Smoked Turkey Pot Pie Recipe
There's always leftover turkey. Even when I make smoked turkey I make much more than I think is needed so I can make pot pies with the leftovers. Once you try the recipe you'll wonder why you've never made one before!This recipe uses pie dough on top and bottom but, if you want, you can do a top crust only.
Special Tools
- 4 Ovenproof bowls
Ingredients
The Filling
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion
- 1 cup button mushrooms, chopped
- 1 pound leftover cooked turkey
- 1 cup mixed frozen vegetables
- ¼ cup stock or water
- ½ teaspoon Simon & Garfunkel rub or another poultry seasoning
- 2 crisp apples
- Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
- finely ground black pepper
The Sauce
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups turkey or chicken stock
The Crust
- 1 single crust pie dough (store bought or homemade)
Method
- Meat. Start by cooking the meat. Grill or smoke it. You can even use beef or pork.
- Crust. To create the pie crust for the top, follow our foolproof all purpose pie dough recipe here. Make enough for top and bottom crusts for four pot pies. Put it in the refrigerator and chill it for at least an hour.
- Chop. Next, remove the ends and skin from the onion and coarsely chop. Coarsely chop the mushrooms. This should yield approximately ⅓ cup (26 g) of chopped mushrooms. Pull or chop the leftover turkey into bite sized pieces. Peel and core the apples and chop into marble sized pieces. Put the apples in a bowl of cold water so they don't brown.
- The filling. To make the filling, begin by melting the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the mushrooms and onions, and cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the frozen vegetables and cook until they are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the meat, herb mix, and stock or water, and cook until warm. Turn to the lowest setting. Don't add the apples yet. Taste the filling, and add more salt, pepper, or herbs as you feel are needed.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176.7°C).
- Sauce. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over a medium heat. Add the flour a little at a time and whisk it in thoroughly so there are no lumps. Keep whisking until the mixture, called a roux, turns amber, but not brown. A roux adds flavor and complexity, and thickens the sauce. Turn the heat to high and immediately begin adding the stock in a steady stream, whisking all the while so the roux dissolves. Whisk another minute or 3 until the sauce gets a bit thick, perhaps the thickness of latex wall paint.
- Mix. Pour the sauce in with the filling and add the apples. Stir.
- Fill. Take the dough and cut it into eight parts. Make four parts slightly larger since it take more crust to cover the bottom and sides. Spread about 3 tablespoons of flour on a work surface, rub some on your rolling pin, and roll each quarter into a ⅛ inch (3.2 mm) thick disk, rolling from the center outward. Place the four larger disks in each bowl and press them in and up the sides. Make the tops and set the aside.Divide the filling among the four oven-proof bowls with a ladle. Place the top crust on top and if it hangs over the edge, that's ok. You can either let it simply hang over the edge, or roll it back until it is resting on the edge and make it look nice by crimping it or mushing it down with the tines of a fork. If you want to get fancy you can paint the dough with a thin layer of milk or egg white to help it brown and get shiny. Poke about 3 holes in the top crust with a paring knife to let the steam escape.
- Bake. Put the pies on a sheet pan to catch any overflow and place it on an upper rack where the top crust can benefit from the heat reflected off the top of the oven and darken. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden. The actual cooking time will vary depending on how deep your bowls are.
- Serve. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
About the crust. You can make your own crust with our foolproof pie dough recipe, or buy a frozen pie crust from the store. If buying a crust, be certain not to get one that is sweet or that has been formed to a pie pan and pre baked. If you decide to make a double crust, be aware that you will need more crust, less filling, and a bit more gravy because the dough will absorb some. Another option is to put puffed pastry on the top. You can buy it pre-made.
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.
About the turkey and the stock. Whenever we serve a turkey, we save the carcass. There's always a lot of meat left on it and between the ribs. We simmer it for hours in a big pot with the leftover gravy, and then freeze whatever meat we can pull off the carcass. Read the sidebar on my turkey recipe for how to make the stock.
About the veggies. We usually use frozen mixed veggies, peas, corn, carrots, and beans. The packages usually have lima beans in them, and I throw them out if my wife isn't looking. You can leave them in if you like that sort of thing.
About the mushrooms. Regular old button mushrooms work fine, but you can use others like portobellos or shiitakes.
About the apples. Try to get a really crunchy apple so it doesn't melt while cooking. Braeburn, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, or Red Delicious are good choices.
Other add-ins. Celery and potato cubes are common in pot pies. Chop a stalk of celery and add it with the onions and mushrooms. Pre-cook a potato by grilling it or boiling it, and then chop it into small cubes. Sweet potatoes are found in the south sometimes, and turnip is an Old World tradition. I've even seen recipes that call for rice and noodles. Just be careful, they can drink up a lot of gravy. You can add milk, cream to the gravy, or even grate in some parmesan cheese. A splash of sherry or brandy can give an edge to the gravy.
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