Wild Turkey Pot Pie

I'm sure most of you know by now that my hubby is an avid hunter. As such, over our married years, I have learned how to cook with a variety of types of wild game. Most often, we eat venison as our red meat and so when I post a recipe that calls for beef, you can assume it was cooked in my home with venison.

This spring, the dude harvested his first wild turkey of his hunting career. Because it was the first one, I didn't really know what to do with it. You see, wild turkey differs from domestic turkeys in that it is much much tougher so you can't just cook it the same as you would cook a normal turkey.

The dude cook some of it by breading with a bread crumb/herb/parm coating and fried it like chicken nuggets. I wasn't too pumped about it. They were dry and somewhat tasteless and well, fried in oil. Not my ideal meal.

With the rest of the turkey, I decided to try to tenderize it a bit by cooking it in the slow cooker, covered with broth. This helped a bit, but the meat still wasn't 'fall off the bone' like it is when you normally cook meat in the slow cooker.

So, I have been trying to find recipes to use the pre-cooked turkey that would help with the toughness.

One of the recipes I tried was a pot pie which was delicious. The veggies and the gravy base really worked well to help make the turkey taste much much much more tender than it would have on its own. The recipe I used is similar to one I have made in the past using wild duck (see, I told you we are wild game eaters around here), but I made a few changes this time. Overall, we were very impressed with the results as was our company! (Don't worry - if I have you over, I promise I will not feed you wild game if you unaware!)

This recipe works really well to tenderize the wild game but would also be fine for domestic turkey as well, I would assume.

Wild Turkey Pot Pie
2 cups potato, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup frozen green beans
2 cups cooked and chopped wild turkey
1 package turkey gravy mix (or make your own)
2 packages multi-grain crescent rolls**

**This pie would also be yummy with a traditional pie crust, I just used the crescent rolls because I had them. If you use a traditional pie crust, follow the same instructions except do not bother pre-boiling the veggies and increase cooking time to about 1 hr to cook the crust.

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Place carrots, potatoes, onion, and celery in a medium stock pot. Cover with water. Boil for 5-6 minutes until veggies are beginning to soften. Drain and remove from heat.

2. Meanwhile, prepare gravy following package instructions.

3. Grease a large pie plate and spread one package of crescent rolls along the bottom. Smoosh to blend them together.

4. Place chopped turkey in the crust.

5. Top with boiled veggies and frozen green beans.

6. Pour gravy over entire surface.

7. Form second package of crescent rolls over the pie to completely cover.

8. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes, cover and continue baking for 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 4-6 servings.