The fall season is all about comfort food and this easy salmon pot pie is the perfect comfort food. Dig into this steamy pot pie with a delicious flakey thyme crust!
This post is all about salmon pot pie. This favourite fall dish is stuffed with salmon, winter vegetables, and cheese. Then wrapped and baked in a flakey pie crust made with thyme.
Fall is here and we are all looking for some winter comforting food. Delicious Beer Gravy Honey Mustard Chicken is a great option, or maybe a rosemary beer bread with one of your favourite soups.
But I got a better option for you this season! How about a salmon pot pie stuffed with seasonal winter vegetables with salmon cubes, and covered with manchego cheese? Sounds amazing right? What makes it more phenomenal is that it is wrapped and baked in a flakey pie crust made with thyme.
Besides its delicious flavour, it is also a super easy recipe. It is easy to put together, and can be made ahead of time! I make all my pie crusts with a food processor for minimal clean-up. The salmon inside is made quickly over the stovetop and when you're ready, just whip everything together.
Salmon Pot Pie Flavour
Salmon is first marinated with soy sauce and sesame oil. This adds incredible depth of umami flavour to the salmon!
The seasonal fall vegetables we are using are potato, leek, garlic, onion, tomato and carrot. These ingredients are readily available and you'll have no trouble finding these ingredients during the colder season.
The flavour is very well put together and once you combine this with salmon and the thyme pie crust, uufff! You got yourself a marvellous and delicious pot pie to serve!
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Easy: it can be easily whipped up in no time! Pie dough is made with a food processor and the salmon stuffing is made on the stovetop. Then combined together and baked!
- Incredible flavour: salmon is steamed with milk, cheese, and vegetables wrapped in a flakey thyme pie crust. I mean, it is literally two of the best world coming together! the hardest part is waiting while the aroma fills up your whole house!
- Filling: salmon and vegetable stuffing, and thyme pot pie crust is very filling! Great for those cold winter days when you want something substantial in your belly while you watch the rain and snowfall.
- Can be made ahead: pot pies can be made ahead or even frozen when you're ready to use it! Great for those busy nights and need something quick for your family!
- Made with your local ingredients: the ingredients we need are something you know and not hard to find. No special trips are necessary!
- Economical ingredients: besides the salmon, everything else is economical ingredients you can find almost anywhere that sells vegetables.
Frozen or Fresh Salmon?
Fresh salmon is always best because fresh salmon has the unbeatable flavour frozen salmon doesn't have. However, the recipe I am using calls for frozen salmon because we are marinating the salmon with soy sauce.
Soy sauce is a strong flavouring agent so fresh and frozen salmon work for this recipe. Plus, the salmon is cut into cubes and steamed in a glorious pot of cheese, milk, and assorted vegetables. The salmon is going to come out flakey and soaked in lots of flavours.
Seasonal Vegetables
Winter finding some vegetables can be hard. And we are suffering through COVID times and high inflation. We need to keep things economical and available.
This is the glorious part of this recipe. A lot of the winter vegetables we need are something you can pick up at your corner grocery shop. Nothing special but just your typical winter vegetables like potato, leek, garlic, onion, tomato and carrot.
Thyme Pie Crust
For this pot pie, I am using a pie crust recipe. For my in-depth instruction and details on How To Make a Flakey Pie Crust, it will lay out some essential information that this post will not provide. It has all the information on why we use cold water, detailed information on how to put a pie dough together using a food processor, and so much more!
Guarantees you a flakey pie crust every time! And it has some foolproof professional tips as well!
From my super flakey pie crust recipe, we are just adding fresh thyme to the dough. Thyme is a great herb to accompany seafood, especially salmon! Not to mention it looks absolutely gorgeous as well!
We Love Dill with Our Salmon
This might comes with no surprise but we love adding fresh dill to our salmon. Fresh or dried dill works for this recipe. I think dill and salmon are always amazing together. If you haven't tried my Crispy Panko Crusted Baked Salmon then you must!
It's another baked salmon recipe with dill, lemon, mayonnaise and salmon. As you can see I have a theme with salmon, and that is I always have a hard time not adding dill! We are sprinkling dill at the top between the cheese and the top pie crust. The aroma, while everything steams, is very fragrant in the air. You can definitely smell the hint of dill while the pot pie is baking.
Fool-Proof Professional Tips
Pro Tip #1 - Cool everything before putting everything together
Many reasons to let everything cool before combining or even baking the pot pies. First, it is the sanitary reason. It's not good to put hot salmon stuffing onto a cold dough because it will melt all the butter cubes in the dough; ergo, the dough will lose the capability of baking up flakey crusts.
We also need to put the pie in the freezer before it goes into baking, and we know we should never put hot food in the fridge! So be patient, and let everything cool to room temperature before we combine everything together.
Pro Tip #2 - Freeze the pot pie in the freezer for at least 20 minutes before baking
Pie crusts love to be cold. When cold pie dough hits hot air, it creates airy and flakey crusts. For this reason, I suggest giving the pie a good freeze of 20 minutes or more before you put it in the hot oven.
Pro Tip #3 - crimping pie crust edge
Crimping the edges of a pie not only looks pretty but it also helps the pastry and filling stay in place when cooking.
Use the index finger of one hand to push the inner edge out while pinching the outer edge in with the thumb and index finger of the other hand. Repeat around the entire edge of the pie. The result is a dainty little scalloped edge that looks just like your grandma (or the corner bakery) used to make.
Pro Tip #4 - Let it cool slightly before cutting in
The hardest part is waiting for the pie to rest after it finishes baking. We don't like to cut into fresh hot pies because it is still cooking inside and when you cut in while it is hot, it might not be properly cooked and quickly dries the pie up by releasing all the steam and moisture.
Pro Tip #5 - cut holes at the top crust for ventilation
While the pie is baking, it is essential to have a hole in the crust for the steam to escape. I like to cut a hole in the middle of the pie. You can also poke a few holes around the crust with a fork.
Easy Salmon Pot Pie with Thyme Flakey Crust
Ingredients
salmon marinate
- 200 g fresh or frozen salmon cubed
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
pot pie filling
- 2 tbsp butter
- ½ large leek
- 2 garlic cloved diced
- ½ white onion chopped
- 3 carrots chopped
- 3 medium sized potato cubed
- 2 small tomato chopped
- 1 tsp chicken boulenise powder
- 1½ cup whole milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 tsp sea salt
- black pepper
- 2 cups gouda cheese grated
- 2 tbsp fresh dill or 1 tsp dried dill
- 1 tbsp butter, cold sliced thinly
thyme pie crust
- 3 fresh springs of thyme
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups lard
- ¾ cup cold water
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg
Instructions
Salmon Marinate
- Combine the salmon, soy sauce and sesame oil together. Mix well and let it marinate for 10 minutes.
Pot Pie Filling
- On medium heat in a large pot or pan, melt butter and sauté the chopped leeks, garlic, and white onions. 3 minutes.
- Add the carrot and potatoes. cook for 5 minutes.
- Toss the tomatoe in along with the chicken bouillon powder, milk, cream, salt, and pepper. Turn the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes with a lid. Turn off the heat with the lid off and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, put the thyme leafs, flour, and salt in the food processor. Pulse the flour mixture so it is well combined. Open the lid and ddd small chunk of lard into the food processor. Close the lid.
- Combine the cold water and vinegar together.
- Add half the cold water mixture in the food processor and pulse it 7 times. Slowly drizzle the rest of the water in to the food processor while you do quick pulses. Keep pulsing the mixture when the cold water runs out. When the dough starts to form and pull away. Take the lid off and divide the dough into two parts. Flatten the dough into a flat disk and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Putting everything together
- On a floured surface, pie dough, and sprinkle it with a little flour. Roll out any creases and roll it out just big enough to cover your pan.
- Add the salmon filling into the pie. Place thinly sliced cold butter on top of the filling. Then top it off with grated cheese and dill. Place the other rolled out pie dough over the top of the pan, folding up the corners. Cut a hole in the middle for venting.
- Place the pie in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Before you put the pie in the oven, brush the top of the pie with egg wash.
- Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 350°F, and bake 10 more minutes.
- Let it cool for at least 10-15 minutes before cutting into the pie.
