Friday, March 26, 2010

Turkey Pot Pies

A few weeks ago I had a hankerin’ (I don’t use that word often enough) for a turkey dinner. I bought one of those smaller bone-in turkey breasts and made a scaled down version of Thanksgiving: turkey, potatoes, gravy, green beans & a cranberry salad. It totally hit the spot and the leftovers were delicious – they provided several dinners for us. By mid week, we had eaten all of the side dishes and were left with plenty of turkey. What to do….what to do…..

I found this recipe for turkey pot pies and tried it. What appealed to me at first was the use of frozen puff pastry as a crust. It was so simple and the end result is a lovely, flaky brown crust. I also loved that this recipe didn’t call for cream-of-anything soup, unlike some of my other pot pie recipes. That’s great news for us lactose intolerant folk. (Did you know that dairy products are my krypotonite?)

Another thing I loved about the recipe is that we each got our own little pie. I happen to own a set of 12-oz ramekins, but if I didn’t I would probably try this recipe out in one large casserole dish and just lay the full sheet of puff pastry over the turkey/sauce/vegetables mixture. If anyone tries that, comment here and let us know how it worked out.

This (for me anyway) is a great recipe for using up those roast chicken and turkey leftovers. I loved that I had nearly everything for this recipe already in my pantry. The only thing I was lacking was the fresh thyme, and I was able to substitute a little dried thyme just fine. I think we’ll be having another bone-in turkey breast for our Easter dinner. Guess what I’ll be making the following Wednesday?

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

So, there is just a top crust? (True confessions, here) I grew up eating frozen pot pies which had bottom and top crusts. I love pot pie, but miss the bottom crust most of the time. Do you have any tips/recipes for pot pie with a bottom crust?

These turkey pot pies look absolutely amazing - might be splurging for some puffed pastry here soon.

Andy said...

I love those little frozen pot pies too. I thought I would miss the bottom crust on these pies, but I really didn't.

I wish I could help out, but I don't really have any recipes and/or tips for you! When I DO have the ingredients for a pot pie I usually take the easy route and just do a shepherd's pie with the mashed potatoes on top.