Cast Iron Skillet Turkey And Ham Pot Pie

What could be more deliciously hearty than a turkey and ham pot pie, cooked in a cast iron skillet?

We make a creamy pot pie velouté filling with turkey, ham and leeks in a skillet before topping it with a golden brown and crispy layer of easy shortcrust pie crust on top. It's a delicious way to use up leftovers and cooked in just a skillet, so minimal washing up!

Jump to:

• Why this is the best recipe
• What is a pot pie?
• How to make a thick pot pie filling?
• Ingredients
• How to make this recipe
• Top tip
• Top tip
• Wine pairing for skillet ham and turkey pot pie
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• FAQ
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Why this is the best recipe

1. It's versatile: A skillet pot pie recipe is a useful one to have up your sleeve, you can adapt it to suit you with different fillings and flavors. It's a great way to use up leftover ham or other meats you might have in the fridge.
2. It's easy: A cast iron skillet pot pie is a simple way of making dinner with minimal washing up. Start on the stove, then pop it in the oven and before you know it you've got a delicious ham and turkey pot pie and only used one pan for the whole thing.
3. It's fast: Shortcrust pastry is so simple, it takes minutes to make and whilst it's resting you can make the turkey and ham pot pie filling. This pot pie prep time is minimal and it can be ready and on the table in an hour but it looks and tastes impressive.
4. It's delicious: A creamy and velvety smooth savory pie filling with ham, leeks and turkey and then a crunch of golden buttery pastry on top, this easy ham pot pie skillet is so tasty.

What is a pot pie?

A pot pie is the ultimate comfort food! It's a pie that traditionally only has a pastry topping, as opposed to being completely enclosed in pastry pie crust on all sides. It makes it lighter and gives you more space to fill it with a creamy and delicious pie filling.

How to make a thick pot pie filling?

To make a thick pot pie filling, make a velouté filling which is thick and velvety smooth. A velouté is made by adding a white stock like chicken, turkey, veal or even fish to a blond roux. This creates an incredibly delicious sauce for the pie filling, which is then made even more rich and decadent with a splash of heavy cream.

Ingredients

Shortcrust pie crust

1. All-purpose flour: AP flour (sometimes known as plain flour) is a medium-strength flour that s readily available and perfect for making homemade pie crust.
2. Unsalted butter: Always try to use good quality butter, and buy unsalted as this helps you to control both the quantity and quality of the salt in a recipe. The butter needs to be very cold.
3. Egg yolk: Egg is a binding agent and egg yolk in particular also adds a delicious richness to pastry dough. Here's what to do with the leftover egg whites! You should always use room-temperature eggs in baking.
4. Water: We mix the egg yolk with a small amount of water to add more moisture to the pie crust dough, help it bind together and prevent it from drying out.
5. Salt: Salt is a flavor enhancer and brings out the buttery taste in the pot pie crust.
6. Egg wash: Mix an egg together and brush it over the turkey and ham pot pie dough before baking to give a golden brown, shiny finish and even more crunch.

Leek, turkey and ham pot pie filling

1. Cooked turkey: This is the perfect recipe to use up leftover turkey. Simply cut it into chunks and add it to your pot pie.
2. Cooked ham: The delicious taste of ham, with its juicy taste and natural saltiness, brings out all the other flavors and works well with the turkey.
3. Leeks: Leeks are from the allium family and have a deliciously sweet, very mild onion flavor. They add great depth when used in pie or quiche fillings and work so well with the other flavors.
4. Shallot: Shallots have a sweeter and more delicate taste than onions, and due to the fact we are also using leeks that have a mild onion flavor profile, it makes more sense to use shallot in this cast iron pot pie recipe.
5. Unsalted butter: We make a veloute for the pot pie filling, which starts with butter.
6. All-purpose flour: A small amount of flour thickens the ham pot pie filling
7. Chicken stock or broth: High-quality chicken or turkey stock (or low-sodium chicken broth)
8. Cream: Finally, a dash of heavy cream gives a rich, creamy decadence to the filling of this cast iron skillet pot pie.

Check out the turkey and ham pot pie recipe card at the bottom of this post for the quantities.

How to make this recipe

You can use a variety of different pie crusts for pot pie, but I like using flaky shortcrust as it gives a nice contrast in texture to the smooth and creamy filling.

Pot pie crust

Ham, leek, and turkey pot pie filling

1. Dice the shallot into small pieces and slice the leeks into rounds. Cut the ham and turkey into cubes.
2. Heat the small amount of butter in the cast iron skillet over medium heat and fry the shallots until translucent. Add the leeks and cook for 5 minutes until they soften.
3. Make the velouté. Push the leeks over to one side of the skillet and add the larger amount of butter. Once it stops bubbling, quickly stir in the flour so it forms a pale, thick paste, known as a blond roux.
4. Gradually pour in the chicken stock whilst continuing to stir so it loosens the roux and forms a velvety sauce.
5. Now incorporate the leeks into the velouté and mix it all together.
6. Bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes to cook out the flour and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
7. Stir in the cream and bring it back to a simmer before removing the skillet pot pie filling from the heat. Allow the skillet to cool.

Assembling and baking the cast iron skillet pot pie

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius / 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Stir the cubed meats into the pie filling in the skillet.
3. Remove the pastry disk from the fridge and let it soften for a few minutes until pliable.
4. Roll dough into a circle just wider than the skillet.
5. Place the pastry circle over the skillet and gently press into the edges.
6. Brush with an egg wash and immediately bake the turkey and ham pot pie for 25-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Wine pairing for skillet ham and turkey pot pie

A bold southern Italian red wine from Puglia, for example, would pair beautifully with this skillet pot pie recipe.

Variations

I'm obsessed with making this creamy pot pie in a cast iron skillet as a way to use up turkey or ham leftovers, you could add other vegetables like frozen peas or green beans too if you had some, or swap out the turkey for chicken.

You can use store-bought pie crust dough to save time or even puff pastry to add a flaky lightness to the pot pie crust.

Try serving this refreshing blackcurrant mousse cake as dessert; it's light and zingy and is the perfect dish to follow pot pie.

Equipment

The genius of a one-pan skillet recipe is that you only need one pan! I use a 26cm/10ince Le Creuset cast iron skillet. It's the perfect size for so many recipes, and does not require seasoning so it is a lot easier to maintain than raw cast iron.

Weigh the ingredients for the cast iron pie using a digital scale, and try to avoid using the cup system in baking, as measuring by volume is not precise enough.

I use Robert Welch knives.

Storage

Store leftover one skillet pot pie in the fridge. It may be easier to transfer it into an airtight container.

You can freeze pot pie filling and freeze pastry easily separately, or assemble the pie and then freeze it all together. But once baked, this turkey and ham pot pie skillet will not freeze well, as the pastry can go soggy.

FAQ

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