Attention my fellow Thanksgiving celebrating Canadians! You need to make these turkey pot pies with your leftovers. They're the epitome of comfort food. Plus you can freeze 'em.
If you're here for the story settle in & get a coffee because I have more to say about my long relationship with pot pies and any normal person should. If you're here for the recipe click right to it.
This is - for real - a delicious turkey pot pie recipe. I know because I have very acute memories from my childhood to compare it to. The sound of the little cardboard box opening, the frost covered mini aluminum pan landing on the counter with a thud.
Always, ALWAYS with a bottle of ketchup and canned peas served through the blue cloud of Craven 'A's. Some nights if we were very lucky and the pot pies had been sitting in the freezer for long enough we could actually taste the metallic aluminum with every bite.
These kind of meals were pretty common in my neighbourhood at the time. Every kid who ran outside after dinner to play a quick game of hide & seek either had fish sticks, frozen pot pies or canned mushroom soup on their breath.
Mothers worked, frozen stuff was always on sale and kids would eat it because it was a non threatening shade of beige and all pretty much tasted the same; like salt.
Years later, when I had moved out on my own, I picked up a frozen chicken pot pie I realized they were actually gross. The great pot pie recipe development began.
I found a recipe online that acted as a good base and over the years I've changed it over and over again until it's now ready to present to the world.
Easy Turkey Pot Pie Recipe
This is an easy recipe. Don't worry about it. You can do it. But when I say easy, I mean it isn't difficult to make, but you ARE going to make it, from scratch.
The best part is you can use leftover turkey from Thanksgiving to make it, which is exactly what these you're looking at are made out of. After Thanksgiving I stripped the remaining meat off of my turkey and a neighbour's donated turkey carcass.
Those two turkeys gave me over 20 jars of delicious turkey broth (here's my recipe) and several of these delicious dinners.
You can make your own pie dough or just use a frozen crust. You can make it BIG or you can make small individual ones. I used disposable aluminum pie tins from the Dollar store but I just saw that Amazon has reusable 5" pie plates that would be perfect for meat pies.
PASTRY TIP: For a perfectly balanced crust use 60% butter and 40% lard. 100% lard and your crust will be so flaky it'll fall apart. 100% butter and it'll be too dense. I find 60/40 is the perfect ratio.
However, having said that, I often just do 50/50 because I'm math lazy. This is the genuine classic Canadian Tenderflake pastry recipe. It is now the only one I use. It. Will. Never. Fail you.
You can make it with more sauce or drier with less sauce. It, like all recipes, should be adapted to your own tastes.
It's filled with chunks of turkey (you can use chicken if that's what you have), peas, carrots and seasoning. Nothing weird. Nothing you won't have on hand. Well ... except the celery seed. You might not have that and it is CRUCIAL. The celery seed is what gives it that indescribable but delicious flavour.
It took a while to figure out the ratio of liquids I liked. I like the pot pie to be creamy and gravy filled but I don't want it to be so filled with gravy that it oozes all over the plate when you cut into it. If you're an oozer I've got you covered in the recipe, with an adaptation for you.
If you're short on time (say maybe it's a weeknight) you can make a quick version of this recipe by taking these shortcuts:
- Use a precooked chicken. (if you don't have leftover turkey)
- Use frozen pie crusts.
- Use frozen peas and carrots. (you can get a mixed bag and use that!)
- Use 2.5 cups of canned chicken/turkey gravy.
DELICIOUS AND EASY TURKEY POT PIE
Ingredients
- 1 pound cooked turkey cubed or shredded
- 1 cup carrots diced small
- 1 cup frozen peas
- ½ cup celery sliced thin
- ⅓ cup butter*
- ⅓ cup flour*
- ⅓ cup onion diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon celery seed
- 2 cups chicken broth*
- ½ cup milk*
- 2 unbaked pie crusts
- *If you like a pot pie with a lot of gravy oozing out of it then double these ingredients.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C)
- Combine carrots, peas and celery in a pot with the chicken broth.
- Bring it to the boil then simmer it with the lid on until veg are tender.
- Remove vegetables from the pot with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a bowl.
- (DO NOT DRAIN AWAY YOUR BROTH ... you'll need it later)
- Cook onions in butter in a saucepan until translucent.
- Whisk in flour, salt, pepper and celery seed.
- Slowly whisk in reserved chicken broth and the milk.
- Simmer until thick and gravy like.
- (NOTE: if you have gravy leftover from Thanksgiving dinner you can simply use that as your gravy base and omit the broth and milk. You'll need 2 ½ cups of gravy.
- Add the vegetables and chicken to your saucepan of gravy and mix.
- Pour mixture into pie shells, cover with top crusts and seal.
- Cut slits into top of crust so steam can get out.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden.
Notes
An Even Easier Way.
- Use a precooked chicken. (if you don't have Thanksgiving leftovers)
- Use frozen pie crusts.
- Use frozen peas and carrots. (you can get a mixed bag and use that!)
- Use 2.5 cups of canned chicken/turkey gravy.
Nutrition
The really great part about these delicious pot pies is the fact that you can make it in advance and then pop them in the freezer. Just like mom used to make.
You bet! You can make these in advance and then freeze them unbaked until you're ready to eat them.
Again, yes! If you've made extra filling you can freeze that for up to a year for best quality.
It's really a whole meal in itself, but if you like to have a side (I do!) then serve it with a salad. Roasted carrots or peas would also work really well with it and if you want to go BIG a classic side dish for pot pie is french fries.
You can do whatever you want with this pot pie! Add mushrooms (I mean, supergross, but you might like it), take away peas, use no top crust ... do whatever you want. This is how I make it and how I like it best. Use this as a guide. But if you don't put peas in it people will think you're a weirdo. You know, normal people who like peas.
Because the pot pies have a good amount of gravy but aren't *too* saucy, the crust stays crisp. If you aren't going to cook them right away make sure you freeze the pot pies. If you just refrigerate them, they'll soak the pastry and could be soggy when you cook them.
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Linda
Hi Karen, this is the second year in a row that I make your turkey pot pies. Yahoo for Tenderflake and butter of coarse! The dough comes together very easily and the texture is wonderful. I got seven little pot pies. They are going in the freezer and to give to family!
Thanks for the great recipe.
Karen
Oh! You're welcome, they look beautiful! I didn't get any pot pies this year because I made tv dinners instead. I'll have to actually buy some chicken or turkey to make them this year. ~ karen!
Krystal
Hi, Karen,
I'm finally going to make this beautiful recipe, having just baked 2 whole chickens ...but I don't currently have a working kitchen scale; could you tell me about how many cups of shredded chicken this recipe needs? All of my internet searches only wanted to tell me how many cups there are per pound of raw, unshredded chicken.
Thank you for the help!
Karen
Hi Krystal. I'm not entirely sure! I'd say 3 cups, based on what I can remember when I made them last Thanksgiving and from what I found on the Internet. karen! (I have a feeling it's too late anyway if you made them yesterday.)
Krystal
Nope! not too late. Thanks so much for the reply. Yesterday I baked and shredded the chicken, then stuck it all in the fridge cause I ran out of milk (oops). Making them this evening. 'Will aim for 3 cups, and eyeball from there.
Thanks again! : )
Lisa B
This is definitely my family's new FAVORITE pot pie recipe! Darn it if homemade isn't so much better it's worth the hours spent cooking. I will be doubling up recipes in the future to freeze so we can have this deliciousness with ease in the future. It's frigid here near Dallas, TX tonight (14°F currently) so this was the perfect meal to warm us up. I don't know how you survive the cold way up there!
Karen
That's a cold one for Dallas, that's for sure! It's still very warm here; 3C, (37 F). -11C (12F) by tonight. ~ karen!
Karen R
This post says 60% butter, the tenderflake post says 60% lard. I’m going with 50-50 for now but would love it if you could clarify your preferred ratio.
Thoughts on vodka in place of vinegar?
Christine Damm
I inherited my grandmother's pie crust recipe and it's almost exactly like this one. She told me when she lived on the farm, they made three of these every morning so got pretty good at it! She used to squeeze some lemon juice into her ice water for the pastry and it flavors the crust nicely and maybe acts as a substitute for the vinegar? Thanks for the post.
Lynn
Karen question
What size pie ? Picture suggest 4 to 6 inch personal pie , yet ingredients suggest 8 to 10 in pie?
Figured I would ask
Karen
Hi Lynn. It has enough filling to makes 8 servings. So either 8 small pot pies (the size you'd get frozen from a grocery store), or you can use the filling to make one large pot pie, or what I've done is made 4 individual pot pies that are large enough to serve 2 people. ~ karen!
Carrie Anne
Wow that crust looks amazing! I've always had a rough time making pie crust, either to crumbly or too sticky, so I'm excited to try your recipe. Just happen to have some lard in the freezer! I like to add potatoes to my pot pies and of course peas 😳 and a little sherry in my gravy. The flavor is amazing and I am an oozer! Lol
The gravyer (word??) the better!
Hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving full of love, laughter and great food! The latter of course is a given....🙂 🦃
Kathleen/Kate
Yes, Carrie!
Ditto the Sherry!
Or any white wine.
Carrie Anne
Great minds......😁
Randy P
You have made my Polish heart sing - meat pies are one of my all time favorite meals. Chicken, turkey, beef - ALL are splendid comfort foods. I like the home made roux gravies of course, but in a pinch good old Campbells Cream of Whatever will work. Same goes for a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. Thanks for the tip on the 5"pie shells. I live alone and freezing a few sounds like a plan.
Mary W
You had me at - the crust picture. My favorite part is the crust dipped in the gravy. Yours is beautiful! I've been on a cooking kick and need this recipe for a crust addiction I have. Thanks.
That Annoying Ijit
SuperK, squash.
We had mutant psycho Hubbards this year.
They pulled a double barrel gas grill/smoker off the edge of the driveway and tipped it
into the morass that was the garden.
Used a machete to cut them the first time, then decided to mow the edges to keep them from claiming any vehicles.
What to do with Squarsh(my grandmother's pronunciation)
Do NOT say freeze it!
Four freezers, three fridges, no more room at the inn.
A dozen left, from 11 to over 40 pounds.
Oh Goddess of Everything Garden, whatever shall I do?
You need squash seeds?
Karen
:/ Just send them to Disney. They'll have them transformed into carriages in no time. ~ karen! (or try to find a room that has a cold closet (no register and on outside wall) and keep them in there. Around 50F/10C.
Gael
Made mine with leftover supermarket rotisserie chicken. My pastry uses 100% butter. So good. My friend came over to share some with me (she is half of my two-person bubble here in Calgary) and we both liked it so much we had seconds. And then we had little tiny gingerbread houses inspired by your tiny gingerbread houses. And yes, making them was the most fun I have had in a good long time! <3
Gael
Ha! "I think last year"! I checked it out and you posted this in 2014. Here's the link for anyone who is curious: https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/snowglobe-a-la-mode/