Every fall season, I try to find a few recipes to use up leftover cooked turkey or chicken. (You know, after we’ve had our fill of turkey sandwiches!!) Pot pie usually comes to mind first because it’s always a satisfying, crowd-pleasing choice. No wonder it joins my list of 30 delicious fall dinner recipe ideas. Another reader, Caryl, commented: “Great use of leftover turkey. Recipe was easy to follow and came out AMAZING! ★★★★★“
Why You’ll Love This Turkey Pot Pie
Satisfying all-in-one meal Easy flavorful gravy, made from basic pantry ingredients A great way to use up leftover cooked turkey (or chicken)—use light or dark meat or a combination Use the suggested vegetables, or swap them for your favorites Use frozen, pre-cut, or leftover vegetables to save time Top with flaky buttery pie crust, or use store-bought pie dough
Start With Pie Crust
Ingredients in Turkey Pot Pie Filling (& Substitutions)
Use Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey
These Step-by-Step Photos Will Help
After the base veggies and butter cook together, add flour, salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary. (Major flavor building is happening during these crucial steps!) Below, left: The base of the pot pie filling. Below, right: After adding the flour & herbs. You can make the dough up to 5 days in advance.
Store-bought: Use 1 sheet/disc of store-bought pie crust. All-butter crust: For a homemade crust without shortening, try my all butter pie crust. Double crust: If you’d like to make a double crust turkey pot pie, follow the assembly and cooking directions from my double crust chicken pot pie. But, truly, I don’t think you’ll miss the bottom crust in today’s version. Biscuits: Swap the pie crust for the easy biscuit topping used in this biscuit vegetable pot pie recipe.
Can I use puff pastry? You can use thawed store-bought puff pastry instead of a top pie crust. However, keep in mind that the underside of the dough (that touches the filling) usually ends up tasting soggy. For that reason, it’s an option I usually skip when making pot pie. Biscuits are a great alternative to pie crust, see my biscuit vegetable pot pie!
Butter: Like many of our baked goods, the filling starts with butter. Butter adds flavor and, along with flour, helps the gravy-like filling properly thicken. Vegetable Base: Chopped onion, celery, and carrots are a common flavorful base to many sauces and soups, including creamy chicken noodle soup. In today’s recipe, I also add mushrooms. Feel free to use more of one and less of another, to suit your tastes, and if you wish to skip the mushrooms, substitute with more vegetable add-ins as noted below. Garlic: I usually use 3 cloves of garlic, but you can use 4 for extra flavor. Flour: Flour thickens the gravy filling. 4 Main Seasonings: Flavor the filling with salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary. If you don’t have rosemary, use more thyme; or a little sage is also tasty. Turkey or Chicken Stock/Broth: Use broth and whole milk as the liquids in today’s filling. If you have turkey broth or stock, go ahead and use that. Or use chicken. Whole Milk: I usually use whole milk in pot pie fillings. If you need a nondairy milk suggestion, I recommend plain unsweetened oat milk or almond milk. Vegetable Add-ins: Here’s where you can have a lot of fun by adding the vegetables you love most or have on hand. I usually use frozen peas. Instead of peas, you can use fresh or frozen chopped broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, leeks, bell peppers, green beans, butternut squash, and/or fresh/frozen/canned corn. No need to thaw or cook these vegetables before using, but if they’re already cooked, that’s fine too. Just add them in! Cooked Turkey…
(By the way, if the idea of getting back in the kitchen to cook another dinner is less than appealing after a holiday meal, let me reassure you: this all-in-one meal is simple to prepare.) Can I use cooked chicken instead? Yes, feel free to substitute. After the flour soaks up the moisture from the cooked vegetables, add the broth and whole milk. Let everything simmer and thicken on the stove, until the sauce has a thick gravy-like consistency. Then you’ll add the cooked turkey and your vegetable add-in. (Peas, in this case.) Your filling is done! ↓ Let it cool for 10 minutes, and then pour it into a 9-inch pie dish:
Assemble Pie Dough & Bake
Yes. I recommend adding 1 cup peeled and chopped potato (or sweet potato) when you add the broth. To make room for this addition, remove the mushrooms or 1 cup of vegetable add-ins at the end. To make your egg wash, mix 1 egg with 1 Tablespoon of milk (convenient because you just used milk in the filling!). The egg wash gives the crust its golden, glistening sheen. This is a nice, hearty, and satisfying turkey pot pie filling because we take the time to let the gravy simmer on the stove. The flour soaks up the vegetables’ moisture, and when paired with the milk, helps create that smooth and creamy base. Avoid half-and-half and heavy cream because both are too heavy… and you’ll be eating a brick under that pie crust! If you have smaller pie dishes or oven-safe 8-ounce ramekins, you can spoon the filling into each and top with smaller pie crust circles. Cut the pie dough into circles about 1 inch larger than the diameter of your ramekins/smaller pie dishes. The bake time will be shorter than the full-size version, and that time really depends on the exact size of your mini turkey pot pies. When the crust is golden brown on top and the filling is bubbling through the steam vents, they’re done.
