Venison Pie with Mushrooms and Bacon

Close up of venison pie with a slice removed from the baking tin.

5 from 2 votes

Venison Pie with Mushrooms and Bacon

This easy venison pie recipe is richly flavoured with bacon and mushrooms. Wrapped up in crisp and golden shortcrust pastry a slice of this deer pie is hard to resist.

Prep Time40

Cook Time3 50

Total Time4 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Calories: 763kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Equipment

1 20cm pie tin

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

350 g Plain flour (all purpose)
175 g Butter chilled
¼ teaspoon Salt
120 ml Water ice-cold

For the slow cooked venison pie filling

900 g Venison stewing meat
250 g Chestnut mushrooms
150 g Pearl onions or shallots
100 g Smoked bacon diced
60 g Butter
100 ml Red wine
500 ml Beef stock
2 Garlic cloves finely minced
2 Bay leafs
2 tablespoons Plain flour
¼ teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Black pepper
Fresh thyme sprigs

Instructions

Make the slow cooked venison pie filling.

Preheat the oven to 150C/ 300F/ GM 2. Divide the 60g of butter into 4.
Cut the venison into small chunks and toss in the flour.
Peel the onions and wipe the mushrooms clean. Chop larger vegetables in half.
Melt ¼ of the butter in a casserole dish over a high heat and tip in ⅓ of the meat. Brown it all over, then remove with a slotted spoon.
Repeat the above step twice more, using another ¼ of the butter and ⅓ of the meat each time until it is all browned.
Melt the remaining butter in the pan and add in the bacon. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned & crispy. Remove it from the pan.
Pour the red wine into the pan. It will bubble and reduce, but stir it to deglaze the pan.
Add the venison, bacon, onion, mushrooms, salt, pepper, minced garlic, bay leaves and thyme along with the stock. Scrape in any leftover flour from the bowl the venison meat was toss in. Stir.
Bring the contents of the casserole pot up to simmering point then cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for 1½ hours, then stir and cook for a further 1½ hours. Test the venison at this point. It should be nicely tender. If not, cook for an extra 30 minutes.
When the meat is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon the pie filling into a large sieve suspended over a bowl to catch the gravy. Set aside to cool completely. (Once cold either use to fill the pie or refrigerate until ready to proceed.

Make the shortcrust pastry

Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir briefly.
Cube the butter, add it to the bowl and rub it into the flour using the tips of your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add half the water and stir with a blunt knife, until the dough just comes together, adding more water, little by little, as necessary. Aim for a soft, but not sticky dough. Use your hands to gather the dough into a ball.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly until smooth. Split it in half and form into two discs. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

Assemble and bake the venison pie

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM 4 and slide a flat baking sheet into the oven as it heats up.
Roll out one disc of pastry on a lightly floured worktop until approximately 2-3mm thick. Use it to line the base of your pie tin.
Spoon the slow cooked venison into the pie dish and then dribble 1-2 tablespoons of the gravy over the meat.
Roll out the remaining pastry and use to top the pie, lightly brushing the edge of the pastry base with water before laying the top sheet of pastry onto it. Press the edge of the pastry to seal the pie and trim the excess pastry with a blunt knife. Turn up the sides and crimp.
Re-roll any off-cuts of pastry and use to decorate the pie (e.g. leaves, lettering etc…). Use a sharp knife to make a small cross in the centre of the pie to allow steam to escape during cooking.
Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and bake for around 50 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Serve with a drizzle of the reserved gravy (warmed up).

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