Turkey Leftover Pie (for a zero food waste Christmas!)

This Turkey Leftover Pie recipe is the best way to turn the those Christmas dinner scraps into a whole new, wonderful meal!

Originally published: December 2012

How do you normally deal with the Christmas dinner leftovers?

Over the years I’ve made them into soup, curries and stews. But this leftover pie recipe has now become a firm favourite in our family.

Absolutely no food goes to waste, as you can freeze both the pie filling (ie the chopped up leftovers) or the finished pies!

This makes such a treat on a cold, wet April evening to pull a little reminder of Christmas out of the freezer and make the whole family smile!

How to make Christmas Turkey Leftover Pies

First, line a pie dish with shortcrust pastry. You can use a large pie dish, or individual pie tins like I am in the photos below.

And feel free to make your own pastry. However please know that I totally use shop bought pastry for this, every single year!

It’s also worth lining your pie tins with baking paper first, just to make pie removal and pan clean up far easier.

Christmas Dinner Leftovers

Chop up all your leftovers into small bite sized pieces and mix together into a large bowl.

Our leftovers consisted of chicken (this year we had a home grown rooster) sprouts, cabbage, shallots, roast potatoes, parsnips & carrots, broccoli, stuffing and sausage meat balls.

I also scraped up all that delicious jelly goo that was hiding under the chicken, and poured in that leftover gravy too.

Once you’ve mixed all those flavours of Christmas together, fill your pastry shells up to the brim.

If there wasn’t much gravy leftover, I sometimes make up a small amount of gravy granules and pour that over to keep things moist and juicy. Otherwise add in a knob of butter to each pie.

Next, top off the pies with a pastry lid.

You can of course use shortcrust for the lid, but I sometimes like to shake it up and use puff pastry, just for the lid. It somehow makes the finished pies taste more, fancy!

Then a simple milk or egg wash, over the top.

And then you can bake your pies in a preheated oven.

These little pies took around 45 minutes at 180C (350F).

And that’s it! Such a simple way to make the most of your leftovers, and not waste so much as a single sprout this year.

For all those who celebrate it, may I wish you a wonderful Christmas and New Year from The Hedgecombers.

Janie x

5 from 1 vote

Print

Turkey Leftover Pie

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

 

Make this easy Turkey Leftover Pie from your Christmas dinner leftovers!

Course: Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: British, English

Keyword: Christmas dinner pie, Christmas leftovers pie, Turkey leftover pie

Servings: 3 pies

Author: Jane Sarchet

Ingredients

• 320 g Ready rolled shortcrust pastry
• Mixed Christmas dinner leftovers (turkey, stuffing, veggies, gravy etc)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1 Egg (beaten)

Instructions

1. Chop all Christmas dinner leftovers into bite sized pieces

2. Mix leftovers together, along with cold gravy and season well with salt and pepper

3. Line pie tins with 2/3 of pastry

4. Fill pastry with leftovers mixture, pressing down gently

5. Top leftovers with a knob of butter

6. Egg wash pastry edges

7. Top with remaining pastry 'lids', crimping edges to seal

8. Pierce a hole in the top of each pie for steam to escape

9. Egg wash the top of the pastry lid

10. Bake in oven at 180 degrees C, 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown