I promised you recently that my next recipe would not have chicken, cheese or pasta in it. And I have kept my word. You can look high and low but there is no cheese in this recipe.

Turkey Pot Pie! Just a whiff and you will be transported to fall.

I realize this is not the normal quick and easy recipe I usually share on this site. This is the kind of recipe that says, “I love you”. Almost any food can say that, you know. If you play your cards right on a Saturday, a simple peanut butter and jelly can feel like I love you. But this is the dish you make after the birth of a baby when the parents are tired and forgetting their names, after a surgery leaves you hobbling and eating off paper plates for weeks or you need to say, “I care”, to a special neighbor. It says all that and more.

Keeping that in mind, it is going to take a little longer than the other recipes I have shared but it is. Oh. so. worth. it.

Read the recipe thoroughly, make your plan, put on some really great music and just enjoy cooking. The love you put into this dish is what makes it shine.

If you stick with me all the way to the end or just scroll really rapidly, I will share all my shortcuts so you can make this dish as often as you please! It just had to make my Fall Favorites! What would fall be without the smell of roasting turkey and a bubbling pie? It just doesn’t get much better than this.

Here’s what you’ll need:

For the filling:

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter and 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1-2 large red skinned or russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large onion or 2 small onions, peeled and diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2-3 ribs celery, diced finely

1 Tbsp. kosher salt and 1/2 tsp.  fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 c. whole milk

2 c. turkey broth

1 c. frozen peas

6-7 cups of chopped turkey

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme

For the pastry:

3 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes

10 Tbsp. shortening, chilled, cut into cubes

1 large egg, beaten

Remove turkey from the bone (I prepare my turkey a day in advance this way) and dice meat. Measure at least 6 cups of bite-size diced meat. Set aside.

Begin preparing the filling. Start by chopping all the vegetables.  Peel and dice the potatoes, onion, carrots and celery.

Remember to cut the vegetables small. You want the carrots to be diced, not round like coins. Cut the carrot in half first. Then cut that part in half and dice.

When you cut all the vegetables small, they will cook more evenly and become one with the sauce! This is what you want. In the picture below, the celery is chopped the smallest, the onion and carrot about the same, and the potato is just slightly larger.

*You can adjust the amount of vegetables according to what you have. I didn’t have a large onion so I used two small onions. I used two small potatoes for the large one. Added one celery rib because I like more celery. Just remember that all these veggies have to fit in the skillet and the casserole dish!

When all the vegetables are ready, place the butter and oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. When the butter melts and oil sizzles, put all vegetables in the pan.

Add the salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Cook until the veggies are soft, around 15-20 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the veggies two to three times during the cook time. They don’t need to look brown or be overly cooked – remember they will go to the oven for an additional hour.

When the veggies are done, sprinkle the flour over the veggies. Stir carefully. They are cooked at this point so it is very easy to make mush. Try to resist.

Continue cooking for three minutes. Then add the broth and the milk to the pan.

The pan will be very full. Slowly and carefully stir just to combine. Cook three more minutes.

Now stir in the frozen peas and the diced turkey. Add the thyme.

If the mixture is too thick, it can be thinned with a small amount of additional broth. Turn the stove off.

Grease a 9×13 casserole dish and pour the filling into it.

(If you have too much filling, find an oven safe bowl and make an individual pot pie as an extra. You will have enough pastry to cover an extra.)

Now it’s time to prepare the pastry.

In a medium mixing bowl or the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, salt and pepper.

Add the cubed shortening and butter to the flour.

Use a handheld pastry blender, the mixing attachment of a stand mixer or a food processor to combine the ingredients into pastry dough. If using a handheld pastry blender like I did, the mixture will first resemble small peas before coming together into a dough.

I then pressed my dough directly onto a silpat (a rubber baking mat). I don’t have a rolling pin here in the RV. I made sure that it was wide enough to cover my casserole dish.

Then I inverted (flipped) this directly onto my casserole and it worked!

(I did have leftover pastry dough, so don’t be concerned if you do as well. It depends on the dimensions of the pan you are covering. Here is how much I had left. If you have enough, this savory pastry crust would make a fabulous quiche!)

So – if you are in an RV and don’t have kitchen appliances or are in a rush, this can be done! Otherwise, you can proceed with the food processor and roll out the dough with a regular rolling pin. Then transfer the dough to the casserole. Pinch together any seams that have cracked and don’t worry about those.  They give the pie character! I tucked some of the long pieces under but you can trim anything that hangs over.

Cut a few slits in the crust so the steam can come through. Beat a large egg with a fork and using a pastry brush, brush the egg over the pastry dough.

Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 50-60 minutes. When you remove the pot pie from the oven, sit it on the counter for 10 minutes. This will allow the sauce to thicken up for easier serving.

Tips for getting it done quicker next time:

See my post on Freezer packs for a way to have most of this recipe waiting for you, pre-measured, in the freezer. You can also purchase the turkey from your grocery store if you need help or see my post on cooking a turkey breast in your slow cooker. If you plan to cook the turkey as well, make sure you do that the day before to allow yourself plenty of time to prepare this recipe.

This recipe can also be halved. If you plan to halve the recipe, bake the recipe for the same amount of time but in two square pans instead. One for you, one for a friend. One to keep, one to give. One to eat, one to freeze. You decide.

Having one in the freezer would certainly be a gift from you to you. Happy Fall!