Cleo Coyle's Easy "Leftover Turkey" Pot Pie with Cheddar Cheese Crust and "No Brainer" White Sauce

This baby’s super easy to make. And, let’s be real, after your Thanksgiving day cook-athon, it's a relief to make a simple, one-dish dinner. The leftover pie keeps well in the fridge, too, and tastes just as good reheated for lunch the day after you make it.

Servings: 6 slices (fills one 9-inch pie pan)

Ingredients: For "No Brainer" White Sauce:
1 cup cold whole milk (plus a splash more for smoothing the sauce, if needed)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt (or table salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Wondra Flour 

For Pie Filling:
2 to 2-1/2 cups cooked turkey cut up into bite size pieces (Thanksgiving leftovers will do nicely)
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (do not thaw!)

For Crust: 1 package Pillsbury pie crusts (room temperature)
2 cups mild cheddar cheese shredded

Step 1: Make an easy white sauce: Wondra flour is the key here. It’s a super-fine flour that dissolves quickly into liquids, allowing you to thicken sauces and gravies. If you've never used Wondra Flour, look for its blue cardboard canister in the same grocery store aisle that shelves all-purpose flour. It's a handy little helper for thickening gravies and making quick sauces. (FYI, to make an easy cheese sauce for topping vegetables or creating mac-and-cheese, simply add 1/2 cup of your favorite cheese to the white sauce recipe below.)

TO MAKE THE WHITE SAUCE: Into a saucepan, add your whole milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Warm the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter melts. When the butter is melted, get our your whisk! Sprinkle the Wondra flour over the milk mixture and whisk continually until the sauce comes to a boil. Continue to boil and whisk for one full minute. During the cooking, whisk vigorously to smooth any lumps out of the sauce and (if needed) splash in a little more milk, which will help the smoothing process. (Yields 1 cup of white sauce.)

Step 2: Add frozen veggies and cooked turkey: Once your white sauce is finished, turn off the heat. Dump the frozen* mixed vegetables into the saucepan with the white sauce and stir to coat. Add the turkey and stir again, until the veggies and turkey are well mixed in with the white sauce. Set aside. *NOTE: You are not cooking or thawing the frozen veggies. The vegetables will thaw during the baking process, which will give them the perfect texture by the time the pie is fully baked.

Step 3: Cheese-ify your pie dough: This is a "quick and easy" recipe, which is why I'm using pre-made pie crusts. One package of "Pillsbury Pie Crusts" is all you'll need since it contains 2 unbaked pie shells, enough for 1 turkey pot pie. The pre-made crusts come rolled up inside the box. Allow both dough rolls to come to room temperature (about 15 minutes out of fridge or 15 seconds in the microwave). Gently unroll the crusts on a flat surface, and sprinkle each crust with 1 cup of the shredded cheddar. Lightly press the cheese into the softened dough. If the dough is too hard, it's still too cold from coming out of the fridge. Let it sit for another few minutes until soft. (If you aren't a big fan of cheddar cheese, try Swiss, gruyere, or another fave. Fusing it with the dough may seem odd, but it's a better way to use the cheese than just dumping it into the filling where it can overpower your other flavors. This way, the cheese crosses your taste buds during your chewing of the flaky, buttery crust. It's a much more interesting eating experience!)

Step 4: Fill your pie: To prevent sticking, spray a 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray or lightly grease with butter or margarine. Line the pan with one of the pre-made pie crusts (cheese side up). Fill with your veggie-turkey-white-sauce mixture. Cover with the second pie shell (cheese side down; i.e. facing the filling). Now seal the edges and make a few thin slits with a knife on the top of the shell to let steam escape. To prevent the edges of your pie from browning too much or burning, loosely curl strips of aluminum foil around the crust edges. Or use a pie shield. (I also like to lightly brush the crust with heavy cream to enhance the browning, but that's up to you.)

Step 5: Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes (until crust is golden). Then reduce the oven to 375 degrees F., remove the foil strips or pie shield from the crust edges, and return the pie to the oven for a final 10 minutes to finish baking. 

COOL for 15 to 20 minutes before cutting to allow pie to set.

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CLEO'S TURKEY POT PIE RECIPE

Eat with Joy!

~ Cleo Coyle
author of The Coffeehouse Mysteries
CoffeehouseMystery.com
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing..." 

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Text and photos coypright (c) 2009 by Alice Alfonsi
who writes as Cleo Coyle in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini