You can use turkey or chicken to make this amazing pot pie with puff pastry.
Pot Pie With Puff Pastry Saves The Day
Mondays are the slowest day in the restaurant business. Many small restaurants close on Mondays. Servers hate working Mondays. No customers, no tips.
I didn’t want to close. I had food inventory to turn over and I still paid rent for the day, plus I had to be there anyways to run the catering side.
Pot Pie to save the day. I put this puffed up pot pie as a Monday special. Monday lunch blew up just like the pot pie. We had a line out the door every Monday.
Pot pies are the ultimate comfort food and when we would parade this pot pie balloon in our small restaurant the word spread.
The Pot Pie
This pot pie is very easy to make and you can make it ahead of time but you won’t get the same rise. I used turkey for this pot pie because… well it was Thanksgiving weekend and there was tons of leftovers.
Buy Or Make Stock?
You need stock for the base of the pot pie, turkey or chicken. If you don’t have the bones from leftovers then it is best to buy low sodium chicken stock from the grocer.
If you have the bone/carcass. Pull the meat off and save. Put the bones in a pot and cover with water, add 1/2 onion, 2 celery stalks , 1 carrot sliced lengthwise, 1 bay leaf, 1garlic clove, and some peppercorns. Simmer for a half a hour skimming off any scum. Nothing fussy. Strain it and set aside.
The Filling
Cut all your veggies and turkey or chicken. Put the veggies and the rosemary in four cups of broth and boil until the potatoes are barely tender.
In a separate pot melt the butter. Add the flour to the melted butter to make a roux. Add the stock and vegetables to the roux and bring to a slow boil to thicken. Stir it to keep the flour from burning on the pot bottom Add the half and and half and keep stirring. It should reach the consistency of a thick soup*. Add the turkey or chicken.
You don’t want it too thick because your going to push the pastry crust into it and it will absorb the liquid.
*if it doesn’t get thick enough mix a little flour or cornstarch in water to make a slurry and stir it in to thicken.
The trick to the super rise balloon
You can serve this a more classic way (no balloon) and make ahead which I explain below, but if you want the dramatic puff up there are a few tricks.
- heat your oven to 425
- heat your fill to just below a boil
- beat an egg
- get your chilled pre cut pastry square out of the fridge (read recipe)
- Work fast and one at a time
- brush the top 1/2 inch of your bowl with egg
- fill bowl 2/3 to 3/4 with the hot filling. You need an air gap between the filling and the pastry. The heat will expand the air pushing up the top
- cover quickly with the pastry and press to seal
- brush quickly with egg and get it in the preheated oven on a sheet pan
- Let it cook until it is nice and brown maybe 20 minutes.
Make Ahead
- let the filling cool to at least room temperature
- fill the bowl 3/4 of the way
- brush the top 1/2 inch of the bowl with egg
- cover with pastry and press to seal
- brush with egg
- refrigerate until ready to cook
- cook in a 350 oven until browned (about 45 minutes)
The two styles below
Serve with a salad and you have a nice meal!
Try this amazing fool proof fried chicken recipe.
Pot Pie With Puff Pastry
Use your leftover turkey or chicken. Since this was right after Thanksgiving I used turkey.
- 4 cups turkey or chicken broth (see above)
- 1 cups diced potatoes
- 1/3 cup diced celery
- 1/3 cup diced onion
- 1/2 cup diced celery root (optional)
- 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 cups chopped cooked turkey or chicken
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 3/4 cup 1/2 and 1/2
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 package of puff pastry sheets (this is enough for 5 sixteen ounce bowls)
- 1 egg beaten
add the first six ingredients in a pot and boil until the potatoes are barely tender
melt butter in a second pot then make a roux with the flour
pour the stock and vegetables over the roux and stir
add 1/2 and 1/2 and simmer until thickened. Stir so it doesn't burn on the bottom
add salt and pepper to taste.
For Puffed up crust
cut puff pastry in a square slightly larger than the bowl. You will need to combine scraps and roll out again. Flour surface as needed to roll. You should have five or six squares. Roll each square so they are are about 1/2 in longer on each side.
preheat oven to 400. Brush the top 3/4 of an inch of the bowl with egg. Ladle 10 ounces of the hot filling into the bowl and cover with puff pastry making sure it is sealed well. Quickly brush with egg and immediately put in the oven on a sheet pan. It is best to do them one at a time.
The trick is to use hot filling and leave some space between the filling and the puff pastry so the hot air will expand and push up the crust. It is best to do one at a time so the filling doesn't warm the puff pastry to much before it gets in the oven.
Make Ahead
let the filling totally cool down in the then cover with the puff pastry (same as above, seal with egg and brush with egg). You can keep it in the fridge until you are ready. Heat oven to 300 degrees and cook until pastry is brown about 40 minutes.