Leftover Thanksgiving Pie

Next-day Leftover Thanksgiving Pie is my favorite way to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Therefore, all meal-planning roads lead to that pie. Whatever is served that day, whatever would be sitting next to each other on that plate, is carefully layered together in a pie, the days after Turkey Day, using the same pie dough you use for the apple and pumpkin pies.

After making Thanksgiving meals for forty years at home and twenty on the job as a professional food editor, I know a thing or two about a Thanksgiving thing or two. Over the years, I’ve simplified my flavor approach to each offering for the big feast. The thesis: since there is so much already happening on that plate, each item (sides and main) selected for the job should taste like the essence of that one thing. Any ingredients added to, say, the sweet potatoes or green beans need to enhance the sweet potatoness or greenbeanness. This is not the time to add miso or cardamom to your mashed potatoes, or any other taste-of-our-times, ill-placed spice. Instead, when choosing your root and green vegetables, think of how those essential flavors marry each other on a plate, and use your cooking technique to coax out and enhance their natural attributes.

Once on that plate, sliced turkey is side-by-side with stuffing, Brussels sprouts, carrots, mashed potatoes (or whatever your family tradition is), all doused in gravy. The sum must elevate the different parts because they all end up mingled together as one, whether you like it or not. If you choose too many fanciful additive tastes, often for the sake of newness, then each element becomes a muddle. More importantly, you’ve taken the wrong fork in the road to arrive at Leftover Thanksgiving Pie. Or, as the kids used to call it, “Danksgiving Pie.” So utterly dank it is.

On to the process, which is simple but must be prepared for:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. When making dough for your sweet pies, make an extra double-crust batch.
3. Have a clean, large pie plate ready (a 10- to 12-incher).
4. Shred at least a couple cups of leftover turkey.
5. Place all your leftovers side-by-side on the counter to assess the layers.
6. Roll out your bottom crust and lay it in the pie dish.
7. Cover the bottom with a layer of leftover stuffing.
8. Next, distribute the turkey evenly over top.
9. In succession from most to least amount of a particular leftover, spread a single layer of each dish on top of each other. If there are colors (orange, green, etc.), consider the final pie wedge.
10. The final layer should be mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes or squash (something soft to indent).
11. Using your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon (or spurtle), make several divots around the filling. Think of a deep well. Fill each hole with gravy.
12. Lastly, cover the top with another layer of pastry. You should have a mountain!
13. Crimp the edges, make a few slits on top, egg wash and cook for 40 to 50 minutes at 375 degrees until the crust is browned. Let cool at least 15 minutes (to ensure clean wedge slices).

Serve on a plate with a dollop of cranberry sauce on the side.

A version of this pie appears in Mad Hungry Family (Artisan, 2016).