Leftovers Pie

this is a pie casserole or whatever you want to call it it's the thing that I make with my Thanksgiving leftovers it's easy it's cheap it feeds a ton of people and a ton of different things can go in it whatever you have but you'll probably start with some leftover meat could be chicken but here's my turkey I don't stress about carving every last bit of meat off of my turkey because after dinner I can just use my fingers to tear out every hard-to-access scrap of meat oh there's the oyster I think turkey wings are really stringy and sinewy so I don't even carve them off I just use my fingers to kind of slide the edible meat off of the grouse which is really easy there's some leftover breast slices so that's maybe 8 or 10 cups of leftover meat in the fridge it goes you'll need mashed potatoes to make this you could use leftover mash but you need a lot so either you need to make extra mash in anticipation of the pie or just start from scratch which is what I'm doing I'm peeling a five-pound sack of Yukon Gold potatoes yellow-skinned varieties generally have the ideal starch composition for mash they'll whip up smooth but they won't get gluey I'm just cutting them up into smaller pieces so they'll cook quickly and evenly into the boiling water they go some people say you have to salt the water that makes no sense at all this is going to be a homogenous mixture at the end the salt can go in at any time and if you wait until the end you can taste to make sure that you like the amount after maybe 15 minutes you can feel they're soft enough to be easily crushed drain them off and into the still hot pot goes 8 ounces that's 2 sticks of butter and I like European style butter for mash it's slightly fermented it's got that cheesy yogurty note that I think really live-ins up mash doesn't have to be fully melted because we're gonna throw several pounds of piping hot potatoes on it that'll melt her for sure also the camera so I make mash lots of ways sometimes I used garlic sometimes I use a mixture of different potatoes sometimes that leave the skins on this is my kind of standard holiday mash which is peeled and whipped smooth that's how my mom made it growing up and like I said the yellow potatoes can take being a whipped they don't turn into glue the way a more waxy potato would I usually just whip the potatoes with the butter and then I can see how much more moisture it needs a little bit of milk and I'll start with a couple of big pinches of salt mix that in like most starchy things you want the texture in the pan to be a little looser than what you desire on the plate because it's gonna thicken as it cools a little more milk in and now I can have a taste little more salt lots of pepper and there we go that is very tasty this is how I roast vegetables for Thanksgiving and I would normally do a ton and then use the leftovers for the pie but right now I'm just making enough to demo the pie little bag of Brussels sprouts you want to start by trimming off the woody stem any decaying outer leaves will generally just fall off naturally once you trim off the stem and then just cut them in half having them helps them to Brown a lot better peel a bag of carrots and I like to just roast those whole I want to keep the piles separate though because the sprouts will probably be done before the carrots a little melted butter on top salt and pepper toss everything around in the oven it goes 400 Fahrenheit or honestly whatever temperature I'm roasting the turkey at usually give them a little toss form or even browning indeed the sprouts are tender before the carrots so I'll take those off just waiting until the carrots can be pierced with a fork but they still put up a little bit of a fight I don't like mushy carrots to other things I do right before I make the pie these are not leftovers I've got a little bunch of spring onions cut off the root ends and then peel off any slimy outer layers before chopping those up those will kind of freshen up the pie and intensify the flavor then I'll grate up an eight ounce block of sharp cheddar cheese you can use more cheese but I like to use it as a subtle flavoring and binding agent I don't want my pie to be overtly cheesy all right time to build the pie I've got this big six or seven quart enameled cast iron lasagna pan the wider the pan you've got the more surface area you're gonna have and therefore more browning a roasting tray would be good too you can absolutely start this with a butter and flour roux then mix in your liquid bring it to a boil stir in the filling ingredients and there you go but I'm gonna show you a lighter and much lazier way of thickening and building this I'll throw my turkey onto a cutting board and just run my knife through it a few times to make sure that everything is bite-sized then I'll throw it into the empty cold pan Brussels sprouts go in then I'll cut up my roast carrots into bite-size pieces too in those go and then in go the raw spring onions and for my first liquid I will do a 12 ounce bottle of dry hard apple cider or as the Brits would call it cider you could use white wine you can use apple juice maybe just a little bit less juice so it's not too sweet then just enough milk to submerge everything and here comes our light and lazy thickener Wondra a lot people have this around at Thanksgiving anyway because it's good for gravy it's in the baking aisle at grocery stores it's a wheat flour formulation that dissolves directly into liquid it will not form lumps so you don't need to whisk it into a roux or a slurry or anything like that scatter some on to start with along with a big pinch of salt and some pepper then I'm just gonna bring this to a boil on the stove top and mix in more Wondra until I get the thickness that I want like normal flour it won't fully thicken until you bring it to a boil but be careful about having the heat too high because that can happen milk expands massively when it comes to a rolling boil so do medium medium-high heat just get it to a vigorous simmer and stir frequently that helps control the bubbles and also you want to be careful about this sauce sticking to the bottom and burning I love thickening this way either with Wondra or with a cornstarch slurry because there's no guesswork no guessing how much rutu make up front no guessing how much sauce you'll need to coat the ingredients of your filling before you put them in you just submerge everything in liquid get it bubbling mix in Wondra until you like the texture there is a downside though which is that sauce is thickened with this stuff tend to look a little bit grainy you'll see it more on the finished product it's purely cosmetic the sauce tastes smooth but it doesn't look super nice which is one reason why everybody doesn't just do this all the time and that is still not as thick as I want it but I'll turn the heat off now because it's gonna thicken as it cools and we're gonna put in some cheese once it stops boiling that cheese is gonna thicken things up gotta account for that here's our mashed potatoes and there's two last-minute alterations that'll make this a great pie topping the first is to put some egg yolks in I'm going with for the yolks not only give a delicious rich flavor but they also help them mash Brown in the oven and they help it set up firm more like a biscuit or a dumpling after it's baked then I'll also put in a handful of my cheese for all the same reasons now that the filling is cooled down a bit I'll throw in one or two cups of frozen peas straight out of the freezer you do this that means you delay their cooking and that ensures that they'll still be reasonably green by the time you eat rest of my cheese goes in if we did this when the sauce was still boiling it would not melt smooth it would split and go gritty now I can taste this for seasoning needs more salt and pepper and some herbs I'll go with the classic Thanksgiving herbs of dried sage and thyme now if you wanted to spread those potatoes on in a smooth even layer edge to edge over this filling you would need to chill this filling before topping it you would need it to set up firm I have no time for that and luckily I don't care I'm just gonna drop big blobs of mash onto the filling like giant dumplings they're gonna sink in a little bit and you're not gonna be able to smooth them out the filling is too liquid it would be like sloshing a washcloth around in a bath I don't care I think this is gonna look and taste just great as is in the oven it goes at 400 Fahrenheit and do yourself a favor and stick a baking sheet or a piece of foil under there because that pie is gonna boil over I guarantee it I'd bake that until you can see the sauce bubbling 15 or 20 minutes and then I would turn on the broiler and just Brown the topping to my satisfaction watch it like a hawk it'll only take a few minutes and it could burn easy there we go I'm sorry but is that not a thing of beauty so much better than a sad little turkey sandwich from the fridge it's the kind of thing that I personally would prefer once it has thoroughly cooled half an hour or even an hour when it's just warm it'll hold together better when you scoop it out there you go you can see that kind of grainy appearance that Wondra gives two sauces especially light-colored sauces it's purely cosmetic but if it bothers you thicken with a roux instead that is just an insanely hearty meal it'll stay warm for a long time and will feed all the people you still have milling in and out of your house at the holidays but don't do it exactly as I did it use whatever leftovers you actually have it's leftovers pie don't ever think it

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 1,056,894

Rating: 4.9244308 out of 5

Keywords: thanksgiving leftovers, mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes recipe, chicken pot pie, thanksgiving leftovers sandwich, thanksgiving leftovers bomb, pot pie recipe, chicken pot pie casserole, pot pie, thanksgiving holiday, what to do with leftovers, what to do with leftover chicken, what to do with leftover turkey, leftover turkey recipes, leftover turkey pot pie, leftover turkey pie, leftover turkey, leftover turkey casserole

Id: cDqw-jaNL1Y

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019