These cute Thanksgiving leftover hand pies are an easy way to use up your holiday leftovers! Combine turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy along with whatever else you like in pie dough. These hand pies cook up in minutes in an air fryer and are a delicious portable dinner.
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Once the Thanksgiving table is cleared and dishes are washed every family who hosted the holiday dinner faces the same dilemma, “What do I do with all this leftover Thanksgiving food?”.
You can use up your turkey in a quick soup like Instant Pot Turkey Soup or make a Leftover Turkey Pot Pie. But these Thanksgiving hand pies are a great way to make sure you don’t waste food while doing very little actual cooking.
And they are much more fun to eat than a sandwich or a bowl of soup. Serve these Thanksgiving leftover hand pies with gravy or cranberry sauce for dipping, and tell your kids they are Thanksgiving Hot Pockets!
Ingredients for Thanksgiving Leftover Hand Pies
One of my favorite things about these Thanksgiving leftover hand pies is that they use up everything! Not just turkey, but stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, whatever you want can be baked into these hand pies.
For these pictures I filled my hand pies with mashed sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy. In deference to my children I left out the brussels sprouts and green beans but you could easily include them.
The other key ingredient is pie crust. Since this is supposed to be a quick and easy meal I used a pre-made refrigerator pie crust. Alternatively you could whip up some extra homemade pie crust while you are baking pies and save it for making hand pies.
How to Make Thanksgiving Hand Pies
1. Cut the Pie Crust
The first step is to unroll the refrigerated pie crust and cut it into circles. I flip over a Corelle cereal bowl and cut around it with a sharp knife to make the circles. This gives me 6 inch round circles.
You could also use a dough press designed for making empanadas. Biscuit cutters usually only go up to 4 inches diameter, which is a little too small for me. I want to be able to get a decent amount of filling into my hand pies.
You can cut three 6 inch circles from each refrigerator pie crust, for a total of six from the entire package. You will have to re-roll the crust once or twice as you cut the circles out.
I used the scraps of extra pie dough to cut a few fall leaves using my decorative fall leaf stampers. This tiny bit of extra effort makes the hand pies look more festive.
2. Fill the Hand Pies with Thanksgiving Leftovers
It is imperative not to overfill the hand pies or they will not close tightly and filling will ooze out and make a big mess. A six inch crust can hold about 3 Tablespoons of filling or 9 teaspoons. A 4 inch crust can hold about 2 Tablespoons of filling, which is the same as 6 teaspoons.
For the 6 inch circles start by spreading about 2 teaspoons of mashed sweet potatoes on each round. Then top that off with 3 teaspoons of stuffing and 2 teaspoons of turkey. Finally add 1 teaspoon of cranberry sauce.
I poured just a teaspoon of gravy onto each hand pie, to make sure the filling stayed moist. You can adjust the filling amounts to your taste, just don’t put more than about 3 Tablespoons total into each six inch hand pie.
3. Seal the Thanksgiving Leftover Hand Pies
To seal the hand pies for baking use your fingers to run a little bit of water around the edge of the dough. Then fold the dough over to cover the filling and use a fork to crimp the edges tightly.
In a small bowl whisk the egg until it is well mixed. Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the turnovers with the egg wash. Add the fall leaves on top if using and brush them with the egg also. The egg will help the hand pies brown nicely as they cook.
4. Air Fry the Hand Pies
Set the air fryer at 375 F and cook the hand pies for 8 minutes, until the tops are nicely brown. Using the air fryer makes it possible to cook these hand pies very quickly.
Since the air fryer works by circulating air don’t crowd the air fryer basket and make sure there is space between the hand pies. My Omorc air fryer was able to fit three hand pies at a time without crowding.
But you could also cook the hand pies in the oven, they just would need a bit more time to bake. See the recipe card for details
What to Serve With Thanksgiving Hand Pies
I like to serve these with cranberry sauce and turkey gravy. These are excellent food for dipping or pouring gravy over. The crisp pie crust is delicious with the warm and creamy gravy.
Thanksgiving Leftover Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 1 box refrigerator pie crust
- 1/2 cup leftover mashed sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes
- 1 cup leftover stuffing
- 1 cup leftover turkey
- 1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce
- 1/2 cup leftover gravy
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Roll out the pie crust. Use a 6 inch cereal bowl or dough press to make 6 inch circles. Gather the scraps and re-roll the dough to get a total of 6 circles from the two pie crusts.1 box refrigerator pie crust
- Use decorative cookie cutters with the remain scraps to make leave if desired.
- On each circle spread out 2 teaspoons of mashed sweet potatoes. Then top that off with 3 teaspoons of stuffing and 2 teaspoons of turkey. Finally add 1 teaspoon of cranberry sauce and 1 teaspoon of gravy to each circle.1/2 cup leftover mashed sweet potatoes, 1 cup leftover stuffing, 1 cup leftover turkey, 1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce, 1/2 cup leftover gravy
- Do not put more than 3 Tablespoons (9 teaspoons) of filling in each circle.
- Use your fingers to run water around the edge of each circle. Fold it in half and crimp it closed tightly with a fork.
- Put the egg in a bowl and mix with a fork. Use a pastry brush to coat the outside of the hand pies. Use the egg to stick on any decorative designs.1 egg
- Cook at 375 F in an air fryer for 8 minutes. Do not crowd the hand pies in the air fryer and make multiple batches if necessary.
- If baking in the oven bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.
- Bake until nicely brown. Serve with leftover cranberry sauce and gravy.
Notes
- Use my easy pie crust recipe for a delicious homemade crust.
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Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.