Turkey Pot Pie

If you’ve still got turkey, don’t toss it out!

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(Jump to the recipe file here.)

We’ve just celebrated a day of Thanksgiving, not a day of tossing out precious things we take for granted, you guys.

But seriously,

I’ve got two great recipes to help you use all of that beautiful bird you put so much time into.

And if I’ve missed getting these to you this year, bookmark these two and consider my posts early for what to do with Christmas dinner leftovers 😉

If you took the leap to cook a Turkey out of tradition and the love of leftovers for your small family of three, like I did, then have I got a couple great recipes for you! As a matter of fact, as I write this post, one week after Thanksgiving, I only have one wing and one thigh left from my beautiful twelve-pound bird, and I swear, we’re not turkeyed-out. This turkey pot pie got cheers from my daughter, literal cheers, and the turkey soup (shared in my next post) got rave reviews from my husband.

That turkey in your fridge is prepped and ready just for this, so let’s get to it!

Turkey Pot Pie

You’ll need:

• 1 recipe all-butter double pie crust

• 1 medium head of broccoli, chopped
• 2 full-size carrots or 10-12 baby carrots, sliced
• ¼ head cauliflower, chopped
• 1-2 oz. shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
• ½ yellow, sweet onion, finely diced
• 4-6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 dozen sprigs parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 cup turkey or chicken stock
• 6 oz. cream of mushroom condensed soup
• 1-2 Tbs dark roux or leftover gravy
• 2-3 Tbs butter, or 2-3 Tbs olive oil
• 18-24 oz. shredded turkey, previously cooked

• Salt & pepper to taste

• 1 egg + 1 Tbs water for an egg wash

(If making a roux instead of using leftover gravy, you’ll also need:)

• 3 Tbs unsalted butter
• 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp black or white pepper
• 1 Tbs pan drippings, optional

Start by prepping all of your ingredients:

Wash and pat dry all your veggies and herbs.

Then chop your cauliflower and slice your carrots. And chop your broccoli to have it ready.

Finely chop your mushroom, dice your half of an onion, mince your garlic, and roughly chop your parsley.

I like things like carrots and cauliflower to be just a little soft in my pot pie, so I steam them a little bit first. Place about 2 inches of water in the bottom of a steamer or saucepan with a steamer basket, place your carrots and cauliflower in the basket, cover, and bring to a boil. Steam for about 5 minutes, then add your broccoli and steam for 2-3 minutes more. (The broccoli doesn’t take as long to soften a bit as do the carrots and cauliflower; that’s why I add it at the end.)

If using leftover gravy, skip ahead to The Next Step. If making a roux instead, make the roux now.

Melt 3 Tbs butter in a small saucepan on medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes, or until it starts to bubble and brown just slightly. Then add 1 Tbs all-purpose flour and stir or whisk to combine until silky smooth and the flour has completely dissolved in the butter. Next add 1 more Tbs of all-purpose flour and repeat stirring until smooth. Add your ¼ tsp black or white pepper, and if you have a stash of pan drippings in your freezer from your turkey or from roasted chicken, then break off a chunk about 1 tablespoon in volume and add that to your roux as well.

(Whenever I roast a chicken, I save my pan drippings in freezer bags for just such an occasion. It makes a really flavorful sauce base or gravy-addition for chicken pot pies, and this turkey pot pie, and a smidge added to soups also adds a little umami quality.)

Keep cooking your roux, stirring often enough to keep it smooth and to keep if from forming a skin on top, until you get a nice golden color. This dark roux will give a toasted-tasting quality to your pot pie sauce. Turn off the heat, but you can leave the pan on the turned-off burner to help keep the roux soft.

The Next Step:

Heat your 2-3 Tbs butter (or olive oil) in a large sauté pan over medium heat until warm and just beginning to bubble. Add your diced onion & mushrooms and minced garlic and sauté until the onions have softened, the mushrooms have taken on the butter & onion juices and the garlic is fragrant, and your significant other comes into the kitchen to ask what you’re cooking, about 5-7 minutes.

Now you can season the mix in your sauté pan: if you’ve made the roux from scratch just now, you’ll most likely want a pinch or two of salt and a grind or two of black pepper, if you’re using leftover gravy, you most likely won’t need any additional. (I also did a dry rub and a glaze on my turkey this year, and so those flavors will also be in my final pot pie. So here, just know the saltiness of your next couple ingredients, and add salt & pepper to your tastes right now.)

Now add your rough-chopped parsley and stir to coat. Then add your 1-2 Tbs of gravy (or roux). Stir in to melt your gravy (…or roux, of course).

(One note: Pictured above in the first three images is a saved mistake from Thanksgiving dinner. I made my roux for my gravy far too thick, so before thinning it back down, I took what I wasn’t going to use, and popped that into a freezer bag. So my leftover gravy that I used in this turkey pot pie, was actually a too-thickened gravy base… that I kept just in case. If you make a mistake, try saving it!)

Add 6 oz. cream of mushroom condensed soup, and stir to combine. (I started cooking our dinner three days before Thanksgiving, so I feel I get to take it easy for at least three days after. Using some store-bought, condensed soup here is totally allowed in my book! Plus, it’s really yummy!)

Then add 1 cup of chicken or turkey stock.

(This year’s menu for Thanksgiving dinner was: turkey (dry-rubbed and glazed), cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, Swedish Limpa bread & salted butter, and radicchio & endive Caesar salad. Then next night we had exactly the same thing, the night after that, we had this turkey pot pie, the next night we had the raved-over turkey noodle soup. Next year! I’m going to do the exact same things, just do the turkey soup the night before the turkey pot pie, so that I’ll have turkey stock for the pot pie. This year I used store-bough chicken stock that I already had on hand.)

Now add your shredded turkey, and stir that in to coat with your sauce. Next add those softened veggies, and of course, stir/ toss those to coat.

At this point, if there isn’t quite enough sauce to coat everything as much as you’d like, you can add another tablespoon or 2 of the cream of mushroom soup.

Preheat your oven to 425˚F.

Butter a 9.5” glass pie pan. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out your bottom pie crust, and place it in your prepared pan. (See my blog posts on all-butter double pie crust, quiche, or salted caramel apple pie for instructions on making and rolling out pie crust.)

Use a silicone spatula to scrape all of your filling into the bottom pie crust and to smooth it out slightly. It’s okay to leave things slightly mounded in the center.

Roll out your top pie crust on your lightly floured work surface and use your rolling pin to transfer it over your pie.

Squeeze the edges all the way around to seal the two crust layers together, then trim the edges to within a half inch from the edge of the pan all the way around. Roll the edges of the crust under themselves, squeezing to seal even further. Crimp the edge.

I use a fork to beat one egg with 1 Tbs water in a small glass bowl and use a pastry brush to brush the entire top of the pie with egg wash. Then cut about 5 small vent holes near the center of the pie to allow steam to escape.

Bake your turkey pot pie in the center rack of your preheated 425˚F oven for 30-35 minutes or until the bottom crust looks browned and crispy through the pie pan when you carefully lift it up. (It’s not completely necessary, but you can rotate the pie halfway through baking to get more even browning.)

Allow your pot pie to sit for about 15 minutes before slicing in.

You want one more bit of great news? You’ve got lunch tomorrow covered too, because it heats up great!

Gobble it up! (Pun intended.)

Download the recipe file here.