Turkey Potpie with Buttermilk Biscuits to Use Up Thanksgiving Leftovers
Every week, Yahoo Food spotlights a cookbook that stands out from all the rest. This week’s cookbook is The Vermont Country Store Cookbook: Recipes, History, and Lore from the Classic American General Store by Ellen Ecker Ogden and Andrea Diehl with the Orton Family (Grand Central Publishing). In addition to their beloved catalog, The Vermont Country Store has locations in Weston and Rockingham, Vermont. Read more about Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week here.
Photograph by Matthew Benson
By Ellen Ecker Ogden and Andrea Diehl with the Orton Family
Turkey Potpie with Buttermilk Biscuits
Serves 6 to 8
A potpie is comfort food at its finest, and here we use turkey rather than the more common chicken. If you have leftover roast turkey and turkey stock made from the carcass, you’re more than a step ahead. If not, we give you a quick way to make not only a fragrant stock but also wonderfully tender turkey. The real flavor key to a good old-fashioned turkey potpie is the stock, so we encourage you to use homemade or the best you can buy. Keep the turkey in chunks for more succulent bites.
Making a potpie takes a few steps: making the stock and cooking the meat, combining the potpie ingredients, and making the biscuits that crown the pie halfway through baking. But the end product is well worth it! Make this turkey potpie for Sunday night dinner or to take to a church supper, and you’re guaranteed clean plates all around.
POTPIE
3 carrots, cut into ½-inch pieces (about 1 ¼ cups)
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 onion, finely diced (1 cup)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups turkey or chicken stock, preferably homemade (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon sherry or Madeira
¾ cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups cooked turkey meat, cut into 1 ½-inch chunks (recipe follows)
¾ cup frozen peas, defrosted
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
MAKE THE POTPIE: Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add the carrots and boil until just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. In an 8-quart stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the sage and tarragon and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture and cook for another minute, stirring to incorporate. Slowly add the stock and the sherry and continue cooking over medium heat until thick and smooth, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and reduce the heat to maintain a low simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
Evenly spread the turkey, peas, and carrots into an 8 x 10-inch rectangular dish. Pour the onion mixture over the top and stir gently so that the turkey and vegetables are coated. Bake for 35 minutes, until the mixture is bubbling hot. Remove from the oven.
Top the potpie with the biscuit dough rounds (recipe follows), evenly covering the surface. Raise the oven temperature to 425°F and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more.
Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 6 to 8 biscuits
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, chilled
¾ cup buttermilk
MAKE THE BISCUITS: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt on medium speed. Add the cold butter, piece by piece, and mix until the butter is the size of small peas. Slowly pour in the buttermilk and mix until everything just comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over two or three times. Shape it into a rectangle about ¾ inch thick and cut out rounds (you should get 6 to 8), using a 2 ½-inch cookie cutter or inverted water glass.
Quick Turkey Stock
Makes 4 cups stock and 2 cups diced turkey
2 turkey thighs
1 turkey breast
1 medium onion, unpeeled, quartered
1 medium carrot, cut into large chunks
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, cut into large chunks
4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 sprigs fresh rosemary or sage
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Place the turkey pieces in a large stockpot along with the onion, carrot, celery, parsley, rosemary, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Add water to cover by 2 inches. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove the turkey from the stock, let cool, and cut into 1 ½-inch chunks. Pour the stock through a mesh strainer set over a bowl; discard the solids and reserve the stock.
Reprinted with permission from The Vermont Country Store Cookbook by Ellen Ecker Ogden and Andrea Diehl with the Orton Family (Grand Central Publishing).
More ways to use your Thanksgiving leftovers:
Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza Recipe
Thanksgiving Turkey Leftovers Monte Cristo Sandwich from Martha Stewart
Three-Bean Turkey Chili from ‘The Yellow Table’
