Venison Pot Pie Recipe with Homemade Pie Crust
Shut your pie hole with the best ever venison pot pie! Homemade venison pot pie is actually easy to make, and tastes A LOT better than the pre-packaged frozen pot pie versions. Discover nature and its taste, and give it a try!
Ingredients for the Wild Game Meat Pot Pie Filling:
- Ground venison: Enjoy the challenge of finding petitely diced venison in your stew, or opt for a roast or stew meat for a twist.
- Beef broth: A beefy boost to elevate your venison stew to new heights.
- Onion: Prepare for a tearful chopping experience as you add this essential ingredient.
- Mixed vegetables (like carrots, peas, green beans, diced potatoes): Embrace variety by throwing in a mix of colorful veggies for a hearty stew.
- Tomato paste: A dollop of concentrated tomato goodness to enrich the flavors of your stew.
- Garlic: Add aromatic depth and keep those pesky vampires at bay.
- Soy sauce: A surprising fusion of Asian flavors with traditional venison stew.
- Worcestershire sauce: Elevate your stew with this flavorful ingredient that’s a tongue-twister to pronounce.
- Flour: Thicken your stew for a hearty, comforting meal that sticks to your ribs.
- Thyme: Infuse your stew with a touch of herbal sophistication.
- Salt and pepper: Season generously to banish blandness and elevate the flavors of your stew.
- Red wine (optional): Add a touch of sophistication and complexity to your stew, or simply enjoy a glass while you cook.
Homemade Pie Crust Ingredients:
- Flour: The foundation of your pie crust, providing structure and texture to your delicious creation.
- Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavors in your pie crust, balancing the sweetness of the filling.
- Butter: Rich and flavorful, butter adds a buttery richness and flakiness to your pie crust that is simply irresistible.
- Water: The essential element that brings all the ingredients together, helping to bind the dough and create a perfect, workable consistency for your pie crust.
How to Make the Best Homemade Pie Crust:
While some folks might swear by their stand mixer, I’ll shut my pie hole and let my trusty food processor do the talking. It slices through that cold butter like a hot knife through butter (pun intended, of course). And let’s not forget the pièce de résistance – ice water! Nothing says “I’m serious about my pie game” like keeping your ingredients colder than your ex’s heart. If you’re feeling extra ambitious and decide to double up on the pie fun, go ahead and bust out the stand mixer. Just don’t blame me when you realize it’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole – efficient, but not quite as satisfying.
The secret to a great pie crust is to blind bake (or pre-bake) the crust at 425 degrees fahrenheit for 15 minutes before filling. Venison meat pies are filled with liquids which make the bottom crust soggy. And let’s face it, no one wants a soggy bottom crust – it’s like wearing wet socks, but for your pie. So even though blind baking the crust is an extra step, it will prevent sogginess while creating a deliciously flaky crust. Although it is not absolutely necessary, using pie weights (Amazon affiliate link) will prevent the crust from settling or the crust sides from losing a bit of height, while blind baking (the settling causes the crust to hold less pie filling). A second pie pan (especially a heavier glass pie pan) placed on top of the prepped crust works well as a pie weight. If you’re feeling really thrifty, just grab a cup of rice, beans, or popcorn kernels and voila – instant pie weight! Just make sure to place parchment paper underneath for easy removal. Don’t get too carried away with blind baking, because there is no need to blind bake the separate top crust portion of the pie crust. We wouldn’t want to rob it of its chance to see the delicious pie-filling!
Once your pie is blind baked, filled, and topped with another layer of delicious crust, its time to wait for that golden moment when your pie emerges from the oven, ready to be devoured. A pie in a standard size pie pan (9-inch) takes about 40 minutes to bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees fahrenheit. (This pie crust recipe also tastes great in other pies like apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.) Don’t stress too much about the internal temp, the meat in this recipe is already cooked, so just keep an eye on the crust. When the crust is golden brown, the pot pie will be done. Use a pie shield (Amazon affiliate link) to protect the crust edges from burning.
How to Make the Meat Filling for Pies:
Now on to the age-old quest to turn wild game into something that resembles what we’re used to from the grocery store. Cooking venison in beef broth and seasoning is the secret weapon for making wild game taste more like traditionally farmed beef. If your wild game meat still has a “gamey” flavor, just throw more seasoning at it – because clearly, the solution to all of life’s problems is more seasoning. The gamey flavor largely depends on the animal’s main food supply. A Rocky Mountain bull elk that lives in an area with limited vegetation (usually because of drought, fire, or other nature events), and is harvested during the rut season will have more of a gamey flavor than a young doe living in the midwest surrounded by cornfields and lush green pastures. This recipe was developed for does in the midwest, with less seasoning because of their diet: an abundance of corn, beans, and hay pastures for them to eat.
Venison Pot Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
Meat Filling
- 2 pounds ground venison or stew meat
- ¼ cup minced onion (or ½ teaspoon onion powder per 1x)
- 4 cloves minced garlic (or ½ teaspoon garlic powder per 1x)
- 2 cups mixed veggies (diced carrots, peas, etc)
- 2 cups beef broth
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- ½ cup red wine (optional)
Pie Crust
- 1 ¼ cup flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 10 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
- 2-4 Tbsp ice water
Instructions
- Defrost meat & preheat oven2 pounds ground venison or stew meat
- While meat is defrosting, prep pie crust
Homemade Pie Crust
- Add flour, salt, and sliced chunks of cold butter to food processor.1 ¼ cup flour, ¼ tsp salt, 10 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
- Pulse food processor until mix forms lima bean size pieces.
- Slowly add ice cold water, 1 Tbsp at a time until dough comes together. Dough should be moist, but not wet.2-4 Tbsp ice water
- Dust clean countertop with flour, and roll pie crust out flat.
- Place crust into pan, and shape, cutting excess off edges for pie crust top.
- Blind bake pie crust (before filling) with pie weights @ 425° F for 15 minutes, then remove parchment paper and pie weights and bake an addition 5 minutes. (For pie weights, you can use parchment paper and 2nd pie pan, or parchment paper with 1 cup of dry rice or beans)
Meat Filling
- While pie crust is blind baking, cook meat, onions, and garlic in dutch oven (or large pot)2 pounds ground venison or stew meat, ¼ cup minced onion, 4 cloves minced garlic
- Once meat is cooked, add optional red wine, and mixed veggies. If adding wine, cook until evaporated.2 cups mixed veggies (diced carrots, peas, etc), ½ cup red wine
- Add flour to meat and veggies, stirring mixture to evenly coat with flour.3 Tbsp flour
- Add beef broth, soy sauce, worcestershire, and tomato paste, and stir.2 cups beef broth, 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- Simmer until meat mixture thickens. (About 5 minutes)
- Fill pie crust with meat mixture, and top with pie crust top. Cut at least one slit into top of pie crust.
- Bake at 400° for about 30 minutes, until pie crust top turns golden brown.
- Enjoy!
- If you like this recipe, please comment and rate below. Thank you!
Nutrition
Venison Pot Pie Ingredient Substitutions:
If you don’t have any deer meat left, feel free to use ground beef, stew meat, chicken (just swap the beef broth for chicken broth), turkey, diced pork roast, or any other nuisance species. This casserole dish recipe is very versatile!
Our Other Venison Recipes:
Made this for supper, and it turned out delicious!
I doubled the batch, and put one in the freezer. Turned out great, so hopefully the frozen one will also cook well.
Pot pie was good and the crust was delicious.
My first pie and it turned out wonderfully! Thank you!