Turkey Hand Pies with Potatoes and Vegetables

Name: Turkey Hand Pies With Potatoes and Vegetables
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1 pound ground turkey, 93% lean; 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for turkey (plus more if needed) (if using table salt, you can use a little less); 1 tbsp olive oil or butter (for cooking the turkey); ½ small onion, diced small ((about 1.5 cups)); 1 small fennel bulb, diced small ((about 1.5 cups)); 1 small to medium Yukon gold potato, diced small ((about 1.5 cups)); 2 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp flour; 1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning; 1 cup turkey or chicken broth; 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for veggies (plus more if needed) (if using table salt, you can use a little less); Couple turns of black pepper, divided; 4 sheets puff-pastry (thawed according to package instructions); Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a splash of water)

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These turkey hand pies with potatoes and vegetables are a super tasty and easy holiday dinner option. They feature store-bought puff pastry, ground turkey, onions, fennel, potatoes, and herby seasoning. These individual savory pies are perfect for anyone who loves all of the flavors of Thanksgiving but in an easier, less time-consuming package.

Why You’ll Love These Turkey Hand Pies

All the flavors of fall holidays in one tiny package. These hand pies have turkey, potatoes, onions, fennel, poultry seasoning, and even a little simple gravy tucked inside them. Plus, they’re little pies, which are super fall holiday themed.
So much easier than making a full holiday meal. Thanksgiving isn’t the easiest holiday for many people. It can be stressful, expensive, and super time consuming. These hand pies are cheaper to make than a full holiday spread and they won’t require you to spend all day in the kitchen, basting a turkey either.
Comforting and super cozy. Is there anything more cozy this time of year than pie? How about pies made with puff pastry? The super flaky, buttery crust and turkey and potato filling gives these pies extra comforting and cozy vibes.
Easy to make and fun to share. Using ground turkey and store bought puff pastry makes these fairly simple to make. They’re also fun to share because everyone gets their own individual hand pie!
Meal-prep and freezer friendly. These are easy to prep ahead of time. Just cook up the filling, then assemble when you’re ready to cook them. Or you can cook the filling, assemble them, freeze them, then bake them off when you’re ready to serve.

Small plate with 3 halves of turkey hand pies stacked vertically. Black fork on front left of plate and platter full of more turkey hand pies in the background.

Turkey Hand Pies: The Ultimate Thanksgiving Hack

We love cozy comfort foods, and for us, the holidays have always been characterized by good food and a kitchen full of the intoxicating scents of roasted vegetables, turkey, and carbs. Our mom makes the best Thanksgiving turkey too. Her secret? Adding strips of bacon to the outside of the turkey. This keeps the skin moist and the meat juicy and never dried out.

But not everyone wants to spend the money on a whole bird or take the time to thaw and cook it. When we don’t want to or can’t cook a whole turkey, this recipe satisfies our Thanksgiving meal cravings.

Budget Guide: Why This is a Cheaper Holiday Meal Option

It’s no secret that food prices are high this year. This can make cooking a full, traditional holiday meal for a family more stressful and challenging than maybe it once was. While some stores may have specials on Thanksgiving items, even turkeys, the cost per person, and the overall cost to feed everyone at a large family gathering, may still be higher than desired.

This recipe makes 12 hand pies, so you can feed your immediate family or closest friends, plus any out-of-town visitors that may show up. Even if you have to buy pantry staples (like flour, broth, spices, and butter), making 12 of these hand pies (1 for each person) will set you back $30 to $35, which is $2 to $3 per person. Serve these with a cheap vegetable side dish and you’ve got a full meal.

Close up view of a stack of puff pastry turkey hand pies on top of a white and blue platter.

Ingredients for the Turkey & Potato Hand Pies

These turkey hand pies taste like a perfect blend of potatoey goodness and herby ground turkey. Everything is coated with a little quickly made gravy so that the hand pies aren’t dry inside. Here’s what you need:

Ground turkey – we recommend 93% lean. If you don’t eat meat, you can use extra firm tofu or mushrooms.
Onion – sweet or yellow onions work best.
Fennel – for a subtle anise flavor that goes so well with the savory gravy.
Yukon gold potato – no need to peel it before cooking.
Butter – some for cooking the veggies in and some for making a little roux. You can also use plant-based, non-dairy butter instead.
Flour – a little all-purpose flour will create a roux.
Poultry seasoning – poultry seasoning is a blend of various herbs. If you can’t find poultry seasoning, you can make your own.
Turkey or chicken broth – this is the base of the gravy/moisture inside the hand pies. If you’re skipping the meat, use vegetable broth instead.
Salt and pepper – be sure to season the turkey and the veggies.
Puff pastry – store-bought is fine. We prefer an all-butter crust (Trader Joe’s sells an all-butter puff pastry in the fall and winter, and many people love Dufour brand), but there are other, non-dairy options out there too.
Egg wash – brushing this onto the puff pastry makes it bake up shiny and golden. If you don’t eat eggs, you can use a plant-based alternative for liquid eggs.

Wooden cutting board showing diced onions, fennel, and potatoes. — *Diced potatoes, fennel, and onion*

How to Make these Turkey & Potato Hand Pies

Preheat your oven to 400°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil or butter in a large frying pan set over medium-high heat. Add the turkey and season with a pinch of salt and a couple turns of black pepper. Cook the turkey for 10 to 15 minutes until it’s cooked through, then remove it from the pan and set aside.
Add the vegetables to the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until they begin to soften, then add the turkey back to the pan and mix it with the vegetables.

Cook the potatoes, fennel, and onions
Add the cooked turkey to the veggies

Create a well in the center of the pan and add 2 tablespoons of butter to it. Melt the butter, then add the flour and mix it with the butter to make a roux. Toss the roux with the turkey and veggies and cook it for about 1 minute.
Stir in the broth and cook until it thickens up a little and coats the turkey and veggies, then remove from the heat.
Roll each thawed pastry sheet to a rectangle 10 by 12 inches in size, then cut each pastry sheet into 6 rectangles about 4×5 inches. You should have 24 rectangles total. Add a couple spoonfuls of turkey mixture to the center of 12 of the rectangles, then use the other 12 rectangles to top each of the filled ones, making sure that all of the filling is fully covered (you may need to stretch the top rectangles a bit). Press the edges of the puff pastry rectangles together with a fork, making individual rectangular pies.

Add turkey and veg mixture to half of the pastry rectangles.
Cover the filled rectangles with the rest of the pastry and crimp the edges together.

Cut a small slit into the top of each pie to make a vent so that the steam can escape while they’re baking. Brush each pie with egg wash.
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until each pie is golden and puffed. Serve warm.

Rachel and Emily’s Tips for Turkey Hand Pies

Rachel and Emily from Cooking with Conks

If you have a pastry sheet that you rolled out larger than another, use the larger sheet one for the tops of the pies. The tops have to be stretched over the domed filling, so it’s helpful if the top pastry rectangles are slightly larger than the bottoms.

Assemble the pies on a surface first, then move them to the baking sheet.
If you’re going to freeze any of them before baking them, don’t egg wash them first. Egg wash them only when you’re ready to bake them.
If you have extra filling leftover, mix it with some gravy and use it on mashed potatoes, or top the pies with it.

Serving Suggestions

These pies are a great main dish for any meal. You can even whip up a batch of our basic gravy with some of the extra flour, butter, broth, and spices that you used in these hand pies for no additional cost. Serve these pies with our simple roasted broccoli with lemon and our mashed potatoes with sour cream and you’ve got yourself a full Thanksgiving meal.

Storage and Freezing Instructions

Leftover turkey hand pies can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 to 5 days. Reheat them in the oven at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes or until they’re warmed through. You can also reheat them in the airfryer.

This recipe makes a lot of hand pies, so if you aren’t serving them to a crowd, you can freeze any that you don’t want to eat right away. To make these freezer-ready, fill and assemble the pies but don’t egg wash them. Instead, just wrap each individual pie in plastic wrap and place them all in a freezer safe bag in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat them, remove the pies from the freezer, thaw them slightly for about 20 to 30 minutes, then egg wash them and bake them for 20-25 min at 400°F.

FAQs: Turkey Hand Pies

Of course! It’s pretty labor intensive so we usually buy it, but it’s definitely more cost effective to make your own, so go for it!

If you don’t like turkey or don’t eat meat, you can totally change these up! Pick a different meat, if you want. Or use tofu instead of turkey and switch out the turkey or chicken broth for veggie broth. Or use mushrooms instead of meat.

Yes, you definitely could do that. If you use pizza dough, just fold it up like a calzone and skip the egg wash and brush the dough with olive oil instead (or you could skip that too). If you choose to use no dough at all, you could just make the filling and mix it in with some gravy and use it to top mashed potatoes.

Blue and white platter full of a pile of golden puff pastry turkey hand pies.

Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey, 93% lean
1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for turkey (plus more if needed) if using table salt, you can use a little less
1 tbsp olive oil or butter for cooking the turkey
½ small onion, diced small (about 1.5 cups)
1 small fennel bulb, diced small (about 1.5 cups)
1 small to medium Yukon gold potato, diced small (about 1.5 cups)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning
1 cup turkey or chicken broth
1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for veggies (plus more if needed) if using table salt, you can use a little less
Couple turns of black pepper, divided
4 sheets puff-pastry thawed according to package instructions
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a splash of water)

Instructions

Make the Filling

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil or butter in a large frying pan set over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and season with 1/2 tsp of salt and a couple turns of black pepper. Cook the turkey for 10 to 15 minutes, breaking it up as it cooks, until it’s cooked through and no longer pink. Remove it from the pan and set it aside.
1 pound ground turkey, 93% lean, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for turkey (plus more if needed), 1 tbsp olive oil or butter, Couple turns of black pepper, divided
To the same pan, add all of the vegetables and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until they begin to soften, then add the turkey back to the pan and mix it with the vegetables. Season the mixture with poultry seasoning and salt and pepper.
½ small onion, diced small, 1 small fennel bulb, diced small, 1 small to medium Yukon gold potato, diced small, 1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, for veggies (plus more if needed), Couple turns of black pepper, divided
Push the turkey and veggies away from the middle of the pan, creating a well or a space in the center. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to that well. Melt the butter, then add the flour and mix it with the butter to make a roux, or paste made with fat and flour that is used to thicken sauces.
2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour
Mix the roux with the turkey and veggies. Cook it for about 1 minute to cook out the raw flavor of the flour.
Stir in the broth, making a little gravy to coat the turkey and vegetables. (Note: it won’t be super saucy.) Once the gravy is thick and coats everything in the pan, remove from heat.
1 cup turkey or chicken broth

Assemble and Bake the Hand Pies

Roll each thawed pastry sheet to a rectangle 10 by 12 inches in size, then cut each pastry sheet into 6 rectangles about 4×5 inches. You should have 24 rectangles total.
4 sheets puff-pastry
Add a couple spoonfuls of turkey mixture to the center of 12 of the rectangles, then use the other 12 rectangles to top each of the filled ones, making sure that all of the filling is fully covered (you may need to stretch the top rectangles a bit). Press the edges of the puff pastry rectangles together with a fork, making individual rectangular pies.
Cut a small slit into the top of each pie to make a vent so that the steam can escape while they’re baking. Brush each pie with egg wash.
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a splash of water)
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until each pie is golden and puffed. Serve warm.

Notes

TIPS

If you have a pastry sheet that you rolled out larger than another, use the larger sheet one for the tops of the pies. The tops have to be stretched over the domed filling, so it’s helpful if the top pastry rectangles are slightly larger than the bottoms.
Assemble the pies on a surface first, then move them to the baking sheet.
If you have extra filling leftover, mix it with some gravy and use it on mashed potatoes, or top the pies with it.

FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS

Fill and assemble the pies but don’t egg wash them. Wrap each individual pie in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer safe bag or container in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat them, remove them from the freezer, egg wash them, and bake them for 20-25 min at 400°F.

Final Thoughts

These turkey hand pies are a great, lower stress option for your holiday gatherings this year. They’re incredibly flaky and full of a delicious turkey, potato, and vegetable filling. This recipe makes 12 individual hand pies, so you can feed a crowd or freeze them to enjoy later. If you love these pies, feel free to leave us a review below, and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram!