Thursday, February 12, 2026

Turkey Pot Pie @VMBurns #recipe

VMBURNS: What do you do when you have leftover turkey? You make Turkey Pot Pie. At least, that's what I did. I can only endure leftovers for 2 days, then I get bored. I knew there would leftovers after I got a great deal on a turkey, which was WAAY too much for one person. So, I adapted a recipe for Chicken pot pot.

I didn't have frozen mixed vegetables, but I had frozen green beans, and frozen lima beans, frozen corn, and fresh carrots. You can't tell from the picture, but I added the fresh carrots to the onions (before adding the other veggies), since they needed to soften. I probably could have added them at the same time as the onions. The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any vegetables you have and eliminate the ones you don't like. You'll notice that the green beans are long. Next time I'll cut them.

I used my KitchenAid chopper to shred the turkey. Next time, I'll probably chop it more than shred it. That way, I will have larger pieces of meat in each bite. The taste was still great, but I wanted the satisfaction of chewing bigger pieces.

Lastly, you'll notice the recipe calls for heavy cream, but there's no heavy cream in the picture. I was out. So, I improvised by mixing melted butter and milk.

Turkey Pot Pie

INGREDIENTS

2 Cups shredded turkey
1 Cup frozen mixed vegetables
1 Cup heavy cream
1 Sheet puff pastry
1 Onion, chopped
1 Clove garlic, minced
1 Cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
1 Teaspoon dried thyme
1 Tesaspoon dried sage
Salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 F and grease a large casserole dish.
Heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onions for 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for an additional 60 seconds until fragrant.
Add the frozen vegetables and cook until heated through.
Create a roux by adding flour to the mixture and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes.
Slowly whisk in the heavy cream and chicken broth. Simmer until slightly thickened, approximately 5 minutes.
Fold in the shredded turkey and mix until well coated, and then transfer to the greased casserole dish.
Cover with thawed puff pastry, cutting slits for steam, and brush with an egg wash (if desired).
Bake 25-30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

READERS: What's your favorite leftover meal? Let me know in the comments below.

MURDER FROM A TO Z

Nana Jo has volunteered her lawyer granddaughter, Jenna, to teach estate planning to retirees—with Sam providing her bookshop as the venue. But during the seminar, entitled Getting Your Ducks in Order, it quickly becomes clear someone’s up to Fowl Play. When elderly Alva Tarkington, accompanied by her niece, sits down for a consultation, Sam realizes the woman’s frequent blinking is actually Morse Code—S.O.S. The sisters get her alone, and Alva tells them she believes her life is in danger and must change her will . . .

Unfortunately, Alva is found dead the next day—seemingly from natural causes. But Nana Jo and the sisters suspect otherwise. In between penning her latest historical mystery, set in 1939 as England declares war on Germany and Lady Elizabeth Marsh pursues stolen paintings and a traitor, Sam teams up with the senior sleuths of Shady Acres to search for motives—beginning with Alva’s family. They soon learn not everyone is who they say they are, and someone is more than qualified to teach a class on cold-blooded murder . . .
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Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Easy "Leftover Turkey" Pot Pie with Cheddar Cheese Crust from @CleoCoyle #Thanksgiving #Leftovers

From Cleo Coyle: Need a recipe idea for your Thanksgiving leftovers? I've got you covered with this simple, one-dish dinner. This Turkey Pot Pie (with cheddar cheese crust) is so good! And it's easy to make, which is why I bake it every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. As for my writing life...

Marc and I are giving thanks to our readers this week after our editor shared happy news about our latest Coffeehouse Mystery, HONEY ROASTED, which earned out its advance in record time. To learn more and join our online celebration, click here to jump to our Facebook post...

To learn more about our 19th Coffeehouse Mystery,
HONEY ROASTED, click here.

To join our celebration
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Now for today's Thanksgiving Week recipe...

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

A Recipe Note from Cleo

This is a wonderfully tasty way to make use of your leftover Thanksgiving turkey. You only need two to three cups of diced roasted turkey meat. The pie keeps well in the fridge, too, so it tastes just as good reheated the day after you make it.

I keep the PDF of this recipe handy all year because this pot pie recipe will work equally well with roasted chicken. Another reason I keep it handy is because it includes a recipe for making an easy WHITE SAUCE as well as an (optional) CHEESE SAUCE that's delicious drizzled over vegetables, especially broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and asparagus.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. May you eat with plenty of joy!

~ Cleo

To download this recipe in a PDF

document that you can print,

save, or share, click here.

Click here for Cleo's free
downloadable PDF.

🍂 Cleo Coyle's
Easy Turkey Pot Pie
with Cheddar Cheese Crust

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

For Easy White Sauce
1 cup cold whole milk (with a splash more, if needed to smooth lumps)
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 (see product picture below)

For Pie Filling
2 to 3 cups cooked turkey cut up into bite size pieces (leftovers will do nicely)
2 to 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables (do not thaw!)

For Crust
1 package pre-made pie crusts (room temperature; I use Pillsbury)
2 cups mild cheddar cheese shredded

Directions

Step 1 – Make an easy white sauce: Wondra flour is the key. It’s a super-fine flour that dissolves quickly into liquids, allowing you to thicken sauces and gravies. (See my note at the end of this recipe for turning this white sauce into an easy cheese sauce.) FOR 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 out 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 pan with the white sauce & 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 (optional): 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 10 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 favorite.) Fusing it with the dough may seem odd, but it's a shortcut that really works, and 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 more delicious 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 top of the crust with chilled heavy cream to enhance browning.)

Step 5 – Bake at 425° Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes, until crust is golden. Then reduce the heat to 375° F. Remove the foil strips or pie shield from the crust edges and return the pie to the oven for 10 minutes of final baking.

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

CLEO NOTE (Cheese Sauce variation): 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. You can make an easy cheese sauce for vegetables by adding 1/2 cup of your favorite cheese to the white sauce recipe above. Add the cheese at the end of the cooking process and stir until the cheese is melted. Then whisk gently for smoothness.