Turkey Pie

Happy Friday everyone! It's t-minus 5 days and counting until Christmas, and I am still in disbelief that the year is almost over! Hopefully everyone has a lot of family time planned over the next few weeks.

If your Christmas gatherings are going to include turkey and lot of it, do I have a recipe for your leftovers. I found this recipe for turkey pot pie here and adapted it to what I can eat. This is a fantastic way to use up leftover turkey, and can be frozen to enjoy once you are no longer sick of turkey.

Turkey Pie                                                                                                                     
2 medium potatoes, diced                                            2 tbsp butter
3 medium carrots, diced                                              1 tbsp olive oil
2 celery ribs, diced                                                      6 tbsp flour
3 cups chicken broth                                                    4 cups cubed turkey
2/3 cup frozen peas                                                     1 tbsp parsley
1 egg                                                                           Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 cup whipping cream, plus 1 tbsp (divided)              1 pkg. frozen pie crust

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take pie crust(s) out and set aside to come to room temperature.

2. Saute the carrots*, celery and potatoes in butter & oil until tender (*you can use baby carrots if you don't have regular carrots. I usually have baby carrots on hand, so that's what I use. I find that about once cup of diced baby carrots is a medium regular carrot. You can eyeball as you go and decide when you have the equivalent to two medium carrots). Stir in flour until blended; gradually add broth.

Bring to a boil, stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. I find this thickens very quickly, so stay close or you will start to burn the vegetables. Stir in the turkey, 1/2 cup of the whipping cream and peas.

Give that a really good stir, you want to make sure that the turkey doesn't get clumped together. Then add the parsley, pepper and salt.

I found that it was best to add these after the rest of the ingredients, there were a few times that we got a really spicy bite of pepper. That's not always a fun time, so it's best to make sure that everything is nicely distributed.

3. If doing a pie (with a crust on the bottom), poke holes in the crust with a fork. Not sure where I read this or watched it, but it helps to keep the bottom crust from bubbling. 

If you are doing a pot pie, you can skip this step. I have used this recipe as both a regular pie and a pot pie, and it makes no difference. Both taste amazing.

4. Spoon into 2 pie crusts, or 2 ungreased pie plates. Carefully pull the pie crust out of the pie plate and turn onto the pie.

I found that the best way was to make a "pocket" by flipping the pie crust so that there is a space above the filling. Then push the middle down, which will push the crust to the outer edges. This give you a better, thicker crust.

Then cut slits into the top of the pie. Doesn't matter how many or what they look like, just do you. 

Next you will want to mix the remaining whipping cream and egg in a separate dish. Make sure that you mix it well, but don't go nuts. Then brush over the whole pie crust, making sure to get the outer edges as well.

5. Cover and freeze one pie up to 3 months. Bake the remaining pie for 45min or until golden brown. Let stand 10min before cutting.

To use the frozen pie, remove from freezer 30min before baking. Cover edges with foil, bake at 425 degrees for 30min. Reduce to 350 degrees; remove foil and bake 55-60min.

I find that it's nice to write the above instructions on your first layer of cling wrap, then wrap your second layer over it. This makes it easy for spouses to bake for you, or to give to another family

These are a pretty big hit, and never last very long. I do tend to get three pie instead of two, so it's nice to have an extra package or pie crust on hand. I have made a giant pot pie in a casserole dish as well when I only had one pie crust on hand. It worked great. This recipe is so easy to change to fir your needs each time you make it.

Hopefully you guys can use this recipe for your leftovers. Feel free to share if you try it our, and if you make any changes.

Kerby

Linking to:
I Heart Naptime - Link Party Palooza #72 
It's So Very Cheri - Party Time 12/21/14 
Baking in Pyjamas - Sweet & Savoury Sunday #93 
A Handful of Everything - Great Idea Thursday #80 
A Night Owl - Monday Funday 1/5/15