It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and you’ve returned home from risking your life at Target. Somehow, you’re hungry all of a sudden, with a fridge full of leftovers.
Whatever shall you do?
Here is a recipe for a killer Thanksgiving pie that works ideally for leftovers, or if you’re feeling lazy, the main meal. I wrote this recipe with the help of many different people in my culinary class. It was for a pie competition being held by Sonny’s BBQ, where the grand prize was $700 per person. Yeah, no way I could pass that up.
The idea was conceived by my partner Eileen’s mom, who was just throwing around ideas. Eileen gave me the motivation to do this, so for an entire month, we fiddled with the pie in so many ways. The original pie had all the ingredients used, but was very different. The potatoes were unseasoned, and stood alone, almost the whole can of corn was dumped on top, the turkey was cut into smallish pieces and drenched in just the drippings, and the cranberry sauce and stuffing topped the turkey with no style whatsoever. The top crust was also the other half of our pie crust, which is the recipe written by the Jacobson Culinary Arts Academy. (the school we’re at.)
People always asked us for a piece, or how we were doing with it, or what kind of adjustments we were making. This kind of pie is unique to this competition especially, solely because about 95% of the pies are sweet. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but there will come a point where the judges will get sick and tired of sugar, and some of the pies may even begin to taste all the same to them. My pie can be seen as sort of a relief, if that makes sense. “Finally, some salt!” they’ll exclaim!
Here is the recipe I used. Most of these ingredients came from Sprouts, and everything is 100% authentic without hormones and such. Do what you will with this. Get creative if you must, there’s always something that can be adjusted, no matter how perfect it tastes.
Thanksgiving Pie
Crust
3 1/3 cups flour
.6 tsp salt
5 oz butter, diced
.6 cups shortening
.6 cups water
Filling
½ turkey breast, shredded and pressure cooked
½ cup flour (for gravy)
¼ cup turkey drippings (for gravy)
½ cup butter (for gravy)
4 potatoes, peeled and mashed
½ can corn
½ can cranberry sauce
½ serving stuffing (see below)
Stuffing
3 tbsp butter
10 0z chicken sausage
1 carrot, minced
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
2 cups turkey or chicken stock
1/3 cups olive oil
2 tbsp roughly chopped sage
1 loaf ciabatta bread, cut into 1” pieces
Crust
- In mixing bowl, mix flour and salt together, set aside
- In separate bowl, using two forks, combine butter and shortening
- In a KitchenAid, whisk together both mixtures until contents resemble coarse crumbles
- Sprinkle water a little at a time over mixture and continue to mix until a dough forms.
- Form dough into disc shape and chill at least 30 minutes before serving
Ciabatta Sausage Stuffing
- Heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in 1 12” skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage, stirring and breaking up meat into medium pieces, until browned. 8-10 minutes. Transfer sausage to large bowl, set aside.
- Add remaining butter to skillet; sauté carrots, onions, and celery until soft, 5-7 minutes. When finished, move to sausage bowl. Add stock, oil, sage, bread, salt, and pepper to bowl, toss to combine.
- Spread evenly in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake until golden brown and bread is slightly crisp on top, 30-35 minutes.
Filling
- Peel and boil potatoes in boiling water. When tender enough, strain in colander. In a mixing bowl, mash and mix in corn.
- Once turkey is pureed and pressure cooked for about 16 minutes, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add flour and stir constantly until lumps have disappeared. Add turkey drippings and stir in until concoction thickens. Add salt and pepper. It’s very easy to burn a roux, or even the drippings, so watch your heat!
- When gravy is finished, shred turkey breast as you would for pulled pork, and mix half the breast in with the gravy.
- Smoothly layer the pie as follows, bottom to top: Crust, potatoes and corn, turkey with gravy, dollops of cranberry sauce, stuffing.
- Throw in oven, 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Josh Bradley Live 