Cider and Sage Turkey Pot Pie

Autumn Comfort Food, at its best!

This is an easy recipe to whip up, whether you have leftover turkey in the fridge, or you want to start fresh with a rotisserie chicken. Taking a fork and breaking the flakey crusty to reveal some steam and followed with the aromatic filling of herbs, vegetables, turkey, all held together with a creamy bechamel sauce scented with cider is just a feast for the senses, and always makes me feel like a kid again.  I love using a short crust pastry, since it bakes up nicely, and the excess edges can be torn off to dip into the filling.

Here’s what you need:

Ingredients for the Filling

Simple ingredients really.  Butter, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, fresh herbs (I like sage, but feel free to mix sage with thyme and rosemary) a bit a gentle heat from white pepper and salt, and of course, shredded or cubed turkey or chicken, as well as frozen peas.

For the creamy sauce that holds all the ingredients together you will need apple cider (you can replace this with brandy, white wine or even just more stock) chicken or turkey stock, and cream.  You can use homemade stock, or feel free to use store bought.

The pastry topper is a simple shortcrust pastry, more on that in a minute.  And yes, if you would rather use a store bought pie pastry, that works too.  So does puff pastry, but the cooking time make need to be adjusted, it won’t take as long.

Shortcrust Pastry

This pastry recipe couldn’t be easier.  All you need is flour, butter, salt and water.  And if you have a scale, it gets even easier.  Whatever the flour weighs, just use half the weight in butter.  I’ll give both weight and volume measurements in the recipe of course.  Just remember, if using a measuring cup to get your flour, always fluff the flour, scoop more than you need, and level the flour, when filling your measuring cup.

It’s as simple as placing the flour in a bowl, grating the butter into the flour, and tossing it together with your finger tips.  You want everything evenly incorporated.  Add a good pinch of salt and combine.  Then you will slowly add cold water, one tablespoon at a time.  Stir it around with a fork or your fingertips till evenly spread into the flour.  Let it rest a moment.  Then add a second tablespoon of water.  Repeat, checking to see if the flour is holding together when pressed between your fingers.  You may need to use up to three or four tablespoons before it all incorporates and holds together.  Once this occurs, start rolling the mixture together into a bowl.  When mostly gathered together, dump it onto the counter and gently knead it into one mass.  Form it into a disk or ball, and wrap with cling film and chill till needed.  This can be done the day before.  Alternatively you can do everything in a food processor.  I use the recipe from BBC Good Food  it works like a charm.

Feel free to add fresh chopped herbs into the flour before adding the butter.

Filling

Start by heating butter in a large sauté pan. Then the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic are added and cooked till the carrots are just softened.  Then flour is added and cooked with the vegetables.  Stir and allow to cook to ensure that the raw flavour of the flour is cooked out.  Then you will add the cider, or brandy or white wine.  And then the stock is added, along with salt and pepper.  Stir, bringing to a boil till the liquid becomes thickened.  Once this happens, you can remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream, fresh chopped herbs, turkey or chicken, as well as the frozen peas.  Give it a good stir, and it is now ready for the next step.

Assemble

The amount of filling in this recipe is enough to fill 4-6 ramekins or French Onion Soup bowls.  The smaller the bowl, the more vessels you’ll need.  I actually only fill the four soup bowls and freeze the remaining filling.  I will turn this into cream of turkey soup sometime in the next month!

Fill not quite to the top, maybe about 3/4 or a bit more full.  You need to leave some room for steam, and bubbling up of the filling as it bakes.

Cut out toppers of pastry that will have a good one inch overhang for the vessels.  I just cut the pastry into squares instead of fussing with rounds, and call it a day!  This gives me extra pastry that bakes up and becomes more to nibble on as I’m eating.

Whisk an egg with a bit of water, and brush the edges of each bowl before gently pressing the pastry over the filling and onto the bowls.  Ease the pastry down so that it has room to puff up as it bakes.

Use a knife to cut air vents into the pastry.  Brush the pastry with the egg wash to help give the pastry a lovely sheen as it bakes. Finish with a sprinkling of finishing salt like Maldon if you are so inclined, I love what it adds to the final flavour.

Bake in a 425F oven for about 45 minutes, depending on your oven, how thick you rolled the pastry, and if the filling was warm or room temperature.  As long as the finished pot pie filling is bubbling, usually a bit is coming through the vent holes, and the pastry is golden brown, you are good!  If in the end, the filling is warm, but you want more colour on the pastry, just place under the broiler.  Just keep an eye on it, it won’t take too long to get that lovely burnish.

Final Thoughts

You can prepare these and set them in the fridge till you are ready to bake them off.  Bring them out while the oven warms up.  If you don’t eat them all in one sitting (like Jim and myself: these four with a side salad are two meals for us) you can let them cool down to room temperature, cover with foil or plastic, and reheat the next day in a 350F oven till warmed through, about 20 minutes.

If you want to take this filling and make one large pot pie, there are some adjustments you will need to make.  Reduce the liquid: only 3 tbsp of the cider, only 2 cups of the stock, and 1/4 cup of cream.  Really make sure you cook the flour to get it to a nutty flavour, since the ratio of flour to liquid is now skewed to the flour, you don’t want any raw flour flavour to be too strong.  You will need to double the pastry recipe.  Press half into the pie plate, and par-bake it.  Let it cool down a bit before adding the filling. Don’t overfill, if you have leftover filling, do what I do and freeze it for soup! Then place the remaining pastry on top in a freeform pattern: you won’t be able to adhere it to the par-baked pastry, so no sense trying.  Cut out like leaves or stars etc will work great.  See my Perfect Pie Pastry post for more details. Bake till cooked through and golden.

Like I mentioned earlier, feel free to top with puff pastry, or store bought pie pastry.

For other ways to enjoy the flavours of Turkey Pot Pie, check out my Creamy Turkey Pot Pie Orzo.  If you like this meat pie, you will love my French Canadian Tourtiere!

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Sage and Cider Turkey Pot Pie

Cozy cold weather vibes are strong with this aromatic, creamy filling of vegetables and turkey, topped with a flakey pastry lid.

Course dinner

Cuisine North American

Keyword pot pie, turkey

Prep Time 50 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1 amount of the Short Crust Pasty below

Filling

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 large yellow onion (or two medium) diced
• 3 medium cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, can use Cup for Cup gluten free blend
• 2 1/4 cups turkey or chicken broth, homemade or store bought.
• 1/4 cup apple cider, brandy or white wine.
• 3/4 tsp salt more if needed
• 1/2 tsp white pepper more if desired
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage, thyme or rosemary, or a combination
• 3 1/2-4 cups shredded cooked turkey, or from one rotisserie chicken
• 1 cup frozen peas, no need to defrost
• 1 egg

Short Crust Pastry

• 250 g (2 cups minus 3 tbsp) all purpose flour, can use a Cup for Cup gluten free blend, see Notes
• 125 g 9 1/2 tbsp butter, chilled
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh herbs, optional
• pinch to 1/8 tsp salt, depending on if you used salted butter
• cold water

Instructions

1. For this recipe, you'll need 4 to 6 oven-safe (to 425°F) soup bowls.

Short Crust Pastry

1. Place the flour into a medium large bowl. Grate the butter into the flour. Add the chopped herbs. Use your fingertips to gently coat the butter evenly with flour, breaking it up so that it looks like sand.
2. Add one tbsp of water, and stir through with your fingertips or a fork. Continue doing so, one tbsp at a time, till the flour holds together when pressed between your fingers. Depending on the humidity of the kitchen, and your flour, you may need 3-4 tbsp of water.
3. Press the flour into a ball in the bowl, finishing it up on a counter top. Shape into a disk and wrap with cling film and chill till needed. Can be made a day or two in advance. When ready to use, you will roll out the pastry on a well floured surface to about 1/8- 1/6 inch thick. Cut out either circles or squares that will hang over the edges of the bowls you are using by a good one inch.

Filling

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F and set an oven rack to the centre position. Line a baking sheet that can hold the bowls with foil to catch any filling that may bubble up while baking.
2. In a large sauté pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are just softened nicely, about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. You want to see the flour bits turning golden, this will let you know you have cooked out the rawness from the flour.
4. Add the broth, apple cider, salt, and white pepper. Bring everything to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon and scraping the bottom and edges of the pan to lift up the flour. Simmer until thickened, a few minutes.
5. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the heavy cream, sage, turkey, and peas. Taste and adjust seasonings if desired.
6. The filling can be prepared and left to cool while you work on the pastry if you haven't already.

Assembly

1. Ladle the filling into 4 large or 6 smaller oven-safe soup bowls. The filling should come up to about or just over three-quarters of the way to the top of the bowls. Do not overfill, or you will have filling bubbling over the pastry onto the baking sheet.
2. Whisk the egg with 1 tbsp of water. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash.
3. Place the pastry rounds or squares over the bowls, easing the pastry down the sides, and pressing firmly around the edges so that the pastry adheres to the bowls.
4. Transfer the bowls to the foil-lined baking sheet. Brush the pastry with the egg wash. Using a sharp knife, make a few small one inch slits in the top of each pie. Sprinkle the tops of the pies with Maldon salt if using.
5. Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the pastry is a rich golden brown. If the filling is bubbling up gently, then the filling is warmed through. If you want more colour on the pastry, turn on the broiler. Keep an eye on it, it may only take a few minutes to get that final burnish on the crust.
6. Let the bowls cool for about 10 minutes, then use oven mitts to carefully transfer the hot bowls to serving plates.
7. See blog post for more details and serving suggestions.

Recipe Notes

The pies may be assembled and refrigerated up to a day ahead of time. Wait to brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash before baking.
If using measuring cups to get the flour for the pastry ensure that you use the fluff, scoop and level method. Fluff up the flour in your container. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup gently. Spoon in enough that it ends up being higher than the measuring cup. Then use the back of a knife to level out the flour, scooping the excess back into your flour container.
If you have a leftover pot pie or two that are already baked, it can be stored in the fridge, wrapped once cooled. Re-heat in a 325F oven till warmed through.
See the blog post for how to turn this into one large family-sized Pot Pie.