Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie

{photo updated 3/4/2013}

Every year after Thanksgiving, my mom would make turkey pie with the leftovers.  I never understood the brilliance of it until I was trying to shove a bunch of leftover turkey down the throats of my family.  Everyone loves it on Thanksgiving, but when it gets to be a couple days later, we are all kind of sick of turkey.  It's such a great idea to transform the leftovers into something that makes them forget they are eating leftovers.  I love this pie so much that I often turn it into chicken pot pie when we don't have leftover turkey on hand.  If you have leftover gravy, it's great to use that instead of the chicken broth in the recipe, just add broth to equal the cup and a half.

Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie
1 Recipe double pie crust, or whatever pie crust you chose
1 T olive oil
½ onion, chopped
½ cup chopped carrots
1 stalk celery chopped with leaves
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
2 T cooking sherry
2 med potatoes, diced
2 cups chopped turkey or chicken
1 ½ cups chicken broth (or water and 2 tsp bullion)
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
½ tsp. marjoram
¼ cup cold water
3 T corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat oil over med-high heat.  Add onion and cook about 5 minutes until slightly browned, add mushrooms, cook 2 minutes. 

 

Add carrots and celery and cook 5 more minutes until onions are tender. 

 

Add sherry and cook about 2 minutes until most of the liquid is gone.  Add broth, milk, potatoes and chicken or turkey.  (If I am using frozen chicken, I just throw it in there and then shred it when it’s done cooking.) 

 

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until potatoes are tender.  (remove chicken pieces and shred and return to pan)  Add peas, corn, and marjoram.  Heat until simmering.  Mix cold water and corn starch until smooth and add to pan while stirring.  Cook and stir until thick and bubbly.  Reduce heat and simmer until pie crust is ready.

 

Prepare bottom of crust and place in pie plate.  Poke several times with a fork.  Add filling and cover with other half of pie crust.  You can cover it with one sheet of pie pastry or do a lattice top.  If you do one sheet, cut 3 vent holes in the top, middle of the crust.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Let cool about 10 minutes before serving.

I like to serve with cranberries but if you are a cranberry hater, you don't have to.

If you are super sick of turkey, you could freeze this whole thing for another time before baking.  Wrap tightly before freezing.  You'll want to use a metal pie plate.  Lower the temp and increase the cooking time to reheat.

You can also make individual pies with this by using a large muffin pan.

* {If you want your crust to brown up nicely, like the photo at the top, whisk 1 egg yolk and 2 tsp milk and brush over crust before baking}

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