chicken (or turkey) pot pie

for the thanksgiving table, or made with your thanksgiving leftovers

some very big news! today marks 1-year on substack! i have loved every single moment of being here - thank you so so much for subscribing and being such a great community, so grateful for you!

and some other big news! i will be going live on substack with liz prueitt answering your thanksgiving baking related questions!!

when: this monday, the 18th, 7pm est

how to join: download the substack app on your phone

if you enable notifications on the app, it will let you know when we go live, and just tap on the link and you’ll be in!

my first recipe on substack came out a year ago today, a mile high apple pie, so today i present you with another pie recipe - a savory one.

the mile high apple pie recipe, while delicious, is time consuming and requires some real effort, and this year on thanksgiving i don’t feel like doing anything all that complicated. for dessert, i will be making this delicious sticky toffee pumpkin cake (which has the flavors of both pumpkin and pecan pie). and since i will be forgoing pie for dessert, i have decided to make one for the main course. more specifically, a turkey pot pie (you can easily swap out the turkey for chicken if that’s your preference).  

this dish can be prepared ahead of time, frozen, and baked off the day of, directly from the freezer (and during baking time i’ll make a vegetable, probably glazed carrots and a brussel sprout salad). 

if you are doing a big spread for thanksgiving, one with a whole roast turkey, this recipe is also a fantastic contender for using up any leftovers (but i will also be sending some easier ideas to you next weekend), and is easily customizable. the recipe is actually a riff on the one i used for the chicken pot pies at my wedding. i’ve scaled the recipe down from 108 mini pies, to instructions for a singular pie that serves 8-12 people, and i’ve switched up the vegetables in the filling, and given you options to switch up how you would like. 

to continue the thanksgiving theme, i went with a green bean casserole-inspired filling with mushrooms and green beans. you can sub all of the green beans out for mushrooms (the version i served at my wedding), or for frozen peas, and you can also sub all the veg out for diced carrots and peas for a more traditional pot pie. truthfully, i think i would have preferred another one of these options over the green beans, but i love a themed dinner and it was still delicious. there are lots of options here, and the directions on how to sub are in the recipe, so you can pick your own adventure!

this recipe shows how to make the pie free-form, or in a springform pan (you can also make it in a pie dish). 

this recipe makes about 3.5kg of pot pie, which serves about 8-12 people (depending on your guests’ hunger level and the sides being served). if you are planning to make this and not feeding a crowd you could always make two smaller pies. i usually make one medium-large one, and a mini one for two servings. i wrap the smaller pie and keep it in the freezer for an easy week-night dinner. 

i also like making this recipe over two days: making the filling and dough on day one, letting the dough rest and allowing the flavors to infuse in the filling, and then assembling on day two.