Mini Pot Pies

It was not too long ago when I was talking about a deal I encountered at my local grocery store. It was one of those deals that was just hard to pass up. Basically, pay for a ham, and get a bunch of other stuff for free. This included a decent sized turkey breast. When I came home with the bag of goods, I quickly informed my wife of this great deal. I was excited to say the least, and my wife probably laughs at me as I get really excited when I come across these types of deals. I mean, come on, buy a ham, and get breakfast sausage (which one of my kids love), a carton of eggs, and a whole turkey breast!

The real deal came down to how I was going to cook this turkey breast. Smoked or oven roast? I decided to go with oven roasting the turkey, and using it for lunches throughout the week. This only lasted a couple of days in lunches, so I knew what was bound to happen if I did not do something with the turkey, and that my wife would probably just let it sit in the deli drawer in the refrigerator, and it would go bad. So, this is where I came into action and decided to do some turkey pot pies, however, make them much smaller, and much more presentable.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of cooked turkey breast, cut into cubes
• 2 sheets of pie crust
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 celery stalks, cleaned, and thinly diced
• 2 carrots, cleaned, skinned, and thinly diced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 tsp of dried thyme
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup frozen green peas
• 1 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg, beaten, for brushing on top of the pie crust
• Ramekins

Now don’t get me wrong here, but I typically like to make my own pie crust, however I was in a rush, and needed to provide something quick for dinner for the family, and hence why I resorted to store bought pie crust.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Gently roll out the pie crust and lightly flour them. Take a ramekin, and press into the dough, gently cutting into it. Repeat this process with both sheets of dough until you have 12 dough circles for your 6 ramekins. Lightly butter the inside of each ramekin, and take a dough circle, and place inside of each ramekin, pressing inside to form the shape of the ramekin.Reserve the remaining 6 dough circles.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet, and place in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove them after the eight minutes.  Let them cool.

Now for the filling. To a large pot, add the butter, and slowly melt. Next, add in your onions, celery, and carrot and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring on occasion. Add in your flour, and stir, cooking for another couple of minutes. Whisk in your milk and continue to whisk until smooth. Stir in the chicken stock, and sherry. Bring the heat to low, and cook down for another 10 minutes. You will notice the sauce begin to thicken. This is what you are going after. Next, stir in the thyme, parsley, peas, turkey, and season with salt and pepper. You will want to taste this a couple of times, getting your salt and pepper right on point before adding the mixture into the ramekins.

Fill each ramekin to the top with the mixture. Top each ramekin with a dough circle, making sure it is just a bit longer than the top of each ramekin. Seal the top of each ramekin by gently pinching around the edges. Brush the beaten egg onto the top of each ramekin, and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Place these back in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until they are a nice golden brown.

Plate and serve. These are such a better way to present turkey pot pie. The end result is still super comforting, and you don’t feel as guilty having another serving. Enjoy.