Got leftover turkey and potatoes from the holidays? Make hand pies! These Easy Curried Turkey Hand Pies with potatoes can be made in less than 30 minutes. A recipe for homemade pie dough is included.
What to do with all that leftover roast turkey and mashed potatoes from your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner?
Learn how to make these easy curried turkey hand pies
These pies are so easy and only took about 30 minutes to put together, from start to finish, and I even made my own dough. YUM!
They are curry flavored too and taste like big samosas. Double yum!!
How to make the flakiest pie dough for curried turkey hand pies
The key to a light and flaky pie crust is not overworking the dough.
I always use my hands to mix in all the ingredients so I can feel the texture of the dough.
Don't touch it or work it too much because you want to still have bits and pieces of the shortening and butter dotted throughout the dough.
Also, add the water a little at a time and use just enough to pull it all together.
Cover the dough ball completely in plastic wrap and walk away. Leave it sitting there all by itself to think about the job it has to do later, being tender and flaky and all.
Don't even be tempted to touch it again until it's time to get the rolling pin out. Seriously, leave it alone.
At this point, I don't even want to work the dough into a smooth ball. I just push it all together to form a rough ball and cover it.
Then I put it in the corner to be all by itself for the next 10 minutes so I can make the filling.
Press out any air on the inside and trim the extra dough that overlaps. Twist the edges together to seal edges.
Lightly brush on the egg wash.
Okay, I'm going to tell you right now that this photo of the crust makes me all giddy and so excited that I want to jump up and down and wave my hands up in the air.
That's the money shot, with all those layers and the little wave of flakiness. It's the reason why you'll continue to make your own pie dough.
A wonderful side dish for these hand pies are my fresh ginger and shallot green beans recipe. It's like having holiday dinner all over again!
Enjoy these easy curried turkey hand pies with potatoes the next time there's too much leftover turkey and potatoes in the refrigerator!
RECIPE
Easy Curried Turkey Hand Pies With Potatoes
Ingredients
FOR THE FILLING:
- ⅓ cup onion , finely chopped
- ½ cup frozen peas , thawed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 ½ cup cooked turkey meat , minced
- 1 cup mashed potatoes or cooked potatoes , diced
- 2 tablespoon cilantro , minced
FOR THE PIE DOUGH:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoon shortening , chilled
- 2 tablespoon butter , chilled and cut into small chunks
- 1 egg , beaten
- ¼ cup cold water
FOR THE EGG WASH:
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F/190C degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
FOR THE PIE DOUGH:
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into large bowl. Cut shortening and butter into flour mixture using hands or pastry cutter until there are small pieces of the shortening and butter throughout.
- Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add the egg. Gently mix the egg into the flour using your hands, gradually adding water as needed, until dough comes together and is still soft but not sticky. Form into a large ball, cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
FOR THE FILLING:
- Place olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute onions, peas, curry powder, and cumin for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Stir the turkey, mashed potatoes, and cilantro into the curry mixture Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside the mixture.
- Make the egg wash by lightly beating the egg with the 1 tablespoon water. Set aside.
TO ASSEMBLE THE PIES:
- Uncover dough and divide into 6 balls of equal size. Take one ball, keeping the rest covered to prevent from drying out, and roll out into a ¼" thick, 5" circle. Fill the circle with about ½ cup turkey mixture and fold over top to make a half circle.
- Lightly press down on the top to press out any air inside and fold/crimp the edges to seal together. Place pie on baking sheet and repeat process with remaining dough balls.
- Lightly brush the tops of pies with the egg wash mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Recipe Notes & Tips:
- The hand pies can be frozen before baking. Place pies on lined baking sheet and place in freezer until frozen, then store in freezer proof bags. Bake at 375F degrees from frozen for 20-25 minutes.
- If not making the homemade dough, can use store bought pie dough or frozen empanada dough disks. Don't use pre-made pizza dough or crescent dough for the hand pies.
Brandi A
I made these with ground turkey and made small appetizer servings for a NYE party. They were gone in an instant and everyone couldn't stop talking about how good they were. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
Karen
This was a great recipe to use up all those Thanksgiving leftovers and everyone loved the curry flavor!
Maria Foy
Made them for my kids for a different kind of after school snack and they liked the curry powder and cilantro in these! Fantastic.
Carmen
Can i use pork or beef instead of turkey?
Thank you
karrie @ Tasty Ever After
Hi Carmen, you can use any type of meat you want, just make sure it's precooked before filling the hand pies.
GC
i made this recipe yesterday and it was so good. I definitely recommend it . Absolutely fabulous love that it was so easy to make!