Easy Turkey Pot Pie Recipe (Lightened up & Dairy Free)

This is an easy Turkey Pot Pie recipe that is perfect for Thanksgiving leftovers! It’s lightened up and quick and easy, making it great for any time you have turkey or chicken leftovers. 

When a reader asked me to create a lightened up turkey pot pie, I was immediately brought to the early years of my marriage.  A new wife trying to navigate her way through the kitchen with a new responsibility of feeding someone else, I was a slave to recipes. It took me a long time to gain enough confidence in the kitchen to tweak a recipe.  It was even longer before I started creating my own recipes.

If I found a recipe that worked and Tim liked, I tended to make it a lot.  One particular recipe was for a chicken pot pie with a phyllo dough crust from Cooking Light Magazine. This was back in the day before you could easy find millions of recipes online and I used magazines to find recipes a lot. Cooking Light was a fave! 

Using a phyllo dough crust for pot pie is a great idea.  It not only cuts way back on the calories, making a much lighter pot pie, but it also saves tons of time.  Traditional turkey pot pie can be a much longer ordeal if you are making homemade crust.  With a phyllo dough crust, you can have this on the table in under an hour.  It takes about 20 minutes prep time, and then cooks in the oven for 30 minutes.

Once I had much more kitchen confidence, I knew I could create a dairy-free pot pie recipe.  I did this by using all broth instead of milk as the base.  It’s just as comforting without the milk, trust me.

Instead of thickening the sauce with a roux, I created a slurry with arrowroot powder (you can also use cornstarch) and some of the hot broth.This was such a simple way to thicken the sauce–no need to use an extra pan to create the roux.  No need to use a boatload of extra flour to create a thick sauce.  (Thank you, Mark Bittman, for the idea.)

Let’s take a look at all the ingredients for this recipe!

Recipe Ingredients–What You Need

This easy turkey pot pie recipe uses simple ingredients and is perfect for your Thanksgiving leftovers!

• 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
• 3 cups diced potato (about 1 pound)
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cups turkey or chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• 2 cups cooked and chopped turkey or chicken
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 6 (14 by 9 inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed–I used Fillo Factory’s Organic Fillo Dough product.  They also offer a whole wheat phyllo dough, which I couldn’t find.
• cooking spray

This is just as good as a turkey pot pie as it is as a chicken pot pie.  I made it as a turkey pot pie first because I thought this would made perfect Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.  So many Thanksgiving leftover recipes are just as heavy as the Thanksgiving meal.  I love that this is a lightened up pot pie recipe that is still total comfort food! I suggest you use this recipe whenever you have leftover chicken or turkey you’d like to use up!

How to Make this Easy Turkey Pot Pie Recipe 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the potatoes, celery, carrots, and onion and sauté about 5 minutes.
3. Add the broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer.  Put the arrowroot powder in a small bowl.  Add enough of the hot broth to create a slurry (about 2 tablespoons).  Stir the slurry into the vegetable mixture and turn off the heat.  Add the turkey or chicken, peas, salt, and pepper.
4. Transfer the mixture to a 3-quart baking dish.
5. Add one sheet of phyllo dough on top of the mixture.  Spray it with your cooking oil.  Continue this process until you have 6 layers of phyllo dough.
6. Place the baking dish on a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.  Enjoy!

If you have a lot of leftover turkey, you should also make this Turkey Rice Soup! It’s a tried-and-true reader favorite.

If you make this easy Turkey Pot Pie recipe, or any of my other healthy recipes, please leave a star rating below! It’s so helpful for other readers to see which recipes are tried and true! I’d also love to see it–share your photo of this dish and tag me on Instagram and I’ll feature you!

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Lightened Up Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie {dairy-free}

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• Author: Healthy Happy Mama
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x

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Description

An easy, lightened up turkey (or chicken!) pot pie recipe that is perfect for Thanksgiving leftovers. This is such an easy and healthy pot pie recipe. Ready in under an hour and dairy free.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
• 3 cups diced potato (about 1 pound)
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cups turkey or chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• 2–3 cups cooked and chopped turkey or chicken
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 6 (14 by 9 inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
• cooking spray

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the potatoes, celery, carrots, and onion and sauté about 5 minutes.
3. Add the broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer.
4. Put the arrowroot powder in a small bowl.  Add enough of the hot broth to create a slurry (about 2 tablespoons).  Stir the slurry into the vegetable mixture and turn off the heat.
5. Add the turkey or chicken, peas, salt, and pepper.
6. Transfer the mixture to a 3-quart baking dish.  Add one sheet of phyllo dough on top of the mixture.  Spray it with your cooking oil.  Continue this process until you have 6 layers of phyllo dough.
7. Place the baking dish on a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.  Enjoy!

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Category: main meal
• Cuisine: American

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 serving
• Calories: 350
• Sugar: 5.2g
• Sodium: 644.7mg
• Fat: 8.8g
• Carbohydrates: 42.6g
• Protein: 21g

This recipe was first published in November 2014. It was republished in 2024 with updated photos and a few more details in the text. Enjoy!

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