This Turkey Tourtiere (meat pie) recipe is a healthy spin on a French Canadian classic. The turkey keeps it lean, but the taste is decadent and savory. Perfect for Thanksgiving – or a comfort food fix in the dead of winter!
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Turkey tourtiere (meat pie)
When the weather gets cold and the days get shorter, nothing sounds better than hearty and comforting food. For some, it’s stews and soups and for me, it’s meat pie. French Canadian meat pie, or tourtiere (pronounced tour’-tyare) to be exact. It’s a family tradition and one of my favorite dishes of all time. Meat pie reminds me of home and makes me feel warm and cozy inside.
Whenever the Northern winds batter my windows, I always find comfort in a big slice of tourtiere topped with hot gravy and a pinch of black pepper. A mishmash of savory ground meat, mashed potatoes, cloves, cinnamon and all spice.
It’s fragrant, salty and hearty. It’s one of the best things I ever ate.
Making this meat pie isn’t complicated since I’m not making dough from scratch. I’m by no means a baker so anything that needs kneading scares me a little. Instead of taking the risk of creating something dense and chewy, I bought Betty Crocker’s pre-made pie crust mix .
All I had to do was add water to the mix and get rolling! I also wanted a leaner, less fatty version of meat pie so I’m using ground turkey for this recipe.
The result is just as good and moist as a classic tourtiere usually made with pork.
How you serve it is up to you but I personally can’t do tourtiere without gravy, especially if it’s served with french fries and green peas. Drooling!
What to Serve with Turkey Tourtiere
A perfect recipe for fall and winter celebrations, meat pie is a great addition to the dinner table. It’s festive and the spices are similar to the ones found in many Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes.
I love serving this tourtiere with vegetable sides such as:
- Stuffing flavored spaghetti squash
- Garlic parmesan spaghetti squash
- Broccoli salad with honey mustard dressing
- Whole roasted cauliflower head
- Slow cooker green bean casserole
For more French Canadian recipes:
Did you like this Turkey Tourtiere (meat pie) Recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share? Share your tips and recommendations in the comments section below!
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Turkey Tourtiere (Turkey Meat Pie)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 100 minutes
- Total Time: 110 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Pies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Description
This Turkey Tourtiere (meat pie) recipe is a spin on a French Canadian classic. I’m using turkey instead of pork to make this dish lighter. Perfect for Thanksgiving, it’s my favorite winter comfort food!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 large potato (peeled and cut into chunks)
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 medium onion (peeled and finely chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 5 cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon all spice
- 1 box Pie crust mix (11oz)
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Bring water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil for about 8 minutes, until they are tender. Strain and set aside.
- Using a deep pan or a large pot over high heat, add oil, garlic, onions and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, until onions and celery are tender.
- Add ground turkey and water. Break apart the meat and cook until cooked through (about 7 minutes).
- Add potatoes to the pan and mash as you are mixing them in.
- Add cloves, cinnamon and all spice and mix well.
- Add about 2 tsp kosher salt and mix well.
- Lower heat to low, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Check on the mixture, stirring every 10 minutes.
- Make your pie dough following the instructions on the package.
- Add ground turkey mix to the the pan with the dough, filling it to the top.
- Cover the pie with remaining dough and close by pressing edges together.
- Put on a sheet tray and bake for 50 minutes. Take the pie out halfway through the cooking process and brush egg on top. This will give the pie a nice golden brown color.
- Serve hot with gravy and freshly ground black pepper.
Notes
You can keep leftovers of this Turkey Tourtiere meat pie in the fridge for 3-5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 473
- Sugar: 1.8 g
- Sodium: 359.7 mg
- Fat: 21.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 53.4 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 20.6 g
- Cholesterol: 62.4 mg
Hi there what size pie tins do you recommend I have 10” would that work or should I change the cooking time?
Hi Rory! 9-inch is the recommended size for pie crust mix. If you are making the dough yourself, I would recommend making a little extra turkey filling 🙂
I was just wondering for a substitute for potatoes could cauliflower or other vegetable be used. There are some members of my family they don’t care for potatoes. Would the substitute be used in a 1:1 ratio?
Hi Rory, I would suggest using half of the potatoes and using cauliflower for the other half. The potatoes feel very light in this pie and aren’t overwhelming. So I think that by using half you would still retain the texture while still enjoying the pie, even if your family members don’t particularly care for potatoes. I would also make sure to cook and mash the cauliflower before adding it to get rid of excess moisture. Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
This is my go to recipe in the colder months. I love it
Within the instructions for this pie, after adding the cloves, cinnamon and all spice it says to “Add about 2 tsp kosher salt and mix well.” Wow, way too much salt. The first time I make any recipe I follow it to the letter and make adjustments for personal taste if I feel it necessary. In this recipe I could not imagine that much salt so I lowered it to 1 tsp and even then it was incredibly salty. Wonder if this was a mistake as the salt was not mentioned in the initial ingredients, but just salt and pepper which make sense.
Hi Mary, no this isn’t a mistake, I’ve been making this tourtiere with these measurements every year and have gotten no complaint on the salt level. I’m using kosher salt though which is coarser than regular salt. Or it could just be personal preferences 🙂
Tasty – even without the potato – no reason other than I didn’t have the potato on hand, added some dried cranberries to the mixture for a little sweet and savory, replaced the water with stock and white wine. Will certainly make this again, no leftovers here,
Wondering if ground cloves could be used instead of whole? Is so how much?
Hi Lynn! Yes you can use ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon should be good 🙂
I was born and raised in Montreal and was drawn to this recipe. I especially liked that it called for turkey. I made the tortiere for dinner tonight and it was delicious!
Merci beaucoup!
Merci Gloria!! 🙂
My family (including picky in-laws) had this on Christmas Eve and it was super. Should have remembered to cool the filling before dumping it into raw pie crusts but it still came out nicely and I’d say that the leftovers were even tastier a day or two later. We doubled the recipe and it made two substantial 9″ pies and using my own (gf) crust. Served with fruit chutney as a tangy counterpoint.
Thank you for sharing this Cate, I will have to try it with fruit chutney next time as it sounds like a heavenly combination!
I haven’t had tourtiere since my grandma passed, and can no longer eat pork, so I was delighted to find this recipe! Made it tonight and it was so good and brought back many memories of eating this pie at Sunday dinner. The only change I made was to halve the recipe but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. I had never heard of eating it with gravy, my family always ate it with apricot preserves and I would just eat it plain or with ketchup (when I was younger). We tried it tonight and it was very good. I will definitely be making this often and am so happy to have a taste of grandma’s French Canadian cooking
What a beautiful story! Thank you so much Noelle for sharing it with me 🙂
I have never seen gravy on a tortierre before. That’s interesting. Where I come from, it is served with a side of ‘sugar beans’…that is cooked navy beans baked in maple syrup. I cannot have wheat so I have adapted your recipe into a ‘cottage pie’/’shepherd’s pie. I bump the spices up because I like a stronger flavour and cover the meat mix with a topping of mashed sweet potatoes, butter and cinnamon. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
This looks delicious! Do you think it would work with a gluten free crust? Also, what do you recommend to replace the potato, I can’t due nightshades… Thanks.
Hi Carolyn! I don’t know about gluten-free crust since I’ve never used it so I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving a suggestion. For the potato substitution, I think celeriac or cauliflower would work well 🙂
Hi Theresa! Dumb question but did you top with sweet mashed potatoes before or after baking? (new at this pie thing!)
How large a pie plate? The recipe looks good but it doesn’t look like a lot of filling.
Hi Jim,
I usually get two 9″ size pies with this amount of filling 🙂
I’m not a fan of turkey. You said the original recipe was for pork. Is that ground pork? Can I substitute ground beef?
Hi Vickie! You can certainly substitute the turkey for beef, pork or chicken 🙂
I made this last week and making it again, very delicious! !!! 5 stars all the way!!!! I even had 4 other people try it, and they loved it as well..100 ☆
Yay! I’m so happy you loved it! It’s one of my favorite pies, thank you Rose! 🙂
A year later and making the turkey tourtiere again. Last year, I made for a friend who grew up eating the traditional pork recipe. He ended up loving it.
Caroline, I wouldn’t dream of using ketchup … (that would ruin in!). But I do love it with some gravy and a spoonful of cranberry relish on the side.
I also prefer it with gravy and guess what Laurie? I’m making it too as we speak and trying a vegetarian version as well! Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m making this for a second time for Thanksgiving. I hope it comes out as good as last year.
Me too Laurie! I just made two pies yesterday 🙂 Have you tried eating them with Ketchup? That’s the proper ‘Quebec’ way to eat them although I looove gravy too!
I just made this for Thanksgiving today. I am excited to revive an old French Canadian tradition from my Meme. 😉 Thanks for sharing.
It makes me so happy to hear you made it for Thanksgiving, I think it makes a perfect addition to the traditional dinner dishes. Enjoy!
Omg…this looks so hearty and awesome. Love it.
Will need to add this recipe to the Thanksgiving menu!