Turkey Pot Pie Recipe
My favorite thing to make with Thanksgiving leftovers is Classic Turkey Pot Pie. This delicious pot pie has a creamy sauce and a flaky crust. Pot pie is a simple recipe and everyone’s favorite comfort food.
Turkey Soup and Dumpling Noodles are a few other favorite recipes for after Thanksgiving.
If it’s not Thanksgiving and you don’t have leftovers, no sweat. You can use this recipe to make a chicken pot pie.
Let’s get started!
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Homemade Pot Pie
- Leftover turkey (or chicken). You’ll want 2 to 3 cups of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. You can use a mixture of light and dark meat.
- Turkey stock (or chicken stock). Homemade turkey stock is best. But if you don’t have that, buy a low or no-salt variety of turkey or chicken broth.
- Veggies. Onions, peas, carrots, and green beans. Frozen vegetables are fine here.
- Pie dough. I make a savory pie dough by making my buttermilk pie dough recipe and swapping out the sugar for poultry seasoning. You can also use a store-bought pie crust.
- Poultry seasoning. Check out our poultry seasoning recipe and make a batch today.
The Best Turkey Pot Pie
This recipe is for you if you have leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner.
Start With Leftover Turkey
You’ll want 2 to 3 cups of meat.
Chop the leftover turkey meat into bite-sized pieces.
Turkey Stock
You’ll need two and a half cups of turkey stock.
Homemade or storebought is fine. For an easy turkey pot pie recipe, buy a low-sodium or unsalted turkey stock.
How To Make Homemade Turkey Stock
Check out the Complete Guide to Making Bone Broth if you have any questions about making stock from poultry.
- Place the leftover turkey bones into a large stockpot.
- Add one onion (cut in half), a few stalks of celery, and a few carrots.
- Add enough water to cover everything, bringing the pot to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and let the stock simmer for an hour or so.
- Taste the turkey stock to ensure it has a good flavor, then strain off all the veggies and bones.
- Strain again using a fine sieve over a large bowl. Pour the turkey stock through it.
Turkey pot pie filling
- In a Dutch oven, melt the butter and add the diced carrots, celery, and onion. Sauté for 4 to 5 minutes until the veggies are tender.
- Add 3 tablespoons of flour to the veggies and toss everything together. Then, add the turkey stock to the veggies and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook and stir so that the stock and the flour combine to create a turkey gravy.
- Add the frozen peas and carrots and cook until they are warm.
- Stir in the turkey. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the filling from the heat.
- Ensure the filling is 100% cool before adding it to the pie crust.
How to assemble a turkey pot pie
You can use
- A pie plate
- A casserole dish
- Small ramekins to make individual mini pot pies
- 12-inch cast iron skillet
Double Crust Pot Pie. My favorite way to make turkey pot pie is using a double crust, which is pie crust on the bottom and the top.
- Roll out your bottom dough on a lightly floured surface and add it to your pie pan.
- Fill the pie crust with cooled pot pie filling.
- Roll out the second half of the pie dough and place it on top of the filling.
- Seal the edges and cut small slits in the pie dough using a sharp knife.
- Brush the top with an egg wash. You can also use buttermilk or heavy cream to brush the top.
How to Bake a Pot Pie
Follow these expert tips to get a perfectly cooked pie crust. No soggy bottoms here!
- Chill the assembled pie for at least 30 minutes before baking. Rechilling the pie dough allows the butter to solidify again. This step is important to get maximum flakiness.
- Bake the pie on the bottom rack of the oven.
- Hot start. Preheat the oven to 450℉/232℃. Bake pie for 10 minutes at 450℉/232℃ and then turn it down to 350℉/177℃ for the remainder of the bake time—usually 50 to 60 minutes.
- Let the pie cool before slicing.
Recipe Variations
There are a few different ways to make a pot pie recipe. You can pick whichever one you like best. I’m using the double crust method in this recipe, which uses both a top and bottom crust.
Other methods that you might want to try are:
- Single pie crust pot pie: Add the turkey pot pie filling to the bottom of a pie dish. Add the top pie crust, vent the top crust, and bake for about 20 minutes.
- Turkey pot pie with puff pastry sheets: Add the pot pie filling to a pie dish or individual ramekins to make mini pot pies. Top with a sheet of thawed puff pastry. Bake according to the puff pastry directions. Do not underbake the puff pastry.
- Turkey shepherd’s pie: This option is perfect if you have leftover mashed potatoes or cauliflower mash.
- Turkey pot pie with biscuits: A batch of biscuits makes a great topping for pot pie.
FAQs and Expert Tips
To make mini turkey pot pies, use 4-ounce ramekins. Add a half cup of pot pie filling to each ramekin. Then top with pie crust or puff pastry.
Cover the pie dish with foil to store leftover turkey pot pie in the fridge. Alternatively, I like to portion out individual servings in oven-proof dishes to reheat one serving at a time.
In the oven: Preheat the oven to 325℉. Place the pot pie into the oven and heat for 20 minutes.
1. Flaky pie crust is just one option. You can use premade pie crust or homemade pie crust—double crust or crust on top only.
2. Flaky puff pastry crust. Frozen puff pastry dough, like the Dufour brand, is another option for a pot pie crust.
3. Biscuits. Topping the turkey pot pie with biscuits is another classic way to serve pot pie. Bisquick may have created the perfect recipe for this easy pot pie topping.
More Comfort Food Recipes That You’ll Love
Everybody loves a good comfort food recipe. Here are a few of our favorites.
The BEST Taco Pasta
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
The BEST Potato Salad Recipe
Overnight French Toast Casserole
What to serve with Turkey Pot Pie
I recommend a crisp green salad and your favorite bread recipe.
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Turkey Pot Pie Recipe
Equipment
- pie pan (affiliate link)
- dutch oven (affiliate link)
Ingredients
Turkey Pot Pie Filling
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced [note 1]
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour, [note 2]
- 2 ½ cups turkey stock
- 2 to 3 cups leftover Thanksgiving turkey meat, cut into bite-sized pieces [note 3]
- 3 cups mixed vegetables, frozen or fresh [note 4]
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
Pie Crust (Double Crust)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, extra cold, cubed
- 3 tablespoons ice water
Egg Wash
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 1 tablespoon water, optional
Instructions
Turkey Pot Pie Crust
- Add the flour, poultry seasoning, salt, and cubed butter to a food processor. Pulse until the flour is the consistency of course sand. Slowly add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.
- Dump the pie dough onto a work surface and press it together by kneading it a few times. (don't overwork the dough)
- Divide the pie dough into 2 pieces, shape them into fat round discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for a few hours or up 3 days ahead.
- PRO-TIP: I make extra pie dough when I make my Thanksgiving pies so that I already have it in the fridge when we are ready to make pot pie.
Turkey Pot Pie Filling
- In a large dutch oven or saucepan melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, and onion. (Mirepoix). Sauté until soft about 5-10 minutes. [note 1]
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and toss to coat.
- Add the thyme and poultry seasoning. Add 1 cup of the turkey stock to the vegetables and bring the liquid to a boil. Stir the sauce as it is heating. The sauce will start to thicken.
- Add the remaining stock to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add the vegetables. Heat them until they are warm.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Stir in the turkey meat.
- Adjust the consistency of the filling by adding additional broth if needed.
- Allow the turkey pot pie filling to cool completely before adding it to the pie dough.
Assembling the Pot Pie
- Roll out the pie dough and place the first half into you pie dish.
- Add the cold pot pie filling.
- Add the top layer of pie dough. Crimp the edges to seal.
- Vent the top of the pie dough with a small knife.
- Brush the top of the pie crust with an egg wash before baking.
- Place the assembled pot pie back into the refrigerator to chill. [note 5]
Baking the pot pie
- Preheat the oven to 425℉. [note 6]
- Place the pot pie into the oven and set a timer for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes reduce the temperatuire of the oven to 350℉
- Bake for an additional 50 minutes. Make sure the pie dough is a deep golden brown and that it is pulling away from the edges.
Video
Laura’s Tips + Notes
- Omit these carrots if you are using a bag of mixed frozen vegetables that have carrots already in the mix. You can sauté only the celery and onions in this step.
- The flour will combine with the butter to make a roux that thickens the turkey pot pie filling. A cornstarch slurry can be used as an alternative or in addition to the flour if you find that your filling is not as thick as you would like.
- If you don’t have enough turkey meat, you can buy a small boneless turkey roast to use. This recipe also works with leftover rotisserie or roasted chicken.
- I buy a bag of frozen vegetables that has corn, peas, green beans, and lima beans in the mix.
- Rechilling the pie dough allows the butter to get cold again. This step is essential for the flakiest pie crust.
- Heating the oven to 425℉ initially creates a more dramatic steam reaction because the hotter oven forces the water out of the butter creating steam pockets that create flakiness in the pie crust.
Variations
Individual Pot Pies. Use 4-ounce ramekins to prepare the pies. Bake them on a cookie sheet. Puff pastry instead of pie dough. I sometimes use a frozen puff pastry dough on top of the pot pie. My favorite brand is Dufour. You can find it near the pies in the freezer section of your grocery store.YOUR OWN NOTES
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This recipe is making my mouth water, the best part of Thanksgiving Turkey is leftovers. Plus I love pot pie, so this is the perfect combination!
Thanks, Brad, I hope you enjoy this pot pie recipe. Let me know how it turns out.