 region, there is a dish called "bot boi" (or "bott boi") by Deitsh-speaking natives. Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie is a stew, usually made of a combination of chicken, ham, beef, or wild game with square-cut egg noodle

Noodle

The noodle is a type of food, made from any of a variety of doughs, formed into long thin ribbons, strips, curly-cues, waves, helices, pipes, tubes, strings, or other various shapes, sometimes folded. They are usually cooked in a mixture of boiling water and/or oil. Depending upon the type, noodles...

s, potatoes, and a stock of onion, optional celery and/or carrots, and parsley. Bouillon

Bouillon (broth)

Bouillon, in French cuisine, is simply a broth. This name comes from the verb bouillir, meaning to boil. It is usually made by the simmering of mirepoix and aromatic herbs with either beef, veal, or poultry bones and/or with shrimp, or vegetables in boiling water.This is not to be confused with...

 is sometimes used to enhance the flavor. The egg noodles are often made from scratch from flour, eggs, salt (optional) and water. Some recipes use leavening agents

Leavening agent

A leavening agent is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action which lightens and softens the finished product...

such as baking powder.