Savory Pies

Savory pies are crowd pleasing and offer a nice respite from the holiday onslaught of sweet treats.

To make them all you need is a good pie crust recipe (see recipe below) and the savory filling of your choice.

I recently made a chicken pot pie and a beef shepherd's pie but you could keep the filling vegetarian or even go the Irish route and use lamb.

When I use chicken, I like to buy breasts on the bone and boil them in seasoned water until they are tender and falling off the bone. Then all you have to do is pull the meat off the bone and it's ready to add to your filling.

When I use beef, I buy a lean cut of steak like sirloin or top round and cut it into small 1/2 inch pieces. Season the meat liberally with salt and coarse black pepper and saute it olive oil over high heat until it is well-browned. Pour in some red wine or beef stock to deglaze the pan and continue cooking on low heat until the meat is very tender. Then, you can add your vegetables.

The vegetables I like to use are onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato and peas. Once you have your meat and vegetables cooked together and seasoned (you can't go wrong with a little sage, rosemary and thyme), dissolve a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch in two cups of broth and add it to your filling. Bring this to a boil, stirring constantly until the liquid becomes a creamy sauce. Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool to room temperature before putting it in the pie crust.

Chicken pot pie filling.

Beef filling for a shepherd's pie.

Now for the crust:
You can make a double crust pot pie or you can make a traditional shepherd's pie by skipping the top crust and topping it with mashed potatoes.
If you make the full pie crust recipe below, you'll have enough dough for an extra big bottom crust if you make shepherd's pie. For Christmas Eve, I rolled the pie dough into a large enough rectangle to fill a  9x13 baking dish.

My finished Christmas Eve shepherd's pie.

Bake the savory pies in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 55 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. It's a good idea to bake the pies on a sheetpan covered with parchment paper or aluminum foil to keep the juices from spilling into your oven.

Basic Pie Crust
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball.