Garlic Bread Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

Got leftover turkey? Bits of bread lying around? Some scraps of veggies? Milk, butter and flour? Then you can make this Turkey Pot Pie! Because everything else is optional

We all know well that day-old turkey is quite dry. So smothering it in a creamy béchamel sauce for Leftover Turkey Pot Pie is an excellent way to breath new and delicious life into leftover meat! that combination of creamy filling and that buttery, cheesy garlic bread topping is amazing! Any bread and cheese you have is fine here – anything that melts! But freshly-shredded is best. I wanted to use up mozzarella cheese slices I had on hand so that’s what you see here, but it’s always better to grate your own. It melts better; pre-sliced gets a bit of a skin on it, and pre-shredded stuff in packets just doesn’t melt as well as freshly shredded.

Use whatever veggies you want. And of course, chicken is a straight up simple substitute for turkey if that's what you have. I’ve used carrot, frozen peas and mushrooms because that’s what I had on the day when I first shared this recipe. You can use any vegetables you have that you think will taste nice in a creamy sauce. The spirit of this pie is using up leftovers, remember, so just about anything goes!

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 150g / 5 oz mushrooms , sliced 1/2cm / 1/5" thick
• 50g / 4 tbsp butter
• 1 onion , finely chopped (brown, white, yellow)
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 1 carrot , peeled, chopped into 1cm/ 1/3" pieces
• 4 tbsp flour (plain/all purpose)
• 2 1/2 cups milk (any fat % fine)
• 4 cups (600g) cooked chopped turkey or chicken
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
• 1 tsp chicken or vegetable stock powder (or 1 cube. I use Vegeta powder)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

GARLIC BREAD TOPPING

• 50g / 4 tbsp salted butter
• 2 garlic cloves , minced using garlic press
• 5 packed cups bread chunks ~2.5cm/1" cubes (Note 1)
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese , grated (optional)
• 1 cup mozzarella or other melting cheese, shredded or sliced (or enough slices to cover most of top)