Subscribe
Rich, meaty steak and mushroom pot pies are the ultimate comfort food and perfect served with steamed vegetables for a perfect family meal.
This recipe has recently been updated, click here to view the new version.
It’s the 1st of August. How is it the 1st of August already? I say it every year and every year I feel like it’s going faster and faster. I sometimes feel overwhelmed at how quickly the years seem to be flying past me. When I was in school I was SO excited when the year’s would fly past because it would mean our December holidays were upon us, but now, I don’t know how I’m going to get everything done I still need to get done this year. But then, this is how I always feel and what doesn’t get done this year, always seems to get done the next year. It is frightening to think that my babies are turning 3 soon. Three! It feels like yesterday when I was lying on the bed watching them play in my tummy.
Anyway, on to the food. As my beautiful hometown, Pretoria, starts warming up during the day and the smell of Jasmine starts filling the air, I know my favourite season, Spring, is just around the corner. There are a lot of things that make me so happy that I have a permanent smile plastered on my face and my toes curl from utter joy, but Spring has to be pretty much at the top of that list. I love the warm days, cool evenings and watching the trees put on their bright green adornments. It means the season of braai-ing (barbecuing), salads and swimming is almost here.
But I still need comfort food every now and then and before my second favourite season, Winter, goes away for a while, I need to soak up as much comfort food as I can. After curries, warm pies are my absolute favourite Winter food and these pot pies are sheer perfection. The steak and mushroom stew is rich, meaty and flavourful. If you don’t want to use stewing steak (or chuck steak), you can use beef shin, oxtail or any other stewing beef you happen to have around. Just make sure you remove any bones before putting the mixture into the pie. Nothing worse than munching through a pie only to almost break your tooth on a bone half way through.
These pies don’t have pastry at the bottom (hence the name: Pot pie) but if you, like me, can never have enough pastry, feel free to put more pastry at the bottom of the baking dish. You can also make mini-pies like I did with my Beef Shin Pie. I served our pot pies with steamed vegetables but I think this would go so well with maple glazed carrots or a simple salad as well.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg stewing beef I used chuck steak cut into chunks, bone removed
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 carrots diced
- 2 celery sticks diced
- 250 g mushrooms sliced
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp each dried thyme dried rosemary and dried oregano (I like the earthiness of the dried herbs)
- 2 bay leaves
- 500 ml 2 cups strong beef stock (alternatively add a heaped tbsp bovril to 500ml water)
- 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 50ml milk
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 roll ready-made puff pastry rolled out slightly
- 1 egg beaten
Instructions
- For the filling, brown the beef in a large pot. Remove and set aside.
- In the same pot, fry the onion, carrots and celery sticks until soft and fragrant (about 10 minutes).
- Add the mushrooms and garlic and fry for 5 minutes before adding the paprika and herbs.
- Pour in the stock and add the browned beef back into the pot. Stir to combine everything and reduce the heat. Cover the pot and allow the stew to simmer gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.
- When the meat is really tender (when you press a piece with a spoon it should break apart), turn the heat up and pour in the cornflour mixture. Allow the sauce to simmer rapidly and thicken for about 10 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°c.
- Divide the beef and mushroom filling between 4-6 oven-proof dishes (depending on size).
- Cut the pastry into squares big enough to cover the dishes, it doesn't have to be perfect. Brush the rim of the dishes with some of the beaten egg then place the pastry on top and pinch the pastry onto the rim.
- Cut 2 slits into each pie to allow the steam to escape and brush with the rest of the beaten egg.
- Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked through and golden brown.
- Remove and serve with vegetables of your choice.
Steak and mushroom pot pie
can they be frozen
Yes, just freeze before baking the pastry.
Dear alida I don’t understand the weight for ingredients please list in ounces
You can use the conversion chart in my side bar to convert measurements. 🙂
This recipe is insanely delicious!! Made it as “pie” with crust on the bottom. So good. Thanks for sharing! Will definitely make this regularly.
Delicious! So glad you liked it. 🙂
This was fantastic! I made the filling last night in my Instant Pot pressure cooker. I cooked the filling for 20 minutes ( a fantastic time saver since we had a holiday festival in town). This morning, my son reheated the filling in the Instant Pot for 5 minutes, then thickened it and finished the recipe as written. So very tasty and a great comfort food meal on a chilly, snowy day.
So glad you liked it!
This sounds delicious. I’m concerned that if the veggies are cooked to soft and fragrant, the 1.5 to 2 hour simmer will obliterate them. Should they be removed and added back in.
I like the vegetables to be very soft but if you are concerned, you can totally remove them and put them back in just before baking the pie.
Sounds perfect. Love recipes like that this time of year. Thanks for sharing.
simon
I found your conversion chart disregard previous post btw I insist on top and bottom crust or it is not a pie just stew with a crust on top will cook mixture in slow cooker is that okay can’t wait to try it thanks for recipe.
Will not use puff pastry will make crust from scratch less of a cheat that way happy thanksgiving.
Home-made crust will be great with this!
As the poster had already noted (if you had read through)…..pot pies never have a bottom crust…hence the name “pot ” pie. If it had bottom crust as well it would be “steak and mushroom PIE”. Try leaving constructive comments.
What are the amounts in ounces and lbs do not. Understand ml
You can use my conversion chart here for any conversions needed: http://simply-delicious-food.com/conversion-chart/
Is corn flour the same as corn starch?
Yep, indeed!
Is cornflour the same thing as cornstarch?
Yep, indeed!
YUM! I am a South African living in Switzerland and between all that good cheese and chocolate, I really miss my pies! So I did this recipe for my Swiss husband to introduce him to my culinary background and he just loved it! Thanks for the recipe! It reminds me of home.
So glad you and your husband liked the pie Jessica! So jealous of all that good cheese and chocolate!
Hi Alida!
Found this recipe via Pinterest and it is AWESOME – and my husband loves, and before this recipe I never saw him eat mushrooms.
Anyway, I’m just prepping the recipe for tomorrow to do in the slow cooker all day and realized I don’t have beef stock in the pantry. Do you think a strong vegetable stock would suffice? With a dash of Worcesterchire sauce? Wasn’t a meat pie person til this Canuck visited Canada a spell. I’m happily reminded.
Thank you!
So glad you like this recipe Lindsay! Yep, the vegetable stock would be just perfect. x
We have a famous pub here in Kissimmee FL called Fox and Hounds and their signature British faire is a Steak and Mushroom Pie but they use a phyllo dough top. IT US TO DIE FOR.
This looks delicious
Thanks!
Oh my! This is the best dish EVER! Decided on a whim to try these pot pies for dinner. Such a huge hit with my husband. He began commenting on how delicious it smelled while I was stewing the beef mixture. Then he took his first bite of the pie. This recipe will be on my “frequent flyer” recipe list! Thank you for sharing.
So happy you liked it!
In the recipe it does call for smoked paprika but you could substitute with sweet or hot paprika if you’d prefer.
Does recipie call for paprika or smoked paprika ?
If I want to put pastry on the bottom do I have to bake it a little first or just pour the filling on it while raw?
You can if you want but I just usually put the pie on the lowest shelf in the oven so the heat hits that pastry first. That usually gets it nice and crisp. But if you’re worried, you can blind bake it before hand.
Yum! That sounds great!
I made the meat mixture yesterday, and since I was out of an ingredient for crust, I made a Shepard’s Pie.I topped the meat sauce with a layer of peas, then creamy, buttery mashed potatoes..fabulous!
lol Alida i loved the comment about the g and t but could relater to profile 🙂
Absolutely!
Do you think the steak filling could be made in the slow cooker? I’m thinking this would be a perfect weeknight family meal if the filling was ready when I got home from work.
Had this tonight. Unbelievably delicious!!!
Thanks Maggie! Glad you liked it.
I found your recipe on Pinterest and it was SO SO delicious! I ended up making one giant pie (as opposed to individual ones) and put a puff pastry on the bottom as well as top (cause I just like having the doughy goodness on both ends) and it was simply delicious!
I actually reviewed this recipe on my blog. You can find the review here http://www.2girlsandapin.com/2-girls-and-a-pin-tested-steak-and-mushroom-pot-pie/
Thanks so much for an amazing recipe!
Take care,
Jelena
So glad you liked it Jelena! Thanks for the lovely post!
I’m thinking about this for St. Paddy’s Day, but may add some Guiness to the braising liquid for a beef and Guiness pie. Has anyone tried this?
Update: I did just that- used a pint of Guinness and made up the remaining volume with beef broth. It was tremendous. We liked it far better than beef bourgignon..
Did anyone else have to add significantly more liquid to braise the meat? I had to triple the liquid. 3 lbs meat, 2cup liquid, and 2 hours cooking didn’t add up for me. Besides that, this recipe is fantastic. This will be made again and again on this house. Thanks.
I haven’t gotten that complaint before but thanks for letting me know. Glad you liked it! 🙂
I have now made this recipe four times in a month since I found it. I use herbs de provence and a smoked spicy paprika and my house has never smelled this good! I may have to mention you and this recipe on Butter&Yolk! Well done!!! My husband thanks you too!
Jenna, I’m so glad you like it! 🙂
Quick question…Can you freeze this before you bake it??
Jamie, absolutely!
Do you freeze it with the puffed pastry on or put the pastry on when you are ready to cook?
You could freeze it with puff pastry on but only if you have fresh puff pastry as you can’t re-freeze thawed puff pastry.
Jamie and Alida, I would like to ad a suggestion. I would leave off the puff pastry before I freeze it. Since I’m sure we’re all using frozen puff pastry, it’s just a defrost the filling and the pastry and it’s done. You can freeze the filling in the pots you intend to use to cook in if you can or just freeze in one container and when defrosted put in the pots you’re going to use and put the pastry on top. I just think the dough gets a bit gummy after it’s defrosted and refrozen. That’s my experience with the pastry and it doesn’t ad any extra work. Can’t wait to make this tomorrow Alida!!
Is there anything I can substitute for “corn flour”. Our grocery store doesn’t carry that? I have corn starch, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and regular flour.
Corn flour and corn starch are the same thing 🙂
Can this be done in a 9×13 pan and just cut and served? I know it wouldn’t be ideal, but I don’t have smaller pans like those individualized ones. How would the cooking time be affected or would it just not work?
Most definitely. Cook it until the pastry is golden brown and crisp, probably around 30-45 mins?
I made this for supper tonight, I halved the recipe as there were just the two of us. I did not have any puff pastry on hand so just used my regular pie pastry. The aroma while it was simmering on the stove was incredible & the taste was fantastic. It will become a staple in our household. Thanks for sharing.
So glad you liked it Alison! 🙂
I made these a couple days ago, and they were a big hit with the family!
I’m so pleased to hear that Linda! They’re a favourite with my family as well.
This looks delicious !
ratedkb.wordpress.com
What temperature should i set the oven to?
Yesenia, 180°c.
Yesenia, 180 degrees celcius.
Thang goodness I have some boneless chuck in the freezer + a package of almost expired Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry. This is going to be on the menu tomrrow night. Thanks for this one. I apprecieate and so will he !
This looks yummy! I love beef and mushrooms, and my family likes pot pies (although how they can eat those pathetic frozen things is beyond understanding). This is a pot pie I could love! (Have to go find some more single-serving oven-proof dishes—I only have two, and I need 6….)
Those look so good! You really cannot go wrong with tender beef and mushrooms covered in a light and flaky crust like that!
This was sooo good! I made this tonight for dinner and plan on working it into our monthly meals. YUM
This looks perfect..I dont have the words to describe how much I would love to have one of these for dinner right now! Steak pies are my all time favourites, seriously, my last meal would be a pie if i had to choose, and these…look…perfect. Im saving this one and i AM going to make it whether my currently salad-obsessed mother likes it or not! 🙂