Turkey Pot Pie

A few years ago, we were invited over to Peter & Liz's house for dinner the day after Thanksgiving. Peter had whipped up some turkey pot pie and I was skeptical, to say the least. I had never eaten ANY kind of pot pie, so I was a bit nervous that I would hate it. Instead, I. Loved. It. It was savory and oh-so-good. Fast forward to last month, I had TONS of leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast. I thought I would give the whole turkey pot pie thing a go. And my family raved with the results. I figured that I had better type it all up here so I can find it again next year, for this will likely become a tradition for my family. Enjoy!

Turkey Pot Pie

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup cold butter

2 eggs

5 tablespoons cold water

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

dash of dried thyme

HOW TO PREPARE:

1. Combine the flour and salt in large bowl. Use a pastry cutter or 2 forks to gradually work the cold butter into the flour until it resembles small pebbles, this should take about 3-4 minutes.

2. Lightly beat the eggs with the fork and add it to the mixture. Next, add the cold water and vinegar and stir until combined. (This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated at this point)

3. When ready to use the dough, cover a clean surface with a small amount of flour, add in the thyme and knead the dough to mix it in. Then, begin to roll out the dough 1 inch larger than the pie pan.

Secondly, you need to get out all the fillings that you have leftover from your Thanksgiving. I had mashed potatoes, turkey (cut into chunks), green bean casserole, and corn. I would recommend not adding anything sweet, like cranberry sauce or sweet potato casserole. 

Get a big casserole pan out - or two 9x13 inch pans - spray them down with a non-stick spray. Start layering the various leftovers in the pan. If you don't have enough leftovers, you can always cook up some veggies and put them in the pan. 

Now, you need a gravy to pour over the veggies/leftovers in the pan. I had a lot of gravy leftover from Thanksgiving dinner, but I wanted to add a cream sauce to the gravy, so I went with this one that I found here.

Creamy Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups low sodium chicken broth or stock

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

black pepper, for seasoning

HOW TO PREPARE:

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir in the flour and whisk until mixed up.

Pour in the chicken broth and stir. Add the chicken bouillon cube and stir. The mixture should start to look like a creamy gravy, but still runny.

Pour in the cream and stir. Allow the mixture to cook over low heat, for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, so the mixture can thicken. Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Be sure to taste it and make sure it is seasoned good! 

At this point I poured in the gravy that I had leftover. If you don't have any leftover gravy, you will want to double the creamy sauce recipe, so the turkey pot pie won't be too dry. 

NOW - you want to pour the creamy sauce/gravy mixture over the filling in the pan. Then top with the crust on stop. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly and the crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool for 10 minutes before eating (this will help the mixture to thicken some as well). There are a lot of steps - but the results are WORTH it!