Tuna Pot Pie

We have a very large amount of tuna. I get four cans every month from WIC, but we don't use tuna quite that often. I've been trying to use tuna more often, because we have, like, 15 cans of the stuff. Tonight's dinner was inspired by my quest to use the tuna. I looked up "tuna" in my Betty Crocker cookbook and was led to a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, with a tuna variation. Score! I love pot pie! I was additionally motivated to make this because I was running low on my calories for the day, and could definitely fit in something as calorie-rich as a pot pie. This ended up being about 380 calories per 1/8 slice. I had two.

I adjusted all the ingredient amounts because the original recipe called for a 9-inch square pan and I wanted to use my 9-inch round pie dish, which of course has a different volume.


Tuna Pot Pie
5 oz. frozen peas
1/2 can sliced carrots, drained (the recipe originally called for a bag of frozen peas and carrots, but I believe in the philosophy that you should just use what you've got)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 can (6 oz.) tuna, drained
Pastry for 9-inch double-crust pie

Rinse frozen peas in cold water to separate; drain.

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt, and pepper. cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in tuna, peas, and carrots; remove from heat (During the steps in this paragraph I really appreciated the wisdom of pre-measuring your ingredients. There's so many things to add all at the same time, and it really helps to have it all ready to go beforehand).

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Make pastry. Roll half of the pastry into a 12-inch circle; ease into ungreased 9-inch pie dish. Pour tuna mixture into pastry-lined pan.

Roll out remaining pastry. Cut designs or slits into crust (I chose to do a fish, because I like the design to match what's inside the crust. Isn't it cute?). Place crust over tuna mixture; trim, seal, and flute edges.


Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown. I had to cover the edges with foil after about 25 minutes because they were browning too quickly. You could cover them before baking, and uncover them about halfway through the baking time. It works either way.

To make this into a chicken pie, substitute 2 cups cut-up cooked chicken for the canned tuna.

My pie didn't really hold together well. The crust was great, but the filling was just very wet. Next time, we'll let the pie set for about 20-30 minutes to allow the sauce to solidify a bit. Or I'll just reduce the milk and chicken broth. Anyway, despite being all fall-apart-y, this pie tasted fabulous!