Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

1) I only had a couple of tiny baby carrots, so I substituted peeled and chopped broccoli stems for the remainder of the carrots. Since the turkey was already cooked, I cooked up the onion, carrot, and broccoli mixture in the butter and olive oil, and then sprinkled on about three tablespoons of flour once they were softened.

2) Rather than the 4 cups of chicken stock called for in the recipe, I used the cup or so of jellied turkey pan juices that I'd saved and skimmed the fat off of, plus about 1/4 cup of water. Then, I poured in the whole 13.5 oz can of coconut milk, rather than just the half cup called for. As a consequence of the extra sweetness from more coconut milk, I omitted the brown sugar, and the result was plenty sweet (though not TOO sweet) without it.

3) My curry powder was a bit on the bland side, compared to what the recipe called for, so I sprinkled in some cayenne and white pepper, plus a bit of extra cinnamon, to perk it up.

4) I didn't have fresh cilantro, but I always add dried parsley and a LOT of dried basil to my chicken pot pie recipes, so I used those two ingredients instead.

5) In addition to 2 cups or a little more of diced turkey breast, I threw in a generous cup or more of frozen peas.

6) I don't have chutney on hand, so I used some of my homemade mincemeat from yesterday's cooking to add that fruity/spicy note instead.

7) Rather than waste two egg whites just to have something to glaze the piecrust with, I followed my normal, lazy procedure of pouring about a tablespoon of milk in my palm and then quickly and very gently rubbing that over the top of the crust. (The proteins in milk work almost as well as those in egg for making the crust brown nicely, though you may not get quite such a shiny finish.)

8) I had the oven set at 425 degrees F, instead of 450, because the lower temp is the one I normally bake my chicken pies at, and even though the contents of the pie are fully cooked I didn't want to risk burning the crust before the filling was nice and bubbly.

9) Instead of several large-ish ramekins, I made one big ten-inch pie in a glass pie plate and then used up the rest of the filling in a small-ish ceramic ramekin topped with about 1/3 of the remaining pre-rolled piecrust in the box.