If you love venison, but the thought of cooking with it at home is daunting, then our venison pie is the perfect recipe to ease you into the world of game meat.
We personally prefer wild venison (which is typically hunted from October to February) but farmed venison is available all year round and butchers and most supermarkets should have it in stock, too.
You'll need to cook the venison mixture over a low heat setting for around 3-4 hours to ensure it is tender, but you can let it do its thing on the hob (or in a slow cooker if you prefer) while you work away on something else.
It's the perfect recipe to make on the weekend when you have time and want to impress friends or family, but equally can be made in advance and frozen for a rainy day.
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Yields:
6 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
4 hrs
Total Time:
4 hrs 30 mins
Cal/Serv:
834
Ingredients
150g
diced pancetta or smoked streaky bacon
400g
shallots, peeled and halved
2Tbsp.
oil
1.2kg diced venison
2
cloves garlic, crushed
1tsp.
juniper berries, lightly crushed
1tsp.
allspice
6Tbsp.
plain flour
275g
button mushrooms, halved
650ml
red wine
450ml
beef stock
1
bay leaf
3
sprigs thyme, leaves picked
200g
whole chestnuts
500g
block puff pastry
1
medium egg, beaten
Directions
Step 1
In a large pan or casserole dish over a medium heat, fry the pancetta (or bacon) and shallots for 10min. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Season the venison well. Fry in 2 batches, using 1tbsp oil for each, until evenly browned all over. Return all meat to pan.
Step 2
Add the garlic, juniper berries and allspice for 1min until fragrant. Add flour for another minute, stirring constantly.
Step 3
Return pancetta (or bacon) and shallots to pan with mushrooms. Pour in wine and stock; add herbs. Bring to the boil, reduce temperature to low, partially cover and simmer for 3hr. Once tender, stir in the chestnuts, remove from
the heat and set aside to cool completely. Remove the bay leaf and thyme twigs and discard.
Step 4
Spoon the cold filling into a 1.3 litre pie dish with a rim, mounding it slightly in the centre and adding enough liquid to come just below the pie rim.
Step 5
Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to £1-coin thickness. Cut off a few strips to fit around the pie dish rim. Brush rim lightly with water, press pastry strips on to rim and brush with the egg. Use a rolling pin to lift the remaining pastry over the pie. Trim away excess, cutting downwards against the edge of the rim. Reserve trimmings. Tap the blade of a sharp knife against the edge of the pastry, separating the pastry layers slightly: this encourages the layers to ‘puff’. Scallop the pie edge with the back of your knife and finger. Brush lightly all over with beaten egg. Pastry trimmings can be used to decorate pie top; brush these with beaten egg as well. Make two small vent holes with a knife. Chill for 20min, then bake or follow freezing instructions.
Step 6
Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C) mark 7. Brush again with egg, place on a baking sheet and cook in the middle of the oven for 30min, until the pastry is golden.
GH Tip: Assemble the pie up to the end of step 5. Open freeze for 30min, then wrap well in clingfilm and freeze for up to two months.
Cook from frozen: heat oven to 220°C (200°C fan) mark 7. Remove the clingfilm. Place on baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 30min, then reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and bake for 50min.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
