RECIPE:TURKEY POT PIE:By Patrick Kelly

Dutch Oven Turkey Pot Pie       Image©Patrick Kelly

Recipe & Photos submitted by:Patrick Kelly
Patrick is from Clovis, Ca and can be reached at mailto:kingsflyfisher@gmail.com

We want to say thank you to Patrick for submitting this recipe and photos.  One of our Facebook friends in another group.  A great way to use up that leftover turkey.  If you froze part of your turkey to use later this might come in handy for a weekend Dutch Oven meal.  This recipe could easily convert to baking in your kitchen oven too.

Patrick created a personal recipe adapted from another.  Patrick would like to credit the basic idea to Turkey Pot Pie by Ree "The Pioneer Woman Cooks at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/quick-recipe-leftover-turkey-pot-pie/ 

Be sure to also visit that link.  We did and found a bunch of other great recipes we want to try!

To cook in a 12" Dutch oven, I doubled quantities of most of the ingredients in Ree's recipe and added a few more (4 slices of bacon, 1 cup corn, 4 chopped red potatoes, 1 cup of wine (instead of a "splash")).  Overall cooking time was about 2 hours, but that involved some stoppages as ingredients or coals were added.  Everybody loved eating leftover turkey in this way. 

Dutch Oven Turkey Pot Pie

Ingredients:

2 pie crusts (flat, roll-out crusts)

4 slices of bacon (cut into 1" pieces)
1 stick butter (cut up)
1 cup chopped onion (or 1 large onion)

1-2 cups chopped celery
1 cup baby carrots
4 small red potatoes (cubed)

4+ cups leftover white and dark turkey meat (2+ cups of each, cut to bite-size)
1 cup all purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock (better still, make from turkey bones if you have time)
1 cup of white wine (or more stock, or water)
1 cup heavy cream

1 cup frozen peas 

1 cup frozen corn

1 tsp dried thyme leaves (better still, use fresh chopped thyme)
Fresh ground black pepper (to taste, but too little won't make a dent in this recipe)

Kosher salt (to taste)

Procedure:

1. Get the Dutch oven up to moderate heat with ~20 hot coals.

2. Add bacon, stir and cook for about 5 minutes.  Don't let the bacon get too hot (brown, crispy).

3. Add butter to the bacon, stir and cook until melted (not browned).

4. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes. 

5. Add chopped celery and cook for about 5 minutes.

6. Add 1 cup baby carrots and the chopped red potatoes; cook for 5-10 minutes to soften potatoes.

7. Add the turkey meat (already cooked; dark meat holds up better and has more flavor), plus the thyme, black pepper, and salt.  Stir and cook for ~ 5 minutes.
8. Sprinkle 1 cup of white all purpose flour and stir continuously (but not too vigorously) over medium heat.  Make sure Dutch oven is not too hot.  Mix will thicken considerably but we don't want it to start burning.  

9. Stirring continuously, mix in 4 cups of prepared (hot) chicken/turkey stock and 1 cup of white wine (I used California Chardonnay) 

10. Add 1 cup of heavy cream, followed by the frozen peas and corn (1 cup of each). The frozen peas and corn hold their texture better if added after the stock, wine, and cream.

11. Gently mix and cook thoroughly until the mix is bubbling steadily but not too much. Must avoid burning at all costs.  Then let sit off the coals for 5-10 minutes so the pastry crust can be added (without burning ourselves).
12. Do one final taste test; add seasoning if necessary.

13. On a lightly floured surface, place one pie crust directly on top of the other and roll out the double crust to about 1 inch larger than the mix in the Dutch oven.  I didn't do this, but next time I may add a small amount of water, milk, or egg wash between the two crusts to make them stick better together, especially at the edges.

14. Carefully place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture.  It helps to have an assistant (my mom). Press and crimp the crust onto the sides of the Dutch oven. Cut vents in the top of the crust and brush with egg wash.
15. Put 20 or so hot coals on the lid of the Dutch oven.  After 10 minutes, I removed more than half the coals from the lid, especially from the center of the lid, so that the crust would not be overdone, and let it bake for about another 10 minutes (checking periodically that the crust wasn't getting too dark).

16. Allow to cool for a bit before serving.
17. Serve so everybody gets a solid piece of crust; should serve 10-12 very happy eaters.

Dutch Oven Turkey Pot Pie       Image©Patrick Kelly