Mini Pot Pies

What a fun and delicious way to use up leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. Once prepared and frozen, these are available for an easy, but special weeknight dinner.

Planning Ahead

We already knew these were going to happen while I was planning Thanksgiving dinner so we factored this into dinner preparation. There is always leftover turkey and what an extra special way to enjoy it over the next few months! 

• When preparing vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner, we made extra carrots, and green beans so there would definitely be leftovers.

• Vegetables were prepared simply, steamed until just tender, and served with butter and salt. I wanted the vegetables to be easily incorporated into the pot-pies with no extraneous flavorings.

• Creating a turkey stock is always part of the Thanksgiving dinner as it is used in the gravy and stuffing. We made sure there were 2 cups leftover turkey stock to make the sauce

Pre-Work

These steps can be done early in the day or the day before.

• Make room in your freezer for the cookie sheet with ramekins BEFORE you start assembling the potpies.

• Make a batch of pâte brisée and chill at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours

• Make a simple velouté sauce using the 2 cups of turkey stock and let cool. Don’t hesitate to use an ice bath to cool quickly if needed.

Assembling the Mini Pot-pies

1. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and add to each your cold cooked veggies. We used leftover carrots and green beans and also added some frozen peas from the BSK Pantry (freezer).

2. Top each with lots of bite-sized pieces of turkey. Everything you add should be cool or cold - you don’t want to introduce any heat to the dough.

3. Pour the cool sauce over to fill

4. Roll out pâte brisée and cut circles of dough about 2cm bigger radius than a ramekin.

5. Top with dough and seal edges. Add a steam slit with a sharp knife

6. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and freeze for 3 hours.

7. Once frozen, remove and wrap each pot pie individually in plastic wrap. Place back in the freezer being careful as the frozen crust edges will be very delicate.

8. Add these to your freezer inventory so you remember you have them when meal planning!

Baking and Serving

1. Pot pies are baked frozen and are not defrosted.

2. Make a simple egg wash (one egg and 1 tsp water) and brush the top of the frozen pie with wash.

3. If any bits of the frozen crust has broken off, just place on top and brush with the egg wash

4. Bake in a toaster oven at 350 until nicely brown and maybe you see some deliciousness bubbling out.

5. Serve with a starch such as potatoes or rice, and a large green salad.

Veggies and Meat

Make sure the contents of the ramekins are completely cool before adding the dough topping. The dough must remain cold until baking.

Dough Topper

Seal the edges of the dough with fingers. Dough has lots of butter and will collapse when warmed if it isn’t secure all around the edges.

Freeze

Once frozen, seal with wrap all-around, top and bottom. If you do the initial freezing with the plastic on, it is likely to stick to the dough.

Freezer Inventory

Be sure to add these to a freezer inventory with a “date added”. You do not want to forget about something so wonderful in your freezer!

Small but Yummy

These are a bit small for a full meal so be sure to supplement with additional items such as a clean starch or large salad. If served as a first course at a dinner party, you will impress everyone!