Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust

Happy Sunday!  Well, today we are officially saying goodbye to our Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with the grand finale..."Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust".  This is it...the end...it's over...sayonara (well, until next Thanksgiving anyway).  I decided to make my chicken pot pie recipe substituting the leftover turkey instead of chicken as well as a few other changes. 

Since youngest son was coming for dinner to help bid farewell to our Thanksgiving turkey too, I decided to double the "filling part only" of my chicken pot pie recipe and keep the crust recipe the same.  I used a bigger casserole dish and rolled the crust out a bit thinner to cover the extra surface area.  Also, since I fiddled around and worked with the dough longer than I probably should have while trying to get it into "just the perfect shape" for my casserole dish (please, don't be like me)...it was a tiny bit trickier to move over this time because the dough got a little warmer and gave me some trouble separating it from the parchment paper fast enough to transfer it without a little breakage.  No worries though -- even though it doesn't look as perfect as my other crust did -- it is still absolutely delicious and beautiful!  So, don't fret if your crust doesn't turn out completely seamless, it will just allow a little of the sauce to bubble out which happens most of the time with pot pies anyway.  I had even considered making a lattice top crust instead this time, but wanted to get it into the oven quickly.  I will try that another time and make a rectangular shaped pot pie.  On another note; when I doubled the filling, I did not double the xanthum gum amount (I still only added the 1 teaspoon) because I wanted plenty of gravy for all the meat and veggies to swim around in.  To give it a little bit more viscosity or thickening, I instead added slightly over 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and melted it into the sauce and then tasted it for seasoning.  It turned out really good.  If you don't have or don't want to use xanthum gum, you can substitute it by adding some cream cheese and melt it into the sauce mixture to obtain your desired thickness.  Below, I am posting the Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust recipe (that I doubled and modified for a larger version of my chicken pot pie recipe) along with the modifications I made and a few photos.  Enjoy!

Voila!

A snapshot of the filling before adding the crust to the top

The crust has been added (you can see where it cracked in a few places while transferring)

Here is a picture fresh out of the oven -- you can see where the sauce bubbled out a bit

BOOM!

Turkey Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust

Ingredients: 

Filling
4 cups diced cooked turkey breast
4 cups chicken or turkey broth (plus extra to use as necessary to adjust sauce 
   thickness)
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1/2 small onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
3 - 4 carrots, sliced thinly
2 cup fresh green beans cut into 1-inch pieces
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup half-n-half
1 - 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper, to taste  
1 teaspoon xanthum gum (to be added gradually, 1/2 teaspoon at a time)
1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Crust
2 cups almond flour
3 tablespoons "cold" butter, diced
1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Lightly spray/grease a 3 quart casserole dish and set aside.  In a medium saucepan, melt butter and saute celery and onion until tender; add chicken or turkey broth, carrots, green beans; cover and simmer until carrots and green beans are tender.  Add parsley, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.  Bring broth and veggie mixture to a light boil/simmer while stirring in the xanthum gum 1/2 teaspoon at a time, whisking vigorously until well blended.  Sprinkle the next 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum a little bit at a time, whisking briskly until the broth begins to thicken.  Once it has reached the thickness you like, add the half-n-half and stir well.  If you accidentally thicken it a bit more than you wanted, thin the sauce with additional broth.  Check seasoning (salt and pepper) and make any necessary adjustments.  Stir in 1/2-3/4 cup cheddar cheese until melted.  Add chicken to the sauce and mix well.  Simmer on low for a few minutes to just to keep hot.  

In a medium bowl, add all crust ingredients and cut in with a pastry cutter until crumbly and all flour is moistened and cheese is pulverized into the mixture. Press dough together in a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper and flatten out lightly into a circle shape (or the shape of the top of your casserole); cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness to the size of your casserole dish.  Handle the dough minimally with your hands (you don't want to heat up or melt the butter in the dough, you want it to remain stiff).  Once dough is rolled out evenly and the size of your casserole dish, pour hot filling mixture into casserole dish.  Gently and carefully lift the dough and move it on top of the filling in the casserole (it is important to choose the right size casserole so your filling will be within an inch or so of the top when filled and the crust will fit and lay nicely on top).  If it cracks a little, gently press it back together.  You can use any leftover scraps of dough that you have left to build a crust around the edge of your casserole dish.  Put chicken pot pie in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes; lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and done (you can tell by touching the top of the crust).  

If you want to see additional photos as well as the original recipe, here is the link:   Chicken Pot Pie w/ Cheddar Herb Almond Crust