Pot pie vs pie: what is the difference?
A pot pie has a pastry lid only and is baked and served in its dish. A pie proper is fully enclosed in pastry, base and lid, and can be turned out and sliced. The dish does the containing in a pot pie; the pastry does it in a pie.
By the chickenpie.net test kitchen · Published 7 July 2026
Where the line actually falls
The distinction is structural, not regional. If you can lift the whole thing out and it holds its shape, it is a pie. If the filling would escape without the dish, it is a pot pie, whatever the menu calls it.
British usage guards the boundary jealously; a lid-only pie has been the subject of genuine pub arguments and at least one parliamentary petition. American usage applies pot pie broadly, including to the Pennsylvania Dutch bot boi, which has no pastry at all, only thick noodles in chicken gravy.
Which to make
- Pot pie: faster, lighter, and the filling can be looser, since the dish holds it
- Full pie: sliceable, portable, better cold, and the base soaks up gravy flavor
- Feeding a crowd from the oven: pot pie in one big dish
- Picnic or lunchbox: full pie or hand pies, always