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This homemade Savory Meat Pie recipe is a hearty dish that can easily be prepared ahead of time!
Tender potatoes, onions, and seasoned ground meat are all nestled in a buttery, flaky crust for a truly comforting meal.
What is Meat Pie?
A meat pie can come in many variations depending on location including a shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, kidney pie, or a “pasty”.
This Canadian meat pie, known as tourtiere, is made with pork, beef, or often veal and while it’s a favorite year-round – we especially enjoy it at Christmas time! It has some warm spices, including a hint of allspice and cloves, that give its distinctive flavor. This version doesn’t contain vegetables; however, finely diced carrots or mushroomed can be added.
Ingredients for Meat Pie
Crust – For this recipe, you can use a store-bought double pie crust or a homemade pastry crust.
Meat – I use a combination of ground beef and pork. Veal is a common addition as well, feel free to use all pork, all beef, or whatever you have on hand!
Spices – Both savory and warm spices give this meat pie its traditional flavor.
Potatoes – Mashed potatoes are key in this recipe as they help with consistency and make the filling hold together.
How to Make Meat Pie
Making a homemade meat pie is easy.
- Peel and dice a potato and set it in water to boil. Mash per the recipe below.
- Meanwhile, brown the meat with garlic and onion. Stir in the mashed potato, spices, and broth.
- Place the meat mixture in a pie crust and bake until golden brown.
Serve with a slice of homemade garlic bread and a fresh tossed salad or cucumber tomato salad for a yummy meal!
Tips for the Best Meat Pie
- To save time, use a prepared pie crust and premake the filling. Or premake the entire pie and freeze (before baking) for later.
- To avoid bursting at the seams, cut slits into the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
- Let the pie rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the juices to reabsorb and the pie to hold its shape better when sliced and served.
Leftovers
To Store: The best way to store a meat pie is to keep it in the pie pan, cover with foil, and store it in the refrigerator.
To Reheat: Scoop a portion onto a microwave-safe plate and heat until piping hot.
To Freeze: Cover it completely and label it with the date. Bake from frozen in the oven for up to an hour and 30 minutes or until it’s bubbly and the crust is browned.
Savory Pie Recipes
Did you enjoy this savory Tourtiere? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Tourtiere (Meat Pie)
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground pork
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 large russet potato peeled & cubed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup beef broth or beef stock
- 1-2 tablespoons bread crumbs if needed
- 1 double pie crust 9 inch
Instructions
- Bring potato cubes to a boil in salted water. Simmer for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well and mash.
- While potatoes are cooking, brown ground beef, pork, onion, and garlic until no pink remains using a spoon to break it up. Add remaining ingredients (including mashed potatoes) except for pie crust and bread crumbs.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until thickened. Add 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs to help the mixture hold together if needed. Cool for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Line a deep-dish pie plate with the dough and add the meat pie filling.
- Add top crust and seal edges with a fork or your fingers. Add a few slits to allow steam to escape. If desired, whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the egg wash over the crust.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until bubbly and crust is golden.
Notes
- To save time use a prepared pie crust and premake the filling. Or premake the entire pie and freeze (before baking) for later! Then just bake as directed.
- To avoid bursting at the seams, cut slits into the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
- Let the pie sit for 10-15 minutes to allow the juices to reabsorb and the pie to better hold its shape when sliced and served
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Dinner, Entree, Main Course
Cuisine American, French© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
This was absolutely delicious and incredibly easy to make! The spice blend was wonderful! Followed the recipe to a T… the only thing I did differently was, once I set the mixture aside to cool for 20 minutes, I added a heaping cup of frozen peas and carrots, for some extra veg and a little pop of color. This recipe is a keeper!!
I love this recipe! I use 1lb of ground beef instead of a half and add chopped up spinach. I have to increase the beef broth to 1cup and a little more potato but my family and I LOVES this recipe. I also like upping the spices for a little more of a yummy flavor punch. Happy I found this!
Can I use just ground beef?
Yes you can use all ground beef in this recipe. Enjoy Ashley!
Hi There! Thanks for the recipe :) If I were to make the entire pie and freeze it, would you suggest baking it from frozen when we want to eat it? If so, how long and at what temp do you recommend? Thanks!
Hi Jenny, yes this pie can be baked from frozen. Bake from frozen in the oven at 425°F up to an hour and 30 minutes or until it’s bubbly and the crust is browned.
Do I need to blind bake the bottom pie crust before adding the filling?
Hi Brigitte, we didn’t blind bake the crust for this recipe and still had great results. If you decide to blind bake the crust we would love to hear how it turns out.
I blind baked the bottom crust for 10 minutes at 350. I let it cool slightly before adding the meat mixture. Then I added the top crust and pinched it to the bottom crust. Make sure to add some slits in the top crust before baking. I used 400 vs 425 for the oven temp and baked for 45 minutes. It was awesome!
It was delicious! My husband said it was what he remembers having from his mother and grandmother!
So happy this was exactly like he remembered, Mary!
This recipe is similar to the French Canadian recipe in Maine we use pork simmered with onion sage allspice poultry seasoning salt and pepper we simmer for 1 hour add flour one large potato mashed before adding to make mixture put in a pie crust and bake it is served after midnight mass it is a Christmas tradition
if you have that French Canadian recipe, any chance you could share it with me? I used to live in Canada and miss much of what we used to have in the way of food up there. I only recently learned how to make pea meal bacon for example. Oh, and butter tarts.
My mom always used 3 pounds of lean pork and 3 pounds of lean beef cut into cubes, trim excess fat. 2 cubed potatoes, 1 small onion diced. 2-3 bay leaves and some nutmeg, s&p to taste, simmered together for 6-7 hours. This made 3 pies. It was served with brown gravy and cranberries. It was their Christmas Eve meal after midnight mass. It came from her French Canadian aunt’s family.
Hi! Clarifying question before I make this dish tonight. In step 3, what exactly are we boiling? I reread the recipe and article, but it isn’t clear what is boiled in step three. Thank you in advance!
The browned meat, onion, spices and 1/2 cup of beef broth. It doesn’t have to boil long as there isn’t much broth.
I don’t understand what you mean about the potatoes. So do you…
• boil then put them in with the meat,onions, garlic, etc
Or
•mash them then put them in
Or
•mash them with butter and milk then put them with everything
That part is never clarified in the recipe.
The potatoes are boiled in step one and once cooked mash them, set them aside.
Brown the meat and then add the remaining ingredients (except breadcrumbs) including the potatoes you mashed in step 1. (There is a photo in the post showing this step).
No additional butter or milk are needed, the potatoes help bind the ingredients in the crust.
Seriously? Forty-five to 55 min @ 425F? The entire crust was almost burned after 45 min.
Hi J, If you are finding the crust is browning quickly you can tent it with tin foil to prevent it from overcooking. Hope that helps!
i love this recipe, but I didn’t like adding sage, will definitely omit it. everyone agrees. also I baked it for 35 minutes, was perfect.
I thought this seemed like a long time too! I put my pie in the oven at 425 degrees as indicated, and set the timer for 30 minutes. I checked after 25 minutes and the edges of my crust were already burned. The meat filling was piping hot and cooked through after 25 minutes.
If you are finding the crust is browning quickly you can tent it with tin foil to prevent it from overcooking. Hope that helps!
Made this last night. Loved the flavor. But i went a different direction, i used garlic mashed potatos to “lather” into the pork and beef and as far as the spices.. a little salt, pepper and then small thin layer or spots of medium heat salsa. It was DELISH!
So delicious, Travis! Thanks for sharing.
I made this Tourtiere Pie tonight for dinner, I cheated as I had a pre-made crust. It turned out awesome! Lovely flaky crust with a savoury filling. Husband was very impressed.
Glad you enjoyed it, Julie!
You never even mentioned when to put the spices In this recipe
Hi Sylver, in Step 2 we add the remaining ingredients which would include the spices. Hope that helps!
Looks great
Loved the mashed potatoes in this recipe.
They act as a thickening agent,yes?
I also added chopped carrots and celery.
I am confused with the methodology of this recipe. I added the 1/2 cup of broth,but there is no way this would come to a boil.
The broth is totally absorbed.
I must be missing something here.
Please let me know your thoughts
If the broth was absorbed, you could certainly cook it for less time. Mine has enough liquid to simmer for a little bit and thicken up.
I made this Tourtiere, (meat pie) and it was as delicious as it looked. I didn’t mash the potatoes but cut them into small cubes and combined them with the meat. I left out the dried Thyme because I don’t really like the flavor, I used Rosemary crushed instead. It is just my husband and myself to eat all of this, so we ate it for a couple of meals plus some lunches. I will make this again.
I bet rosemary was great in this Dee!
Dee, this is exactly as we did. I used small cubed potatoes for the 2 of us. Happy holidays!
Could I just use 1/2 lb. pork instead of 1 lb. That is what I have on hand?
Yes, that will work fine. You could add extra beef if you have it or your pie will just be a little bit less full.
Great recipe. I personally feel it needs more then half a cup of broth. The broth was completely absorbed and nothing was left boil. But, maybe that’s because I drained my beef. I’ll try it again with more broth.
Glad you are enjoying it, Becca! You will have to let us know how it turns out with more broth added.
I found the cloves to be very overpowering. Im cooking it now and will see how it goes
Mouth watering
Thanks Gef! We couldn’t agree more :)
Hi Holly..I know its difficult for you to promote various products..but PLEASE..what prepared /store bought crust do you personally favor?
I usually buy Pillsbury because I like that they’re not frozen, I find them to be flaky and I love that I can roll them a little if needed and place them into my own pie plates (so nobody can tell it’s not homemade ;) ).
Just a bit confused, here…You list 1 Russett potato in the ingredients, but refer to ‘potatoes’ in the directions…how big should the russett be and should there be more than 1 potato in the recipe?
Sorry for the confusion. You will use 1 potato (it doesn’t have to be a specific size, the purpose is to bind meat together somewhat). It is cut and cubed so I refer to the cubes as potatoes.
The potato is being used as a thickener as the author explained. If you use a russet, theyr3 pretty uniform in size, or use two, but after u mash it it goes into the mixture with the other stuff. You’ll never find the potato if u mash it well. If I want potato in the meat, then put two and just mash one. It’s a matter of preference that’s why a size for potato isn’t given. Referring to it as potatoes is a manner of speech. If I was adding mashed potatoes to my fish, I’d say potatoes to.
That looks so good and sounds easy enough.