Easy Turkey Pot Pie Recipe - Savory Nothings (2024)

Use leftover turkey and frozen vegetables in this easy Turkey Pot Pie recipe – it’s perfect for your Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers! The homemade filling is quick to whip up and comes with an extra-creamy gravy.

Please note: I updated this post on 11/26/2020 and changed the recipe I originally published in 2015. Since most readers were using puff pastry instead of the phyllo, I re-wrote the recipe to better serve your needs. If you’re looking for the original made with phyllo pastry, I have saved it for you here.

Pot pies are the ultimate comfort food to me. They are nice for special occasions (like my individual chicken mushroom pot pies), but work just as well as an everyday weeknight dinner.

I decided to share a turkey pot pie instead of a chicken pot pie here, because almost everyone has leftover turkey around the holiday season. But the recipe works with rotisserie chicken just as well! (I also have a recipe for a fully homemade chicken pot pie, if you’re looking for that.)

This recipe is super quick and easy (just what you need after a Thanksgiving cooking marathon), requires no chopping thanks to frozen vegetables – and comes out with a deliciously creamy gravy. Almost better than the actual holiday dinner ?

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Cooked turkey: Use leftover turkey meat (light and dark), rotisserie chicken or just poach 1.5 pounds of turkey breast (or chicken breast) for this recipe. You can either shred or dice the cooked poultry – I prefer it diced in a pot pie.
• Sour cream: You can use cream cheese as a substitute if you don’t have sour cream on hand. I do not recommend using Greek Yogurt, as it tends to split easily.
• Milk: Feel free to use heavy cream, evaporated milk or half-and-half in place of the milk.
• Frozen vegetables: I like to use a classic blend of frozen mixed vegetables with corn, peas, carrots and green beans. California blend (with cauliflower) is also great.
• Potatoes: Feel free to add a cup of diced potatoes to the filling to make it heartier.
• Puff pastry: Pie crust or phyllo sheets are great alternatives for the puff pastry. You can also use canned refrigerated biscuits or even crescent roll dough. If you prefer a double crust on your pot pie, you can absolutely do so. I would recommend using a pie crust though, not puff pastry.

How to make a turkey pot pie

Start by cooking the frozen vegetables in oil until they’re starting to soften with the herbs and seasoning (1). Then, pour the chicken stock over the vegetables.

Whisk the milk and the cornstarch until smooth (3). Pour into the skillet with the vegetables and chicken broth (4), stir well and simmer until thickened (5).

Take the skillet off the heat. Stir in the sour cream and butter (6). Finally, add the cooked turkey (7) and fold in until fully smothered in gravy (8).

Transfer the filling to a 9-inch pie dish or similarly sized casserole dish (9).

Cover with puff pastry (10), crimp the edge if you like (it’s not mandatory, but looks somewhat nicer) and cut four slits into the pastry to allow steam to escape during baking (11).

Now you just have to bake your pot pie, let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes before scooping to serve – and dinner is done!

Recipe tips

• Vegetables: There’s no need to defrost the vegetables before using them – just throw them in the skillet and cook them straight from frozen
• Cornstarch slurry: Make sure to fully whisk the cornstarch into the milk, otherwise you’ll end up with a lumpy gravy. For the same reason, stir the cornstarch slurry into the filling as soon as you add it; otherwise you’ll have one big blob of seized up gravy in your filling and the rest won’t thicken
• Pastry: Keep the puff pastry chilled until you’re ready to roll it out, it should be cold when it hits the oven – warm puff pastry is almost impossible to handle and doesn’t turn out as flaky as it should. By the way, I bake puff pastry cut-offs as well and serve the kids while they wait for the pie to cool.
• Filling: This makes a very creamy pot pie – that’s how we like it best, as leftover turkey tends to be dry so the amount of gravy can help counteract this. If you want a less creamy filling, feel free to leave out the butter and sour cream.
• Resting: Do not skip the 10 minute rest on the counter before scooping the pie to serve! The filling is too runny right out of the oven, and it thickens as it cools.

Serving ideas

Turkey pot pie is an excellent, hearty meal by itself. You can round it out by adding a salad on the side, some leftover dinner rolls or leftover vegetables (Brussels sprouts! Sautéed green beans!) for the vegetable lovers in your family.

More leftover turkey recipes

PSIf you try this recipe, please leavea review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.

Again – if you’re looking for the old recipe using phyllo pastry, print it here.

Printable recipe