In The Kitchen With Kat-The Absolute Best Turkey Pot Pie Filling!

generikat (75)in Foodies Bee Hive • 3 years ago

This past fall a dear friend of ours gave us a turkey that they had raised and butchered themselves. As I spent years raising and selling pastured poultry, including turkeys, I knew just how much work and time was involved in this gesture, and I was beyond touched by their gift.

Also, free range, home grown turkey is amazing! The texture and flavor is beyond magnificent and so much superior taste-wise to store bought, mass farmed birds. That said, I wasn't going to let a single scrap of the bird go to waste. I made bone broth out of the stock, and as one of my hub's favorite dishes ever is pot pie, I decided I would make a turkey pot pie out of the gift turkey.

To start with, I melted some butter in a deep-walled skillet. While the butter was melting I finely diced a small onion. After the butter became golden liquid of simmering goo, I tossed the onion in for a caramelizing cook. During this time I also practiced the fine tactile art of dodging pets while carrying cutting boards, knives, and miscellaneous cooking detritus. In the process I dusted the front of my carcass with a fine coating of all purpose flour. It was great...

Anyway, I'm a big believer of the French concept of mise en place, which is basically hayseed Kat for Get your $#! together. It's a lot easier to cook something that has multiple steps if you have your prep work completed and lined out in your work space. Even with all that organization I still end up looking like an antiquing victim off of a prank Tik Tok (flour dusted), so it's doubly important in my case.

With that said, I had a measuring cup full of thawed peas and carrots, a measuring cup with my cream, milk, and turkey stock measured out in it, and a measuring cup with my diced leftover turkey sitting in it. Heck, I even had my spices measured out and ready to go!

A word on spices. This recipe has them listed by spice type, individually. You could totally sub in a 1/2 tsp or so of poultry seasoning if you wish in place of the individual spices and it would still taste great, I just tend to make everything on the fly from scratch most of the time. Because I am unorganized. Well, and a bit on the creative side.

Anyway, back to the pot pie filling. After the onions were a nice caramelized brown, I whisked in the flour, salt, pepper, and herbs. As I hadn't yet eaten for the day, my stomach was emitting a nice soundtrack of cooking accompaniment. My cat Yaga also did lead vocals because I stepped on her as I went to retrieve the stock and milk mixture from the eating bar to whisk into the roux. Meow.

After letting the roux cook a couple of minutes, I whisked in the stock, milk, and cream. It thickened fairly quickly and I removed the gravy filling from the heat. Next I added in the veg, potatoes, and turkey.

Oh, and I didn't mention the potatoes yet. Before I made the gravy filling, I cut up and boiled the equivalent of one large potato. I say equivalent because I am now down to the smaller potatoes from last year's harvest in my larder, and it takes between four to six of them to equal one large potato. They are Yukon Gold though and super yummy, so I don't mind peeling extra.

That said, I diced, boiled, and strained the potato for about ten minutes (fork tender) earlier in the afternoon. So the potato pieces were waiting with all the other pot pie filling components.

Back to the filling composition. Using a spatula I stirred in everything, and I have to admit that I sneaked a piece of gravy coated turkey from the filling. It was SO good! Like, I wanted to grab a fork and just eat the filling out of the bowl good, forget waiting to bake it in a pie!

But I didn't do that. I practiced patience and put the pie together.

Now, I am pretty great at cake baking, but I am definitely pie crust challenged. I'm not ashamed to admit it either. In fact, if any of you out there buy pie crusts and don't make them from scratch, I would never judge you. Trust me, I've thought about it.

That said, the pot pie, and my crust turned out great. I devoured a large chunk of it, as did my hubs and the kid. The combination of flaky crust, herb-infused gravy coated chunks of turkey and veg just made my day. It was an absolute gloomy rain-fest outside yesterday and the slice of pot pie made me feel all cozy.

I also think this recipe would rock if you spread the filling in a 9X13" baking pan and topped it with biscuits before giving it a good bake. Anyway, I hope you try it, you could substitute leftover roast chicken in place of the turkey too!

Turkey Pot Pie Filling

1/3 cup butter
1 small onion diced
1/3 cup flour
1 cup turkey or chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
1 large potato diced and cooked
1/ 1/2 cup frozen vegetables, thawed (I used peas and carrots)
2 cups cooked, diced turkey (or chicken)
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp sage
1 pinch each of marjoram and nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter on medium heat in a large, deep walled skillet. Add onions and cook until golden brown.

Whisk flour, salt, pepper, and herbs into melted butter and onions and cook for two minutes.

Whisk in milk, cream, and stock and cook until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vegetables, turkey, and potato.

Place into prepared pie crust and bake or bake in a dish topped with biscuits and enjoy!

And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's trying to start a new flour-dusted phone trend iPhone.

#foodie #food #recipe #ctp #creativecoin #homesteading #diy

3 years ago in Foodies Bee Hive by generikat (75)

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jimmy.adames (73) 3 years ago

That looks GOOD 😋 @generikat

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generikat (75) 3 years ago

LOL! Thanks @jimmy.adames! It wasn't too shabby😉

!PIZZA

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yeckingo1 (70) 3 years ago

Oh I love turkey, plus it helps keep me in shape. I have written down the recipe although I will do it with olive oil which I like better. Congratulations for the explanation and the photos.

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generikat (75) 3 years ago

Turkey is wonderful, I agree!

And I got hungry when you said olive oil! I love olive oil, well, I love olive oil and butter, but nothing beats dipping some fresh baked bread in garlic infused olive oil, and now I am super hungry, so thanks for that lol!

!PIZZA

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methodofmad (61) 3 years ago

That's the best looking pot pie that I have ever seen. It holds together like a real pie! Great Recipe and presentation. I wish we had smell-o-vision!