Game Bird Pot Pie
Let’s suppose that you take a look in the freezer and find that you have a few quail, some pheasant breasts, a dove or two, maybe a rabbit…not enough for individual meals, but if you throw it all into a pile, it’s dinner. You can make your own pastry dough. It’s actually pretty easy. I make it even easier by buying prepared puff pastry dough from the freezer section of my grocery store.
Game Bird Pot Pie
Ingredients
- 14 ounces basic pastry dough divided in half and rolled into 2 - 12-inch circles
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup each diced carrot celery and onion
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup half and half
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 2 1/2 cups game bird breast meat cut into 1-inch pieces
- 6 strips cooked bacon crumbled
- 1 1/2 cups artichoke hearts quartered
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 8 ounces shredded jack cheese
- 1 egg mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cold water
Instructions
- Heat butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add carrot, celery and onion and saute 3 - 4 minutes. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and cook for 2 - 3 minutes while stirring. Stir in a few tablespoons of half and half, stir and repeat until all of the half and half is incorporated into the pan and mixture is smooth. Stir in wine. Allow mixture to cool.
- Place one of the pastry circles in the bottom of a lightly greased pie pan. Combine meat, bacon, artichoke hearts, salt and pepper. Arrange mixture over pastry in pie pan. Sprinkle cheese over. Pour cooled sauce over and top with second pastry circle. Crimp top edges together, trim and discard excess pastry. Brush top with egg mixture.
- Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until top is golden brown and sauce is bubbley. Allow to cool for 3 - 4 minutes before serving.
I followed the recipe to the tee….it was delicious! However….it took MUCH longer to cook than the 30-35 mins listed above. I read and reread this recipe and wondered if the meat was intended to be cooked first before adding it to the pie? Maybe then it would cook in 35 mins but it required more than an hour…more like 80 mins. And the pie crust needed to be covered with aluminum foil to not burn. So dinner was served VERY late. But was tasty for those who didn’t fall sleep first. I’m not an experienced cook but my husband is and he was also perplexed by the limited cooking time listed here.
Thanks for the feedback. This one’s an oldie that I wrote a few decades ago and it might have been messed up in multiple web transfers. At first glance, I usually saute the chopped meat with the vegetables to give them a head start. I’ll review and correct as needed.